Want The New Bird's Eye Navigation?

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A release to the consumer site has exposed some new capabilities to the maps.live.com site which aren't yet available in the API . . . or are they?

Well, yes they are. This is completely unsupported so do so at your own risk; however, the latest release of Windows Live Maps / Windows Live Local included the new Bird's Eye navigation without the "Brady Bunch" navigation window. It also fixed support for Firefox 2.0. So, why not the API? Actually, we did this to protect our current customers (we love you, you know who you are). So, instead of releasing a new version of the API we versioned the API on the consumer site which means the consumer site is now using a different version of the map control than the API.

Okay, so you want your site to work with Firefox 2.0? And, you want the new BE navigation? Do the following:

  1. Download the control to your local machine (you're entering the unsupported zone).
  2. You should see something like the following: function ____downloadMapControl()
    {
     document.write("<script type='text/javascript' src='https://maps.live.com/veapi.ashx?v=1.3.1115150037.31'></script>");
    };____downloadMapControl();
  3. Remove the ?v=1.3.1115150037.31 from the .ashx URL. This version is the current version of the API. You want the newer version (for WLL) which if you don't provide a version number is the default.
  4. Save your file as mapcontrol-local.js.
  5. Now, in your web page you'll need to change your JavaScript to point to your local copy of the control. Do so by changing this line, "<script src="https://dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/v4/mapcontrolff.js"></script>" to "mapcontrol-local.js" (assuming your web page and .js file are in the same directory).
  6. Save your html file and open the page in a browser window.

Your app should now work in both Firefox and IE. Additionally, you now have the new Bird's Eye Endless Panning (BEEP) navigation. Let me know which you like better - the BEEP or Brady Bunch navigation.