Multimap API V1.2 - Release Notes

Introduction

These Release Notes are intended for all developers, including those users familiar with previous versions of the Multimap API, and describe the key changes available in the latest version of Multimap API V1.2.

New features

New features in this release:

New modules
- Availability of Spatial Searching module
- Availability of Routing module
- Availability of Local Information module
- Availability of Weather module
- Availability of Secure module
If you do not have access to any of these new modules and would like to be able to use its functionality, please contact your Multimap account manager.
Draggable maps
- New widgets
  - New Map Type Widget - now allows users to switch between map types, aerial photographs, map/aerial "hybrids" and custom map tiles
  - New Location Widget - shows the location of the current location in a "breadcrumb trail"
  - New Overview Widget - shows the contextual map of the current location
  - New Tools Widget - provides dragging, zooming and navigation modes
  - New Local Information Widget - shows Points of Interest (POIs) of various kinds around a location on a map
  - New Weather Widget - shows local weather information and up to five days' forecasts beside a map
  - Widgets can be placed outside the map viewer
- Marker improvements
  - Markers can be automatically "de-cluttered" where they overlap
  - Markers can be filtered
  - Markers can be dragged within a map
  - Markers now support text overlays for numbering and identification purposes
  - Markers can be "inert" so receive no click events
- New map types
  - Support for aerial imagery
  - Support for "hybrid" maps (aerial images that show a map overlay)
  - Support for custom map tiles
- Usability improvements
  - Smoothly zooming between adjacent zoom factors
  - Zoom widgets contain a slider bar
  - Mouse wheel zooming now zooms in and out from current location of cursor
  - Size of JavaScript API reduced
  - Customizable right-click Context Menu available
  - Improved cursors used within maps
- Other features
  - Info boxes can now be tabulated
  - Support for polylines and polygons in map viewer
  - Programmatic control over zoom levels to display
  - Programmatic control over user interactions with maps such as drag, click and double-click actions
  - Programmatic control over which map data is displayed
  - Method for calculating distance between points
  - Support for a callback method when the API completes loading
Geocoding - functionality improvements
- Single-field input for the Multimap API Geocoding module
- Limit on maximum number of results to return in geocoding requests

Changes

Some methods in the Multimap API have been deprecated in Multimap API V1.2:

zoom(1) has been replaced by zoom (-1);

zoom(-1) has been replaced by zoom (1);

setSmoothPanning has been replaced by setOption( 'smoothpan', 'true/false' );

getSmoothPanning has been replaced by getOption( 'smoothpan' );

setKeyboardPanning has been replaced by setOption( 'keyboard', 'pan' );

getKeyboardPanning has been replaced by getOption( 'keyboard' );

setMouseWheelZoom has been replaced by setOption( 'mousewheel:wheelup' , 'zoomin' ); setOption( 'mousewheel:wheeldown', 'zoomout' );

getMouseWheelZoom has been replaced by getOption( 'mousewheel:wheelup' ); getOption( 'mousewheel:wheeldown' );

setDraggable has been replaced by setOption( 'drag', 'dragmap' );

getDraggable has been replaced by getOption( 'drag' );

setZoomDoubleClickable has been replaced by setOption( 'doubleclick', 'zoomin' ); setOption( 'doubleclick:ctrl', 'zoomout' ); setOption ( 'doubleclick:rightbutton', 'zoomout' );

getZoomDoubleClickable has been replaced by getOption( 'doubleclick' ); getOption( 'doubleclick:ctrl' ); getOption ( 'doubleclick:rightbutton' );

setZoomDraggable has been replaced by setOption( 'drag:shift', 'zoombox' );

getZoomDraggable has been replaced by getOption( 'drag:shift' );

setScaleBarUnits has been replaced by setOption( 'units', 'miles/km' );

getScaleBarUnits has been replaced by getOption( 'units' );

drawAndPositionMap has been replaced by goToPosition( 'location' );

Additionally, the configuration options for MMMarkerOverlay, MMInfoBoxOverlay and MMPolyLineOverlay are now contained within a generic "Options" attribute. Please see the documentation for further information.

As a result of functionality enhancements, if you wish to customize the appearance of any info boxes and widgets, please refer to the Restyled Info Boxes and Advanced Widgets examples for details of how these customizations should be performed in this version of the Multimap API.

