Easily include Bing Map data in your Windows 8 Metro App

There’s no question how awesome Bing Maps is. It is loaded with innovation and tons of awesome data that now you can include in your application by using their REST based services. The services provide a lot of value to developers and their apps including data source management:

New: Bing Maps Account Center now provides the ability to manage data sources created by Data Source Management API (Bing Spatial Data Services). You can now use the Manage my data sources page to view and edit all the data sources associated with your account in one place.

But the core of the Bing Maps service is the API.

There are four API services:

1. Locations API - Use the Locations API to geocode and reverse-geocode location data.
2. Imagery API - Use the Imagery API to get a static map and imagery data information such as map tiles and providers.
3. Routes API - Use the Routes API to get directions and route information for driving, walking or using transit.
4. Traffic API - Use the Traffic API to get information about traffic incidents and issues in a specified area.

This article will be using the Locations API specifically. Using this we can leverage data from other services like Bing’s Search and plot them on a map control.

Easily upgrade from Bing’s V2 API to Bing’s Data Marketplace API

It wasn’t that long ago when Bing released their REST API (http://api.bing.net) to fetch search information. It was simple and powerful, and I discussed it here. But not too long ago, Bing announced that the API will be migrating to the Azure Data Marketplace. As of August 1, 2012, the Marketplace version will be the ONLY option (it’s official).

The Bing Search API enables developers to embed and customize search results in applications or websites using XML or JSON. Add search functionality to a website, create unique consumer or enterprise apps, or develop new mash-ups.

Easily use Yahoo!’s Local Search REST API in your Metro App

Bing, Google, Yahoo. They all have a series of APIs you can call to use their services in your Metro application. one of the more compelling services is Yahoo!’s Local Search API which allows you to find local businesses based on latitude and longitude.

Local Search

The latest version of the Local Search Web Service allows you to search the Internet for businesses near a specified location, and now returns both the latitude and longitude and Yahoo! user ratings of the establishment, as well as search by business categories.

Easily use Bing’s REST API v2 to get Search Data in your Metro App

Microsoft Bing Search has a set of free, exposed REST APIs that has been very popular. It allows you to do a series of queries. But let me let the documentation do the talking:

Bing API Version 2.0 enables you to embed a flexible and powerful search engine as a custom search component in your sites and applications. The new version includes:

• HTTP endpoints with results in XML or JSON
• Enhanced support for SOAP
• A fully OpenSearch compliant RSS interface

Something you should know

If you are anxious to port your Windows Phone application using the Bing API, you should know that they will be discontinued on August 1, 2012. At that time, they will be ported from Bing to the Azure Data Marketplace. We’ll talk about that in a later article.

Easily use Yelp’s REST API v1 to get Restaurant Data in Metro App

So many of the cooler services out there have have free APIs. The data from those APIs can add considerable value to your application. Using these APIs can vary in complexity quite a bit. I have implemented a lot of these recently, and thought I would share the Yelp REST API version 1.

First: get a developer key

Yelp gives out developer keys for free. All you have to do is navigate to here and create an account, verify your email, and request an API key. When you do, you’re going to want your APP v1.0 key. A key looks like this: grwU5qatvNzGcbCR8ODWfg – but you will need your own to use the API in your application.