The Virtual Earth AJAX Evolves, Now Tailored to IE8

As a part of the April 2009 Virtual Earth API release, Microsoft has updated the Virtual Earth AJAX control. According to the Redmond company, one of the changes involves tailoring the Virtual Earth AJAX control to the latest iteration of IE made available in March 2009, namely Internet Explorer 8. Chris Pendleton, Virtual Earth tech evangelist at Microsoft, indicated that developers should see that the Virtual Earth AJAX map control would function as expected with IE8 RTW. But at the same time, there are additional enhancements introduced via the April 2009 refresh to the Virtual Earth API.

We’ve added a couple new methods for adding and removing pins (and DIVs) in the AJAX control; added performance improvements for AJAX and 3D; enhanced geocoding and parsing across the board (AJAX and Virtual Earth Web Service) and fixed a few bugs in the AJAX and 3D controls. There are lots of architectural changes behind the scenes that you won’t appreciate unless you’re inside Microsoft, so I will spare you the details of those,” Pendleton explained.

When it comes down to enhancing the control offered to developers over how HTML elements are rendering on a map, as well as for a boost in performance, Microsoft offers a couple of new Virtual Earth AJAX Map Control Methods: AddCustomLayer() and RemoveCustomLayer(). At the same time, the evolution of the API brings to the table improvements to Geocoding and Parsing, as well as enhanced Local Listings. Pendleton even made available a piece of sample code designed to give developers a taste of the new Virtual Earth AJAX Map Control Methods.

“Now for the AJAX map control we just upgraded Version 6.2, so you already have access to the new features and can start using them today without changing your link to Virtual Earth. Everyone is on 6.2 because we’ve either auto-upgraded you or you made the switch yourself,” Pendleton added.