Draw custom shape on Google Map and store into Oracle database using C#

Question

Is it possible to make a Custom shape (Using Mouse) on the Google Map using Gmap library in C# and then save it into the database and on the client request draw the stored shape on Google Map again? Is there any possibility for doing such operation in any other library or in Gmap (I am not expecting the code. Just an overview of doing it.)?

Answer 1

Oh Boy....this is absolutely doable! And I do it on day to day basis! Let me share how I achieve it. Another thing to keep in mind that this works for Google Maps and Bing Maps.

First, you have to represent Maps as not just coordinates but as collection of small squares. Now what do I mean by that?! Have a look at this following picture. It's image of Czech Republic on google maps. Now Czech Republic a.k.a Czechia, on google maps can be seen as collection of smaller square images or grids. You need to understand this concept very well in order to make this idea work. Now take a look at the following image where it shows how the image of Czechia on Google Maps can be visualised as collection of small square boxes or grid. These small square boxes hold images of parts of Czechia. If you want to Zoom into a co-ordinate Xm,Ym (Easting:Xm, Northing:Ym), which is a place in Czechia and the name of that place is "Hermanuv Mestec" (as shown in the above picture) then you need to choose the bounding small box with co-ordinates (X1,Y1),(X1,Y2),(X2,Y1)&(X2,Y2), and fetch the underlying images in that box. This feature to fetch underlying images within that bounding box is actually Zooming In. So when you Zoom In or in other words fetch the underlying images within that bounding box, you get something as the following image: Now, I hope you got the underlying concept of how Zoom In or Zoom Out (reverse process) and mapping co-ordinate system works if you want to achieve what you want to achieve because this concept is very important to grasp before you proceed. You need to write a program which can do this transformation. And as of your question how to achieve this as follows:

Step 1: Use a Panel (Control) on Windows Form or WPF or asp.net application, which you are building.
Step 2: Use GMap Library in C# to fetch the image within a bounding box as mentioned above and populate/draw that image on the Panel.
Step 3: Have a function that tracks mouse events on the panel. This function/method will track the X,Y position of mouse move event on the panel and use Panel Drawing tools to draw objects on the panel based on this.
Step 4: Write another program to transform these mouse X,Y positions on the panel to co-ordidnates on the map. This piece/part of the program is important because this is what enables you to translate your representation of small square image breakdowns of maps into panel drawable objects, so that you can draw them again and again in future if saved properly in the database.
Step 5: When you draw an abject on the panel you track the X,Y mouse bounds on the panel and transform those points into co-rodinates using your custom program and then you save the co-ordinates in the database table.

Thats it! And in case you need to draw the same object saved in the database, you first need to fetch/draw the google maps image on the panel again, then need to fetch that shape of the object from the database by fetching the co-ordinates of that object saved in the database table, use your translation program to convert those co-ordinates into panel drawable points and draw the object back on the same panel.

Now, you can write this translation program (Easting Northing co-ordinates to Drawing Panel co-ordinates) yourself, which might take good few months or at least some time. Or you can buy customised program specialised to achieve this exact same function for a good amount of price. Hope this helps.

You can also achieve this with Google Maps drawing object with JavaScript as mentioned in another answer but the issue is with the translation and saving the coordinates in the database. It's much faster and responsive in this aforementioned method. Anyway, this is how I do this, so kind of personal opinion.

Technologies required for the aforementioned technique is as follows:

• Google Map Library/Bing Map Library (whichever you choose)
• C# with .Net Framework 3.5 or above (.net framework lesser than this is also fine but may require bit more lines of code to achieve some functionality if you want to achieve complexity in this)
• SQL Server Management Studio or anything equivalent depending on the type of database and query you are planning to use.