Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Indoor Mapping - The Local Grocery Store

Today's Indoor Mapping challenge - The Local Grocery Store


While chatting with a friend about The SharePoint Mapper he said "You know what I hate, not being able to find stuff in the grocery store...you should make an app that does that."  


I said great idea, as a matter of fact I think I can map a grocery store (or multiple stores) with the SharePoint Mapper right out of the box.  So I made that my mapping challenge of the day.



Warning:  I am graphically challenged...

Step 1 was to create a custom map that resembled the local grocery.  For me this is the hardest and most time consuming part.  I spent about 2 hours trying to make something that people could interpret as a grocery store interior.

Step 2 was to cut my map in to tiles.

Step 3 was to map the areas within the stores and add some context (name and description).

Total time spent:  ~3.5 hours

Wallah...
  
Indoor map of the local grocery store on The SharePoint Mapper.
Remember the above warning, but you should also know that everything on the page can be styled with css and jquery.  In fact, the form in the image can be entirely replaced with injected html via capturing a javascript event.

Feel free to leave you idea for a mapping challenge in the comments section below. 

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Indoor Mapping War Declared!


In today's top business news:
Apple Buys Indoor GPS Specialist in Map War

At least that is the top business new for the PdocTech SharePoint Mapper project.  Apple has realized the next phase for mapping will be indoor mapping.

Here at Code From The Porch, that is great to see one of the major player trying to address the next need of mapping.  If you have been following this blog, the you know it is all about indoor mapping.

So Apple has jumped in with both feet.  The SharePoint Mapper provides indoor mapping with the most flexible and extensible offering available utilizing Bing Maps.  Sounds like our competitor,WiFiSLAM found a big brother, but we're not worried.  On the Microsoft/Bing Maps/Enterprise indoor mapping solution our solution is ready for the competition to begin!    

Monday, March 18, 2013

Free Beer!!! Ok, not really...Free SharePoint Mapper Account!

The free trial offer has ended.  Thank you everyone.



So I can't actually give everyone free beer, sorry, but I can give you the next best thing:
A free trail account to use the Pdoc Tech SharePoint Mapper using Bing Maps!!!  I know you are excited now!

The Mapper is in Beta, somewhat ready to use and still ready for some more refinement.  So I want to give everyone a chance to play on the hosted version and see how easy it is to build great Bing Maps that are hosted in the SharePoint Mapper.

How to get your free Mapper trial:

  1. Either go to http://www.pdoctech.com/mapper and follow the links to subscribe or send me an email support@pdoctech.com.


Pretty simple.

Gratuitous image Pdoc Tech Bing Maps SharePoint Mapper.

Now remember, this is a free trial of a product in beta.  Feedback is encouraged, ask for help or guidance if you would like to try something or would like to know about extending the Mapper to accommodate custom functionality.

This offer is valid until it is no longer valid.