Virtual Earth System RequirementsSee it in Action
Virtual Earth System Requirements

Because the Virtual Earth platform is provided over the Web using the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards, the service is agnostic to the operating system. The hardware requirements are no more than are required to host your application.

 

The Virtual Earth platform consists of two interfaces:

  • Virtual Earth Map Control that lets users make request via JavaScript to an AJAX map object,
  • MapPoint Web Service API using SOAP XML to communicate with your applications.

 

Software Requirements for Virtual Earth Map Control
End users must have a computer with an Internet connection and Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher on Microsoft Windows (FireFox 0.9 or higher on Microsoft Windows or Macintosh).

 

Virtual Earth Map Control SDK:

 

Software Requirements for MapPoint Web Service API
System requirements for the MapPoint Web Service SDK, version 4.1:

 

For development on the SOAP APIs, the following is required:

  • A deployment computer with an Internet connection.
  • The ability to send requests using SOAP 1.1 and HTTP 1.1 protocols, and the ability to parse XML.
  • A developer platform with support for Digest Authentication.

For the administration of the service, the following is required:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later installed on a computer with an Internet connection to access the Microsoft Extranet Portal and the MapPoint Web Service Customer Services site.

 

Notes

If the MapPoint Web Service is being called from behind a proxy server that enforces limits on SOAP packet size, you may experience problems sending and receiving large SOAP packets. For example, a call to the MapPoint Web Service to render a map with a large number of pushpins or a long-distance route results in a large SOAP packet being sent. You may need to bypass the proxy, set the SOAP packet size limit very high, or limit the amount of data you are requesting.

 

The MapPoint Web Service API is built on standards based on SOAP, XML, and HTTP technologies. It has been thoroughly tested and documented for environments using Microsoft .NET connection software and Microsoft Visual Studio tools for Web service development.

 

Here are some quick links to help you get started developing on the Virtual Earth platform:

 

The downloadable version of the MapPoint Web Service SDK requires that you have:

  • Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 or the complete installation of the .NET Framework SDK 1.0, Service Pack 2, or the .NET Framework SDK 1.1 installed on a computer to view the MapPoint Developer Web Service SDK.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 and the .NET Framework Version 1.0 or 1.1 installed on a computer to run the installed sample applications.

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