Creating a map in SharePoint

Question

I would like to create a map of a small area with about 1000 buildings. I am looking for a way to be able to highlight specific sections and then specific buildings within that section. When you highlight that specific building it will give you information regarding that building. I figure I need to create a SQL database that has all the information for each building and then link each SQL ID to the corect building. I would also like to be able to search based on the information held in the database. Does anyone know the best way to achieve this?

Answer 1

On codeplex you will find a smart map integration for SharePoint under the following URL http://smil.codeplex.com/.

For the geodata that you want to overlay on your map a simple Rss enabled SharePoint list could be used.

Answer 2

I think you can use gmap to build

Answer 3

Kevin,

Based on the requirements you have mentioned, it looks like you have more to deal with a custom application (Visual Webparts + Custom Database) based solution than using SharePoint. SharePoint over here can host the aspx pages holding your application and nothing more. It will give you the publishing infrastructure for easier management.

If you wish to design the complete solution using SharePoint, you need to identify the possible corners of SharePoint Object Model and how they can fit into your requirement. Like for instance you can use the list driven infrastructure to store information of the buildings and use CAML + c# in your webpart to show building details on highlight. For search you can use allow items in the list to be crawled by the SharePoint search and leverage Search based classes provided by SharePoint on your search webparts.

It all depends on how you can leverage SharePoint to address your application's requirement more efficiently than writing every classes and namespaces from scratch.

Answer 4

OpenMaps, YahooMaps, Google Maps, Bing Maps, all offer API's to accomplish this. You could link the data from a SharePoint list, and that would be easy enough for SharePoint to index.

Here is good overview of a similar project on Slide Share: http://www.slideshare.net/lightningwhelk/google-mapsunccause.