Current Virtual Earth supports pushpins, polylines, and polygons. Another commonly used shape type that is used in other mapping applications is MultiShape or MultiGeometry. Not having this in Virtual Earth has been an issue for some users. I have put together a javascript file that can be loaded after the Virtual Earth map control that creates a MultiShape class that can be used with Virtual Earth. This new shape object takes in an array of VEShape objects and has methods to add and remove shapes from the object. Many of the functionalities that exist in the VEShape class exist in the MultiShape class. The VEMap and VEShapelayer classes have been extended in order to support this adding and removing of the MultiShape objects from the map using the existing methods in Virtual Earth. This javascript file and a simple sample html file can be downloaded here:

http://cid-e7dba9a4bfd458c5.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/VE%20Tools/MultiShape.zip

Note: Since this extends the VEMap and VEShapeLayer classes by accessing undocumented methods in the map control it is possible that those methods may change without notice. This may result in unexpected errors occurring in the future.

Browsers tested: IE7, FF2

Virtual Earth versions tested: 5, 6, 6.1, 6.2

MultiShape Constructor

var x = new MultiShape(shapes);

Public Methods

These methods can be used in the same way as the equivalent methods in the VEShape object.

These methods can be used in the same way as the equivalent methods in the VEShapeLayer class.

These are new methods which can be used with a MultiShape object.

Constructors

var x = MultShape.GetIconLocation();

var x = MultShape.SetIconlocation(latlong); where latlong is a VELatLong object.

var x = MultShape.IndexOfShape(shape); where shape is a VEShape object.

MultiShape properties

Extended VEMap and VEShapeLayer method’s

The following methods have been extended to work when used with MultiShape objects.