markdeveloper's blog

In my last post we saw that using the MapQuest NET API version 5.3 in an ASP.NET webapplication was not all that much harder than using it in a winforms application. Now in order to easily reuse some of the code  it would be nice to create an ASP.NET custom control which displays a map just based on an origin and a destination.

Earlier this week I was thinking, wouldn't it be cool if the MapQuest .NET API would allow me to program all my logic in C# (or VB.NET) and then instead of having it generate a bitmap, have it generate just the URL of a map? The URL can be used in webapplications or I can embed the url in an image tag which I send as an email. A whole new world of possibilities opens up. Guess what? Generating an URL for a MapQuest map is part of the API today!

Time to take the MapQuest API 5.3 beta a step further and see how hard it is to embed MapQuest mapping a windows application. As a developer I'm constantly thinking "is this a one time effort? or do I want to reuse this code?". Well for embedding MapQuest into my .NET application I would like to create a reusable component, in fact, I'd like to create a WinForm usercontrol which can be reused in any application simply by dragging and dropping the control onto a form.

If you're a C# .NET developer and want to get started using the new MapQuest 5.3 API then you can get started today with the beta/release candidate version available on http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta.
Download the .NET library and start exploring.

Last week I blogged about a very interesting book has recently hit the shelves of you local bookstore: Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites (Voices That Matter).One of the co-authors of this book is none other than AOL's own Kevin Lawver. This is the second part of the review of that book.

A very interesting book has recently hit the shelves of you local bookstore: Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites (Voices That Matter). One of the co-authors of this book is none other than AOL's own Kevin Lawver. A good opportunity to review the book and be able to ask Kevin some questions about the it.

The book is split in two main parts, the first part deals with coding web pages, using cascading style sheets (CSS), adding behaviour using Javascript and AJAX, building web applications and introducting standards using the 'Circle of Standards'. The second part consists of case studies, looking at the sites www.everythingtori.com and www.aol.com. In the appendixes we find information about targeting browsers, accessibility resources, performance tips and a CSS Selector Reference.

AOL has released version 2.0 of Open AIM. This is a huge improvement for developers, both in terms of possibilities due to few to none restrictions being placed on the developer by the license agreement and also in terms of the level of openness of the API.

A cool new technology stack is added to the AOL arsenal as AOL acquires Goowy.

Goowy offers a web based desktop solution which out of the box offers Instant Messaging integration, e-mail and online file storage. After reading about the acquisition I went and created a Goowy account to check it out.

The experience offered by Goowy is nased on screen filling Adobe Flash control, with Flash applications running on this virtual desktop. Extensibility is offered through something called 'Minis', which can be compared to Vista Gadgets or Yahoo Widgets. For creating your own Mini goto: www.yourminis.com. The API is based on Flash ActionScript 3.0.

OpenID makes it easy for you to deliver a simplified login experience for your users. Rather than having to create a unique user name and password for your website, users can now use an existing user name and password that they have created elsewhere.

Two interesting interviews about OpenID:

I recently created the NFL Video of the Day gadget for Windows Vista and wrote an article on how it was made. After John's blog about creating a Mac Widget for the elections I figured I'd adapt my NFL gadget and change it into an Election 2008 Video of the Day gadget. Mine is not as fancy as I think his will be, but then again, it's just for fun, right?