Revision History

Revision Number	Issue(s) Addressed	Date
V1.2.175	The Microsoft Virtual Earth logo that appears on maps is now stored locally. The map viewer no longer repositions itself after an overview map 'resize' event. Custom tile layer overlays now appear correctly on Microsoft Virtual Earth tiles. Aerial/hybrid images are now drawn from Microsoft Virtual Earth by default. Positions can now be passed into setBirdsEyeSceneById. The latest copyright information has been updated, along with Microsoft Virtual Earth coverage.	17 Oct 2008
V1.2.141	The data selector now supports the MultimapViewer class in addition to the MMFactory object and correctly shows its arrow immediately instead of waiting for the map to move. A constraint is now in place to prevent two mouseover events on a marker from firing if the reset method is called during either of them.	22 Apr 2008
V1.2.139	A fix has been applied to prevent the repeated re-setting of cursors. There is now a Bird's Eye / "Hybrid" view available, along with a new Bird's Eye pointer with extra space for its associated messages. The Overview Widget can now use "Hybrid" maps in association with the Microsoft VE API.	17 Apr 2008
V1.2.134	A major change - the Multimap API now supports Microsoft Virtual Earth maps, aerial photography and Bird's Eye imagery without requiring the Virtual Earth API. (Combining routing with Virtual Earth data still requires the Virtual Earth API.) The Map Type Widget has changed to accommodate the additional map types that the Virtual Earth API affords. The Multimap API search radius now has a limit of 80 miles to match the Virtual Earth API.	08 Apr 2008
V1.2.131	An issue has been fixed with the way in which widgets are cached. An issue with the Map Type Widget has been fixed, so that it now displays the appropriate map type correctly.	02 Apr 2008
V1.2.129	The 'hybrid rectangle' is no longer displayed while the map type data selector is open. A new 'intuitive' map data selector has been added. The drawAndPositionMap() object has been deprecated in the Multimap class documentation.	25 Mar 2008
V1.2.124	Geographic coverage has been updated and some new data has been added. Some further improvements have been made to the rendering of map tiles and to the Overview Widget. The Weather Widget has been released. The default "Terms and Conditions of Use" link has been updated. The Copyright bar no longer truncates when it contains too much text.	13 Feb 2008
V1.2.119	Geographic coverage has been upated and some new data has been added. Some issues with polylines have been addressed, including a means of rendering maps around the International Date Line. Some code optimizations have been introduced, including a solution for a problem relating to info boxes and decluttering. A problem with the Overview Widget has been fixed and its default size has changed to 120 pixels wide by 120 pixels high.	24 Jan 2008
V1.2.109	A problem related to with mouse interaction with markers has been addressed. 'Search-along-route' features have been improved. Some improvements have been made to the API's general style and appearance. JavaScript class documentation has been updated. A problem with logging of Zoom Widget actions has been addressed. The rendering of route highlights has been improved. Geographic coverage has been updated. The Multimap logo has been improved. The Menu Widget has been optimized, as has the dragging of "zoom boxes". Enhancements have been made to the Pan/Zoom widgets and the Map Type Widget. An issue with polylines has been addressed. Geographic coverage has been updated and tile drawing has been optimized. Support for custom map types has been improved. MMFactory has been introduced.	08 Nov 2007
V1.2.97	The rendering of info boxes has been improved. The Context Menu has been improved. MMMessageWidget has been introduced. MMLocationWidget has been optimized for Internet Explorer Version 6.	11 Oct 2007
V1.2.80	A problem with the overlay of markers has been fixed.	30 Sep 2007
V1.2.74	Improvements have been made to the presentation of the map viewer when used with `<center>` tags and `text-align : center`. Improvements have been made to the handling of draggable markers when used with tabbed info boxes.	09 Aug 2007
V1.2.73	The new mouseover, mousemove and mouseout events have been added to the map viewer, markers and polylines. General cosmetic enchancements have been made to the API style sheet. New POI icons have been added to the Local Information widget. Improvements have been made to custom map type support.	02 Aug 2007
V1.2.70	Improvements have been made to how info boxes are displayed. The new coverageUpdated event has been added. The API now supports new client-accessible API web services.	28 Jun 2007
V1.2.66	Improvements have been made to tile loading and info box placing. The "scalebar" option has been added, for removing the scale bar from the copyright bar. A bug with the "units" option has been fixed. New events have been added: mapBoundsChange; eventError; and dataPreferencesChanged. Improvements have been made to the handling of hidden markers. Marker-filtering support has been added. An Internet Explorer V6-related bug in resize event has been fixed. Using the scroll wheel to zoom no longer affects pages in Internet Explorer. A bug in changeZoom event when used with custom map types has been fixed.	29 May 2007
V1.2.53	The map viewer no longer resizes when a container has its "display" property set to "none". Movement of image tiles has been optimized . JavaScript exceptions in event callbacks no longer cause problems with the map viewer. Info boxes now move when content is changed. MMLatLon.latToCanonical() and MMLatLon.lonToCanonical() methods have been added. A problem with MMIcon.copy() method has been fixed. Support for IFrames in info boxes has been improved. Bounding-box support has been added to geocoding and MultimapViewer.goToPosition().	17 Apr 2007
V1.2.42	Moving an info box no longer resets the "reset map" position. Printing Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) elements on non-Mac computers has been disabled, pending a solution of a known issue across multiple browsers. The Map Data Selector is now set to "off" by default when a classname is provided. A problem with loading draggable map tiles has been fixed.	19 Mar 2007

Default Settings

The Multimap API has a number of default options and settings. These can be retrieved and modified if required. For further details, please see the topic on Options.

Option / Setting	Default Value

Drag	Drag map
Drag with SHIFT key	Zoom into box
Drag with CTRL key	Navigate map
Drag with right-hand mouse button	Navigate map
Single click with right-hand mouse button	Show Context Menu
Double click	Re-center and zoom in
Double click and CTRL key	Re-center and zoom out
Double click with right-hand mouse button	Re-center and zoom out
Smooth zooming	ENABLED
Smooth panning	ENABLED
Context Menu	ENABLED
Context Menu items	"Zoom In", "Zoom Out", "Re-center"
Units	Miles
Keyboard	UNDEFINED
Keyboard zooming with Alt key	UNDEFINED
Keyboard zooming with Shift key	UNDEFINED
Keyboard zooming with Ctrl key	UNDEFINED

Other Information

Please read this document first before working with the Multimap API V1.2.

Back to examples.

Further Help

If you require further help with your API implementation, please contact the Multimap Customer Support team:

London, Great Britain	+44 (0)20 7632 7777
email:	info@multimap.com

For general account enquiries or further services, please contact the Multimap Sales team:

London, Great Britain	+44 (0)20 7632 7800
email:	sales@multimap.com