Problem:        How To Use Google Maps for Windows Mobile from your Satellite Forms application

Solution:        This article describes how to have your Satellite Forms application for Windows Mobile launch Google Maps with a specific destination (address or landmark or GPS lat/lon position), business search, or route request!

This method lets you show the desired location in Google Maps Mobile for WM (let's call it GM for short), and be able to have live interaction to move around, zoom, etc., just as if you had started GM manually.  Your app stays running in the background, so when you close GM, your app returns to the foreground.

The techniques described here are demonstrated in the sample project GoogleMaps, in the PocketPC target, included with Satellite Forms 8. That sample also demonstrates the GoogleMaps extension for Palm OS, which provides similar features.

The key to using GM from your Satellite Forms Windows Mobile app is to launch GM with a specially formatted commandline that tells it to show a location, search for a business, or plot a route.

1. Launch GM using the SU_LaunchApp function in the SysUtils extension, providing the full path to the GoogleMaps.exe program in the strPath parameter, normally: \Program Files\GoogleMaps\GoogleMaps.exe

2. Pass the special commandline parameters for the location, business search, or route in the strParam parameter.  The parameter string you pass should take this form:

The parameter string includes several parts.

A. To show a Location, use these guidelines:

       ?action=locn

• action=locn means the action is to show a Location, with the location to follow next:

       &a=1 Microsoft Way Redmond WA

• the "a" means "address" and the address in this example is 1 Microsoft Way Redmond WA

• the address can be a street address or city or even a landmark (eg. Statue of Liberty)

• the address can also be a GPS latitude/longitude, specified in decimal degrees format with a prefix of @latlon: for example a=@latlon:50.34,-112.23

• the address can also be a special string "@GPS" which means current GPS coordinates

• an optional View mode can be specified where you can choose the map view or satellite view

       &view=mapv                specifies map view

       &view=satv                specifies satellite view

• example sat view param string is "?action=locn&view=satv&a=Vancouver BC"

B. To search Google Maps for businesses, use these guidelines:

       ?action=busi

• action=busi means the action is to search for businesses, with the location and search term to follow next:

       &q=pizza near wall st new york ny

• the "q" means "query" and the search query in this example is pizza near wall st new york ny

• use a natural language search query that combines something to search for in or near somewhere

• as with the Location action, search queries can be specified using a street/city address, landmark, GPS lat/lon coordinates using the @latlon: prefix, or the special "@GPS" keyword which means current GPS coordinates

C. To show a Route between two points, use these guidelines:

       ?action=rout

• action=rout means the action is to show us a Route instead of a location, with the start & end points to follow next:

       &start=Vancouver BC&end=Whistler BC

• use "start=" and "end=" to specify the beginning and ending locations for the route

• as with the Location action, Start and End addresses can be specified as a street/city address, landmark, GPS lat/lon coordinates using the @latlon: prefix, or the special "@GPS" keyword which means current GPS coordinates

• example route combining address and GPS location is "?action=rout&start=Vancouver BC&end=@latlon:50.34,-112.23"

• example route combining address and curent GPS location is "?action=rout&start=Chicago&end=@GPS"

D. General tips:

• remember to begin and end the para string with a double quote char to make sure any spaces in the params are handled properly

• if you are building the strparam string, you might want to use chr(34) to put the quote chars into the string, like this:

       dim strParam

       strParam "-URL " &chr(34) &"?action=locn&a=Vancouver BC" &chr(34)

• to use this solution, you must of course also install Google Maps for Windows Mobile on the handheld, which you can obtain from http://google.com/gmm

• you can query the registry using SU_RegReadKey to find the location of the GM exe file, rather than hardcoding, in this reg key: HKLM\Software\Google\GoogleMaps\InstallPath

Keywords:      Google Maps, map, satellite, route, directions, search, business

KB ID: 10088 

Updated: 2010-06-22

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