Now that the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is out, developers are going to want to begin (if they haven’t already) to create new Metro style apps. Just in time to make that process easier, Bing today released a new SDK (software development kit) for Bing Maps. While the Bing Maps AJAX v7 control is already available, developers may have encountered issues due to sandboxing of the web content, according to a blog post on the Bing Maps blog.
The new SDK, while similar to the AJAX v7 control, solves those problems:
With the new SDK, we’re now providing a JavaScript control specifically intended for use within your JavaScript apps. This new control is based on our AJAX v7 control, and thus shares a very similar API, but it’s also been enhanced to work within the local app context. For this beta release, you’ll find support for all of the same map types, pushpins, polylines/polygons, infoboxes, and tile layers as AJAX v7, plus the addition of the Venue Maps module. (Directions, traffic, overlays, and other modules are not yet available, but you can still render data provided by our REST APIs.)
The new SDK does more than just support JavaScript, too. As part of the SDK, the first beta release of a new native map control, written in C++, is available, allowing developers to use C#, C++, or Visual Basic and XAML to consume Bing Maps data.
You can learn more about the Bing Maps SDK for Metro style apps via these links:
- Bing Maps blog post
- Bing Maps SDK for Metro style apps free download
- MSDN documentation
Oh, and if you’re interested in developing *on* Windows 8, you’re going to run into some problems if you’re trying to develop using the Windows Phone SDK. Another blog post, this one from the Windows Phone Developer blog, describes a set of issues in using the Windows Phone SDK on Windows 8, currently:
There are three issues with running the Windows Phone SDK on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview:
- XNA Game Studio. On an attempt at installing the Windows Phone SDK, the user will receive error messages with regard to components of the XNA tool chain. These components will fail to install on Windows 8; the workaround for this has been blogged about by Aaron Stebner.
- Windows Phone Emulator. Windows 8 cannot currently run the Windows Phone emulator, which will make it very difficult to debug your code. There are two issues in addition to the simple fact that the emulator does not run on Windows 8, having to do with specific emulator functionality.
- .NET 3.5. Capability.exe and slsvcutil.exe will not run on Win 8 unless you separately install .NET 3.5.
The blog post notes that both Windows 8 and Visual Studio 11 are pre-release software, but promises that “we are working to address these issues”, and will have more information in the coming weeks.