Second Codeplex project - Virtual Earth gets Intellisense

Code Trip roadie Marc Schweigert has released the second Codeplex project for The Code Trip that we are leveraging and promoting.  This release of the Virtual Earth Javascript Intellisense Helper (or VEJS for the non-product managers in us) brings the Virtual Earth API into your Visual Studio 2008 IDE with Intellisense.  With the introduction of Javascript Intellisense for Visual Studio, AJAX style development is getting easier for developers.  Just this past few days we released a new home page for thecodetrip.com which has a tracking feature to show the current location of the bus as well as map out the events for our visitors.  If you click on the 'Bus Location' icon in the legend, you'll be zoomed in immediately to the bus location (being fed from an on-board GPS system) and can hover over to see who is currently on the bus and their last Twitter post.

Our developer for the site, Jason, hadn't worked much with Virtual Earth before in depth (shape layers, importing GeoRSS data, etc.) and started developing the map using the VEJS library.  The Virtual Earth team provides an interactive SDK which is helpful for first-timers to Virtual Earth.  It gives you a glance at core features and sample implementations of the API.  What it doesn't give you is that 'in the tool' experience.  If you are a VE developer, you'd have to have those docs open while developing if you didn't know the API cold. 

VEJS changes the game for Virtual Earth developers.  It brings the API to you.  You can start developing by simply adding an Intellisense reference tag in your file and including the VEJS documentation.  Once you have done that you get full Intellisense of the API, complete with functions, properties, enumerations, etc.  The full source documentation to the VEJS helper is available for you to enhance and contribute at Codeplex.  Watch the video to hear Jason's thought on the time saved and see the implementation first-hand to watch how simple it is to implement.  Then go to the VEJS Codeplex site and download it for your own use!