Native Development

[Suns33k3r]

I've been wodnering if there's a way for using maps in Blackberry 10 application? To my surprise there's a very little amount of technical information regrading maps features on developer.blackberry.com.

If I want to develop an application that intensively uses map layers coupled with geolocation feature what level of support I may expect? At the current moment, not to mention lack of documentation related to this functionality there're also few samples in public GitHub Blackberry repos which shall demostrate available functional. However, none of them works. Neither mapview, nor routing or all other feature seems to work as it's meant to be. Also, I couldn't find a Maps API milestone in the public roadmap published on the Blackberry site.

So, my question here is there a way of using maps facility on Blackberry 10 (native or webworks, doesn't matter) now? If yes, where I can find workign samples and/or documentation for the API available?  And if no, when it will be available and which maps vendor we may expect here?

Thanks

[jtegen · Accepted solution]

We're working on bring Magellan Compass to BB10. We ar enow working on routing. Then we have to expose all this to the invocation framework. We plan on using the same schema that will be used for the BB map app, once they become available (hopefully with the November drop).

Magellan Compass will support all the well known map providers. Google maps will be seen, but not cached due to their license terms.

[peter_v]

i thought you were going to make a maps application on your own, using tomtom maps and traffic?

http://corporate.tomtom.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=671216

[peter9477]

peter_v, who are you referring to with "you" in your post? (Neither of the previous posters works for RIM, while the press release you point out is about TomTom and RIM.)

[jtegen]

Magellan Compass is our product, not a RIM product. It will have similar features as the TomTom version, but with many more map providers, POI databases and additional overlays that the RIM product will probably not have. The product is done, just need to add the invocation stuff.

[Machinarius]

Just a quick sugggestion/alternative here: I am also developing a maps application, but on WebWorks. I can say bing ang gMaps wotk wonders.

[Suns33k3r]

What about geolocation? Is it fully available on WebWorks?  Also, can you add layers to the map, display and reposition POIs and do all other things with them like fetching particular location from the point where user tapped and so on?

[Machinarius]

It won't auto-locate you, but there are APIs for that. Take a look at https://github.com/blackberry/WebWorks-Samples/tree/master/Weather

Here's what the gMaps API can do https://developers.google.com/maps/mobile-apps

[jtegen]

We have still not seen the full schema to and from BB Maps that other map apps would be able to use so that other apps invocating a map app would be able to leverage. There is a geolocation API in BB10 that can be used, as well as any map app should be able to provide that as well. We just completed the routing aspect for Magellan Compass and allowed for more map cache features.