Mapping with Virtual Earth in SQL Server Reporting Services
After seeing an excellent article by Wayne Berry about Mapping in SQL Server Reporting Services using the Google Maps API, I was inspired to see what I could do with Virtual Earth.
The answer: not much.
Virtual Earth does has a stellar SDK. The SDK is all JavaScript based, so it may not be used by SQL Server Reporting Services. Virtual Earth does not have a static mapping API. However, there are unsupported ways to get a single image tile–I used this virtual earth example application (veTile) as a basis for retrieving the tile URL.
I translated the code from C# to VB.NET so I could use it directly in reporting services. The code allows you to provide a latitude, longitude, and a zoom level and get back the closest virtual earth tile. The problem is that the resolution is only as good as a single map tile. The actual location of the latitude and longitude could be anywhere on the tile.
Virtual Earth mapping example
The good news, like the Google maps example, is that you can use the tiles in SSRS because no JavaScript is required. If you find a way to improve the resolution, let me know.
The SSRS source code of the report: Virtual Earth Mapping Example source code (vemappingexample.rdl)
In case you just want to get the map tile URL in Visual Basic, I am providing the Virtual Earth Helper source code (VB.NET code). The class (VEHelper) has a single public static method (GetVETileUrl).
