Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Development Kits
Since this topic is aimed at the .NET developer, it's only right that we include a section on
the kits available for using geospatial data in your own .NET applications.
We'll cover a few practical examples later on, but for now I'll list the kits I've used or seen in
use. Please note, however, that this is not an exhaustive list. The toolkits I describe are all
designed for use under .NET on the Windows platform. As I've mentioned, applications like
QGIS can be vastly extended, and there are many toolkits available under Linux and Mac
systems that I've not yet and likely won't cover. If you're starting a project where you know
you're going to be writing custom user interfaces, do your research beforehand. Instead of
writing them from scratch, there's every chance you can modify an existing application to suit
your needs.
MapWinGis
MapWinGis is the central GUI component behind MapWindow 4 and MapWindow 6. It's an
OCX control written in C++ that can be used in any language that supports OCX on the
Windows platform.
In the past, I used the original version of this component. It's been some time now since I've
done any development using it. As with many of these components, it has a permanent
home on Codeplex at
mapwingis.codeplex.com
.
It is designed to do most of the heavy lifting for you, leaving you free to concentrate on the
GUI aspects of your application. Please note that it's designed for use in desktop
applications, not web-based applications, and as far as I'm aware cannot be used in WPF or
Silverlight.
DotSpatial
DotSpatial is a sister project of the MapWindow stable, and actually forms most of the core
of the new MapWindow 6 .NET rewrite. DotSpatial also incorporates a few other Codeplex
projects under its hood too, most notably GPS.Net and GeoFramework. Both are still
available separately.
One thing that's worth noting about DotSpatial is that like QGIS, this toolkit has the backing
of the OSGeo Foundation. As part of its kit, it also has the entire open source GIS developer
library (including GEOS, Proj.4, GDAL, and many more) packaged as ready-to-use Windows
DLLs for direct inclusion in your projects.
The project home page can be found on Codeplex at
dotspatial.codeplex.com/
.
SharpMap
SharpMap is one of the older toolkits for .NET. It has been around a little longer than
DotSpatial.
