So I'm looking at writing an iPhone application that shows things on a map. What frameworks/methodologies are out there for doing this?
Searching around on Google, I could only find this one:
http://code.google.com/p/iphone-google-maps-component/
Which according to the issues list is slow, and stops working after a while. Does anyone know of something better, or have any experience with the library above?
I'm pretty sure your only options for now are:
Call openURL: to switch to the Maps app
Use the Google Maps component you linked to
Roll your own thing
Wait for Apple to expose a "MapKit" framework
WARNING: Embedding Google Maps inside an application may violate the Google Maps terms of service.
I have written a full mapping UIView on the iPhone (the application is on the AppStore) and it is not easy (this would be option #3 "Roll your own thing"). Getting good performance is really difficult. I would like to OpenSource my map component but right now the F-NDA is preventing that.
I have been chasing this for a while now, and here's the best solution I've found out there:
http://code.google.com/p/touchcode/
There is a component in there called TouchMap and it comes with a demo that shows it off. It's tiles are loaded directly from Microsoft Virtual Earth.
Edit: #schwa, I just a look at your profile to find your email address, and then realised that you actually released this software. Nice work
I've just found route-me which looks like a large(30+) active community of ppl developing an open source mapping app for the iPhone. It can take tiles from OpenStreetMap, Virtual Earth(Bing) or Cloudmade.
just use mapkit framework.really good
alternatively: [[uiapplication sharedapplication]openurl:#"www.maps.google.com];
that will open the google map,but one problem with this is that it will navigate you to safari and your application will be exited and if you want to move back to your application from this web page,then it won't be possible .you again need to run the app.
Related
I'm researching geo-fencing options for a new app. I need to create geo fences programatically. The options that allows me to do this out there are not in plenty ...
I found ArcGIS geo-trigger service, which seems to do all I need. ArcGIS is well known for GIS services. But I found it strange the lack of buzz around this specific tool.
Is there anyone out there using this service that can help in providing some inside view of it?
Or even alternatives to it ...
Thanks,
Murilo
I do not have any experience with the ArcGIS service, but you might want to check out Plot Projects. You can send a notification when a user enters, exits or dwells in a geofence or perform any other action using geotriggers. You can create an account for free and test it using demo apps for iOS and Android. Additionally there are wrappers for PhoneGap/Cordova and Appcelerator if you want to write your app in JavaScript.
Disclaimer: I work for Plot Projects as a developer.
I'm developing an app that will focus heavily on giving users routes and turn-by-turn directions while driving. It is important that they stay within the app during their drive, so I really don't want to make them leave the app and go to the built-in Maps app. I have been doing a lot of research lately on how to include this functionality, and it is widely known that it is not easy, since Apple doesn't include this functionality in the SDK out of the box. It looks like my options are:
For providing routes (and directions) from one place to another
Use a UIWebView and load some web-based maps with JavaScript, and use the JavaScript API to draw a route
Use MapKit or the Google Maps iOS SDK, query for the route sepaartely through an API, and manually draw some kind of path or polyline on top of it.
Use a library that costs money (like MTDirectionsKit)
For providing turn-by-turn navigation
Use a proprietary library that comes with its own maps (like CloudMade)
Is there anything I'm missing here? What are the pros and cons of each, and how should I pick a solution?
Your insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
You say that you don't want to "make" the user leave the app and use the built in software for turn by turn navigation as though this is a bad user experience. A bad user experience would be getting forced to use a turn by turn nav from a webView or some API which would not show up as routing information on my lock screen if I lock the phone or cut into other applications to display banners telling me a turn is coming up, for example, while I'm listening to music on my phone. I strongly suggest you launch Apple maps and let the system handle what it is meant to handle instead of trying to build your own turn by turn navigation and heavily limiting the user from the freedom of exiting the application during a drive.
While on the subject of commercial libraries you might what to take a look at other options:
skobbler/telenav sdk - in-app routing and turn-by-turn navigation based on OpenStreetMap (same maps used by Cloudmade and Mapquest). Check out the demos and the licensing plans and figure out if it's the correct solution for you
(they have a Free Tier that might be good enough for your app - and if you go above that tier I think you should be considering monetizing you app)
and that's about it for the time being (besides the options already named): keep an eye out for Mapbox as they could provide an iOS sdk in the near future - with routing and navigation
I agree with Kris' response. Turn-by-turn navigation is probably best handled by the built-in app. However, for displaying a route and ETA on a 2D map, I think I'm going to go with the Mapquest iOS API, which offers this functionality for free. I didn't know this solution was available until today.
