Control of a map where the user can click and drag to select an area...

  • Thread starter Thread starter ThunderMusic
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ThunderMusic

Hi,
I'd need to find (or develop) a control of a map (worldwide if possible)
where a user can click and drag to select an area by distance from the click
point or using a square area (user's choice)... This control would return
the postal/zip codes of the selected rectangle or the clicked point
postal/zip code and the wanted distance range. Is it something that can be
done in a web control? it's absolutely something easy (well, fairly easy)
in a windows forms app, but how is it in web forms? I would probably have to
use Atlas.... Is it something I can do using Javascript? will I have to make
an ActiveX for it?

Thanks

ThunderMusic

btw... I'd be interested in having some links to where I can find databases
on worldwide postal/zip...
 
I can't tell you how to map, as I have not gotten that far. I can give you
some info that may help. For mapping in .NET, there is a C# mapping project
(open source) called SharpMap:
http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=SharpMap

For the United States, mapping is generally done off of TIGR data, which is
downloadable from the Census site (census.gov). It is a pain to download, to
an extent, because there is no all in one download. It is GBs of data.
Download a sample and go from there.


There is also an open consortium of GIS mapping.

Zip code data is for sale. While you can put together United States and
Canadian zip codes by searching sites, it takes quite a long time to do and
is only useful if your time is not worth anything. At work, we currently
purchase US & Canada from Zipcodedownload.com. It is decent data and has a
good price for a yearly subscription. This is NOT mapping data, however.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

*************************************************
Think outside of the box!
*************************************************
 
TRY AGAIN
I can't tell you how to map, as I have not gotten that far. I can give you
some info that may help. For mapping in .NET, there is a C# mapping project
(open source) called SharpMap:
http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=SharpMap

THere is also GehtSoft GIS (open source)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gsgeotools

For the United States, mapping is generally done off of TIGR data, which is
downloadable from the Census site (census.gov). It is a pain to download, to
an extent, because there is no all in one download. It is GBs of data.
Download a sample and go from there.
http://arcdata.esri.com/data/tiger2000/tiger_download.cfm

There is also an open consortium of GIS mapping that has some good info.
https://www.osgeo.org/

Zip code data is for sale. While you can put together United States and
Canadian zip codes by searching sites, it takes quite a long time to do and
is only useful if your time is not worth anything. At work, we currently
purchase US & Canada from Zipcodedownload.com. It is decent data and has a
good price for a yearly subscription. This is NOT mapping data, however.

Newer maps than the Census cost lots of money. There are basically two
companies that have data: NavTeq and TeleAtlas. Both price according to the
type of application and tend to request monthly revenue streams for the
data. It is worth it if you need accuracy on roads, etc., but not for a
simple "find the zipcode" type app (TIGR should be fine for this).

Hope this helps!


--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

*************************************************
Think outside of the box!
*************************************************
 
In .NET you would build a Composite Control. Being pragmatic however I must
note Cowboy's comments lead to the long and difficult task of doing it all
yourself -- a rabbit hole of complexity and cost -- so it seems to me the
easier choice is a design-build business model also called a mashup.

That would mean using APIs provided by Google Earth and/or Microsoft Earth
or Microsoft MapPoint or a similar service your control(s) interoperate
with.

Think of it this way. As an architect whose business process is
"design-build" I would rent the heavy equipment and an operator to dig my
holes, pour my concrete and so on. Google, Microsoft and others are now
makig it possible to use or rent their heavy equipment to enable us to
operate design-build businesses on the web. Your only other choice is to
follow the rabbit hole.
 
Point well taken. It really depends on what the user is doing, however, as
Google Earth, etc. are not free for commercial use.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

*************************************************
Think outside of the box!
*************************************************
 
hi,
What I want to do with this is just something more graphical to work with
for people to point out the distance range from one point to determine to
which people their project will be presented to (it will be presented to
people within this distance range), But right now, I can do fine with a
country or a state/province/region or a city reference... But I was just
planning for future features (dream list)...

thanks a lot

ThunderMusic
 
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