This is a sticky of some of the most frequestly asked questions around the Bing Maps services:
- Should I use the REST or SOAP services?
You should always use the REST services. The SOAP services are old, slow and have limited a feature set. the REST services are much newer, faster and have a lot more features. The REST services are also much easier to use in different
programming languages. As a bonus the response from the REST service is also smaller which makes them ideal for mobile applications.
- How do you use the REST services in .NET (Silverlight, WPF, WP7...)
The general approach is to create a set of classes in .NET that you can use to serialize the response from the REST services into a .NET object. Here is a great article outlining how to do this:
http://rbrundritt.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/bing-maps-rest-service-net-libraries/
- Where is the documentation for these services?
Bing Maps REST Services:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff701713.aspx
Bing Maps SOAP Services:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc980922.aspx
Bing Spatial Data Services:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff701734.aspx
- Is Bing Maps free? Do I need a license?
All users of Bing Maps must have a license. These licenses vary based on the volume of usage and how you will be using Bing Maps. There are developer and limited commercial accounts that include a limited number of transactions at no cost.
This is outlined here:
http://www.microsoft.com/maps/product/licensing.aspx For any questions around licensing contact the Bing Maps licensing team at
maplic@microsoft.com
- What is the Geographic coverage for Bing Maps?
The Bing Maps team is constantly expanding the geographic coverage of Bing Maps. A list outlining the current geographic coverage can be found here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd435699.aspx
- Is there a more complete list of Bing Maps FAQs?
Yes. The official Bing Maps FAQ list can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/maps/product/faq.aspx
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