I'm trying to integrated in our iOS app. Due to the bad relationship between Google & our government, Google Map is not a good idea.
We have bought a local map service company's javascript & Web Services based SDK, now we want to use it on iOS. But it seems that MapKit does not support customer tiles.
So here are my current ideas:
Use UIWebView. But I tried that map in Safari, I can't drag to move the map nor use two fingers to zoom. I think I need to call some javascripts while touch events happens.
Build a costumer UIScrollView, download map images and display them using iOS sdk. But that map service does not have API to download images, I tried to read their 200KB+ undocumented javascript to find out the relationship between location & image files, but I got no results for now.
Both the two ways could face certain legal risks. I'm not sure what the purchase contract is like.
I need suggestions about the two ways or some new ideas. Thanks guys.
There are a couple of non-Google map implementations available on github that you might be able to use (linked via CocoaControls):
NAMapKit
MRMapView
I want to develop a native universal app(i.e for iPhone and iPad) for my orgaization.I want to include some of the essential features of the organiztion website into my native app.For obvious reasons i cant store this huge data into iPhone itself.so data will be fetched from the server but application would be a native app.so are there any APIs available to do this?
I always find it's easier to start using sample code, and lucky for you Apple provides a lot of this. Here is the reference library for all kinds of goodies to learn off of and hack your way through: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/navigation/index.html#section=Resource%20Types&topic=Sample%20Code
A few noted ones... (I left out some advanced ones like BonjourWeb Reachability and AdvancedURLConnections but look at those once you gain a little more understanding)
URL Cache: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/samplecode/URLCache/Introduction/Intro.html
RSS Feed Parser: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/samplecode/SeismicXML/Introduction/Intro.html
MailComposer: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/samplecode/MailComposer/Introduction/Intro.html
Also, a couple books you should get to start your journey on iOS (these are two of the best and easy to understand IMO):
http://apress.com/book/view/9781430224594
http://apress.com/book/view/9781430225058
UIWebView will show any web page you point it to.
Maybe do a mixed approach with some stuff built right into the app, and the bigger or frequently changing parts load from the web.
You can use the UIWebView to access your organization's website from inside a native application...
While I agree that you may need to do your research first, the IPhone/Ipad SDK includes a very easy to use XML parser (NSXMLParser). I would suggest you devise a XML web service for retrieving the data from your company's servers and parse it on the ipad/iphone to the presentation you require.
Best of luck, i've found objective-c very rewarding/challenging.
I want to add something (eg. the related city name) into the UI view when I make a phone call or received a phone call on iPhone. However, I can't figure out a good solution for this idea. Could anyone who has experience on this subject gives me some suggestions?
My currently solution is, try to write an extension based on mobile substrate and hook functions in SpringBoard. So many difficulties existed and following are my current big questions,
How to develop such a extension? I downloaded some examples from google, unfortunately they cann't even be compiled on my toolchain.
I can't figure out which ui view for the related screen I should use to insert my own component. I get header files of SpringBoard via class-dump, but no docs and no comments about its usage. Could someone share his discoveries with me?
How to build a trusted cross-compiling enviroment on leopard? All kinds of confusing errors pop up when I try to build others's codes. I've tried Zdziarski's instrunctions in his book, it works with iPhone OS 1 and can compile common projects with open sdk, but how should I do to make it works when comipiling ms plugins?
Also, is there any other solution to translate my ideas to codes? I start iPhone development one month ago, no experience with cocoa/Obj-C before. So your suggestions are very appriciated.
~ Link Bian (卞林扣)
Email/MSN: linkou.bian#gmail.com
I think you are asking for too much. It wont be possible to manipulate incoming/outgoing call screens. Ethically, that is.
Zdziarski is a hacker and from his book, you will get many undocumented API calls which will make Apple reject your app. Same goes for Erica Sadun's iPhone Developer's Cookbook.
Something that really helped me get dylibs compiled was using SkylarEC's Xcode template and just appended an extension of '.dylib' onto the binary and sshing it into /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries. I suggest hooking SBCallAlert or SBCallAlertDisplay to get the id of the caller which is usually just an NSString. Play around with it a little bit, those are all the visualizing methods of a call. If you put in an nslog in your custom override method, you can view the output in iPhoneConfgurationUtilitie (windows) or the console in Xcode. From there you would most likley need an index of area codes to comare the callers to. I don't believe you can add subviews to the call, on I intercept and reissue the strings for the views already there.
But you know, apple doesn't like this :P
lemme know if this helps