Bing Maps SOAP Services Overview

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This documentation is no longer available on MSDN. It is available as a CHM or PDF download. For the newest Geocoding, Imagery, Routing and Traffic services, see Bing Maps REST Services. 

The Bing Maps SOAP Services is a set of Web services that allow you to add mapping and search functionality to your application, including location finding, map imagery, and routing capabilities. The web services are built using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). There are four Bing Maps SOAP Services: Geocode Service, Imagery Service, Route Service, and Search Service. This topic provides an overview of each of these services and their methods.

Geocode Service

You can use the Geocode Service to match addresses, places, and geographic entities to latitude and longitude coordinates on the map, as well as return location information for a specified latitude and longitude coordinate.

The Geocode Service methods are:

  • Geocode Finds a geographic location based on a request that may include the address, place, or entity type names to find.

  • ReverseGeocode Finds geographic entities and addresses for a specified map location.

Imagery Service

You can use the Imagery Service to retrieve information about imagery data as well as getting URIs for maps. For example, you can get a link to a map with a pushpin at a specific location or provide a road map or bird's eye imagery to your users.

Note Bing Maps draws maps by using an orthographic projection centered on the center point of any given map and based on WGS84 datum.

The Imagery Service methods are:

  • GetImageryMetadata Returns information about the requested imagery, including imagery date stamps, vendor attribution, and imagery tile URIs.

  • GetMapUri Returns a URI to a static map that may contain traffic data, routes to a destination from major roads, and pushpins.

Route Service

You can use the Route Service to generate routes and driving directions based on locations or waypoints. For example, you can get directions that include traffic warnings and route hints between multiple locations. You can also get directions from all major roads to a destination (1-click directions, also referred to as a "party map") and then use the Imagery Service to map those routes.

The Route Service methods are:

  • CalculateRoute Calculates a route between specified stops and returns route directions as well as other route data.

  • CalculateRoutesFromMajorRoads Calculates starting points or route directions to a specified location from nearby major roads.

Search Service

You can use the Search Service to parse a search query that contains a location or keyword (or both) and return search result.

The Search Service methods are:

  • Search Returns a parsed query or search results for a given search input string.

Note For information about how to reference the Bing Maps SOAP Services, see the Bing Maps SOAP Services Addresses topic.

See Also

Bing Maps SOAP Services API Reference
Common Classes and Enumerations