Skip to main content

Image Tile Providers

  • 6 minutes to read

A MapControl uses image tile data providers to provide map image layers with data from imagery services. Specify the ImageLayer.DataProvider property to add tiles from imagery services to the map.

The Map control supports the following tile providers:

Create a data provider to use another online imagery service or load image tiles from an intranet server.

You can also generate tiles from an image tile source at runtime.

Bing Maps Data Provider

This data provider loads image tiles from the MS Bing Maps.

BingMaps

Note

Read and accept the Microsoft® Bing™ Maps Platform APIs Terms Of Use before you use Bing Maps.

You should register a Bing Maps key to use the Bing Maps services. Refer to How to: Get a Bing Maps Key for more information.

Use the BingMapDataProvider class to work with Bing Maps:

private void OnFormLoad(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    ImageLayer imageLayer = mapControl1.Layers[0] as ImageLayer;
    BingMapDataProvider bingMapProvider = new BingMapDataProvider();
    bingMapProvider.BingKey = "Your bing key here";
    bingMapProvider.Kind = BingMapKind.Road;
    imageLayer.DataProvider = bingMapProvider;
}

Use the following API members to connect the Map Control to the Bing Maps service:

Member Description
ImageLayer Displays map images obtained from map image data providers.
ImageLayer.DataProvider Gets or sets the provider used to obtain images from an external source.
BingMapDataProvider The class that loads map images from the Bing Maps data provider.
BingMapDataProvider.BingKey Get or sets the key that is required to connect to the Bing Maps data provider.
BingMapDataProvider.Kind Gets or sets a value specifying the type of images to be displayed on a map.

The Map Control also supports the following Bing Maps data providers:

OpenStreetMap Data Provider

This data provider loads image tiles from the the OpenStreetMap service.

OpenStreetMap

Note

Review the Copyright and License and Tile usage policy pages before using map images in the OpenStreetMap format.

You should provide the UserAgent parameter with a valid value to identify your application.

Use the OpenStreetMapDataProvider class to work with OpenStreetMap:

private void OnFormLoad(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    ImageLayer imageLayer = mapControl1.Layers[0] as ImageLayer;
    OpenStreetMapDataProvider osmDataProvider = new OpenStreetMapDataProvider();
    osmDataProvider.WebRequest += OnProviderWebRequest;
    osmDataProvider.TileUriTemplate = "http://{subdomain}.tile.MyCustomOSMProvider.org/{tileLevel}/{tileX}/{tileY}.png";
    imageLayer.DataProvider = osmDataProvider;            
}
private void OnProviderWebRequest(object sender, MapWebRequestEventArgs e) {
    e.UserAgent = "DevExpress OpenStreetMapProvider example";
}

Use the following API members to connect the Map Control to the OpenStreetMap service:

Member Description
ImageLayer Displays map images obtained from map image data providers.
ImageLayer.DataProvider Gets or sets the provider used to obtain images from an external source.
OpenStreetMapDataProvider The class that loads map images from a web resource that provides data in the OpenStreetMap format.
MapImageDataProviderBase.WebRequest Occurs when a Map control sends a request to an external web service.
OpenStreetMapDataProvider.TileUriTemplate Gets or sets a pattern to obtain image tiles from the OpenStreetMap provider.
MapWebRequestEventArgs.UserAgent Gets or sets the value of the user-agent HTTP header.

The Map Control also supports the following OpenStreetMap data providers:

Generate Tiles at Runtime

Follow the steps below to populate a map with custom tiles created at runtime.

using DevExpress.XtraMap;
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace InMemoryTileProvider {
    public partial class Form1 : Form {
        public Form1() {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
            ImageTileDataProvider tileDataProvider = new ImageTileDataProvider();
            tileDataProvider.TileSource = new SimpleTileGenerator();
            this.imageLayer1.DataProvider = tileDataProvider;
        }
        public class SimpleTileGenerator : IImageTileSource {
            readonly Font font = new Font("Arial", 10);
            Random rnd = new Random();
            public bool CanDisposeSourceImage => true;
            public string Name => nameof(SimpleTileGenerator);
            public Image GetImage(int x, int y, int level, Size size) {
                Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(size.Width, size.Height);
                using (Graphics gr = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap)) {
                    gr.Clear(Color.FromArgb(128, rnd.Next(255),
                            rnd.Next(255), rnd.Next(255)));
                    gr.DrawString(string.Format("{0} {1} {2}", x, y, level),
                           font, Brushes.Black, new PointF(5, 5));
                }
                return bitmap;
            }
        }
    }
}

The Map Control stores the loaded tiles in cache. To customize cache parameters, use the MapTileDataProviderBase.CacheOptions property.

Custom Image Data Provider

To develop a data provider, create a MapDataProviderBase class descendant and define a custom image tile source for it. This image tile source should be derived from MapTileSourceBase and provide a way to retrieve image tiles.

Example:

See Also