Bing Maps and Windows Mobile Part 1

Eric Lam had blogged about the Bing Maps Web Services SDK 1.0 (http://ericlam.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5D73BE0B4076E647!4408.entry), so I decided to sign up for a developer account to have a play with the SDK.

After receiving the email I was instructed to sign in to Bing Maps CSS to create a password for my account. Having done this I then went about trying to get something up and running.

After browsing through the documentation, there was a link to the Developing a Mobile Application Using Bing Maps Web Services article (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd483215.aspx), I thought this is exactly what I was looking for (I wanted to Geocode an address and then display a map inside a Smart Device project).

I started reading this article and it soon turned out that it was very much focused on developing a ASP.NET page that a Windows Mobile device could access, this wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but would be a useful resource in achieving my goal.

So I set about adding the first web reference (ASMX) for being able to setup a Client Token. I was then prompted for my Username and Password however it was going to take a couple of hours for my account to be fully activated so I went on to the next section, the Bing Maps Web Services.

The service URLs had an extension of SVC (WCF), I had never used WCF before so this was going to be a new experience. As the article was aimed at creating a ASP.NET page then Adding A Service Reference wouldn't be a problem, however you do not get this option for a Smart Device project.

After a little more searching I realised I had to generate the Proxy classes. I thought I needed to use the svcutil.exe tool, I went ahead and generated the proxy classes, added them to my Smart Device project and then built, I was then faced with a number of build errors. I then remembered that there was a NETCF version of this tool (netcfsvcutil.exe), so I then attempted to generate the proxy classes using this tool. The tool ran through to completion however did not produce any proxy classes.

I then did a bit more searching and found the following piece of documentation Bing Maps Web Services Metadata (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc966738.aspx). This provided the metadata URLs which I could then add as references to my Smart Device project.

I now have all four Bing Map Web Services added to my project, I am now just waiting for my account to be activated to be able to add the Common web service and then generate a Client Token.

More details to follow...