Windows Phone 8 Nokia Maps: How to change the design of a Microsoft.Phone.Maps.Toolkit Pushpin?

Question

Default, they look like this: http://wp.qmatteoq.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/map.png. I would like to have them look like on Nokia Maps, like this: http://www.themobileindian.com/images/nnews/2012/11/9225/Nokia-Maps.jpg, so they take less space. And everytime I tap on them, they will toggle between icon and description.

Lets say I have two templates for pushpin in resources:

<ControlTemplate x:Key="1" TargetType="maptk:Pushpin">
        <Grid x:Name="ContentGrid" Background="Transparent" Margin="-4,0,0,0">
            <StackPanel >
                <Grid Background="Black">
                    <StackPanel Margin="5,5,0,0">
                        <i:Interaction.Triggers>
                            <i:EventTrigger EventName="Tap">
                                <cmd:EventToCommand PassEventArgsToCommand="False"
                                                    CommandParameter="{Binding}"
                                                    Command="{Binding ElementName=NearbyMap, Path=DataContext.Pushpin_OnTapCommand}"/>
                            </i:EventTrigger>
                        </i:Interaction.Triggers>
                        <TextBlock  Text="{Binding Location}" Foreground="White" />
                        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding LocationName}" Foreground="White" />
                            <TextBlock Text="-" Foreground="White" Padding="3,0"/>
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding LocationName}" Foreground="White" />
                        </StackPanel>
                        <TextBlock Text="{Binding LocationName}" Foreground="White" />
                        <TextBlock Text="{Binding LocationName}" Foreground="White" />

                    </StackPanel>
                </Grid>
                <Polygon Fill="Black"  Points="0,0 29,0 0,29" Width="29" Height="29" HorizontalAlignment="Left" />
                <Grid Height="26" Width="26" Margin="-13,-13,0,0" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
                    <Grid.RenderTransform>
                        <CompositeTransform Rotation="-45"/>
                    </Grid.RenderTransform>
                    <Rectangle Fill="Black" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0" Stroke="White" VerticalAlignment="Center" Height="26" Width="26" />
                    <Ellipse HorizontalAlignment="Center" Height="16" Margin="0" VerticalAlignment="Center" Fill="Green" Width="16" />
                </Grid>
            </StackPanel>
        </Grid>
    </ControlTemplate>

    <ControlTemplate TargetType="maptk:Pushpin"  x:Key="2">
        <Grid Height="26" Width="26" Margin="-13,-13,0,0" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" >
            <Grid.RenderTransform>
                <CompositeTransform Rotation="-45"/>
            </Grid.RenderTransform>
            <Rectangle Fill="Black" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0" Stroke="White" VerticalAlignment="Center" Height="26" Width="26"/>
            <Ellipse HorizontalAlignment="Center" Height="16" Margin="0" VerticalAlignment="Center" Fill="Red" Width="16"/>
        </Grid>
    </ControlTemplate>

and the pushpin control:

<maptk:Pushpin x:Name="PushPins" GeoCoordinate="{Binding Location}" Visibility="Visible" Content="{Binding LocationName}" Template="{StaticResource 2}"/>

How can I switch between them with some triggers or something?

Answer 1

@Rares found another solution, that works great in my case...

So the general issue here is just, how to switch/change the design when tapping the pushpin. Well it seems that when you add the pushpins to the map they get their design from the toolkit, but you still are able to change that by setting the Style propery in code!

So if you hook up each pushpin to a pushpin tap event you can just do the following in your code behind of the XAML page:

private void Pushpin_Tap(object sender, System.Windows.Input.GestureEventArgs e)
{
    ((Pushpin)sender).Style = Application.Current.Resources["PushpinStyle"] as Style;
}

Provided you created a PushpinStyle inside a resourcedictionary that has a Pushpin as TargetType.

To be able to reset the design when pushing on another pushpin, I just keep a reference to the pushpin pressed and reset it's style before changing the style of the newly pressed one!

Works great for me...

Answer 2

You can use a general trick to modify the look of TK components. This can be used for nearly all TK components.

All TK components have styles (defined in XAML), these are not settable via code. But you can override the style in your applicatoin (keep in mind, you override the style in general, so if you modify e.g. pushpin styles, all pushpins inside your app will look like that)

A bit more in detail:

a) Get the TK source from https://phone.codeplex.com/sourcecontrol/latest

b) Have a look into Themes/Generic.xaml

c) Next to the last element, you see the style definition for the pushpin. Starts with:

<!-- Default Style used for Pushpin -->
    <Style TargetType="maptk:Pushpin">
...

d) Copy this style (or you can write it from scratch of course) and modify the style to whatever you like

e) Add this modified code snippet to your Application.Resources (e..g. the Application.Resources section in your App.xaml)

Keep in mind, you also need to reference the right TK namespace. For pushpin, you need to include:

   xmlns:maptk="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Maps.Toolkit"

Now your app uses the locally overriden style for your pushpin.

Btw: Since TK is Ms-PL licensed, keep in mind that there are probably license restrictions if you take the original source code from MSFT.

Answer 3

I personally found it easier to not use the toolkit for pushpins. Instead I wrote a user control "PushPinUC" that I designed how I wanted it. The UserControl subscribes to the Tap event - so I can expand/retract when it's pressed.

You can add user controls to your Map control using the following code.

private void BindPushpins(IEnumerable<PushpinIVM> pushpins)
{         
    foreach (var pushpin in pushpins)
    {
        var pushPinUC = new PushpinUC { Pushpin = pushpin };
        var mapOverlay = new MapOverlay { GeoCoordinate = pushpin.Location, Content = pushPinUC };
        var mapLayer = new MapLayer { mapOverlay };
        Map.Layers.Add(mapLayer);
    }                        
}

Answer 4

I found a solution: add only one control template to the pushpins. The stackpanel is the pushpin with the textbox and the grid before the stackpanel is the pushpin without the textbox. The stackpanel is with visibility collapsed. As you can see there are 2 triggers for the tap event, where i just set the visibility of the pushpin with the textbox to visible or collapsed. You can use any image for the pushpins.

<ctrls:BaseUserControl.Resources>
    <ControlTemplate x:Key="PushPinTemplate" TargetType="maptk:Pushpin">
        <Grid x:Name="ContentGrid" Background="Transparent" Margin="-4,0,0,0">
            <Grid Height="40" Width="30" Margin="-13,-13,0,0" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" >
                <Image Source="/Assets/Images/push1.png" Width="40" Height="40">
                    <i:Interaction.Triggers>
                        <i:EventTrigger EventName="Tap">
                            <cmd:EventToCommand PassEventArgsToCommand="True"
                                                    Command="{Binding ElementName=NearbyMap, Path=DataContext.Rectangle_OnTapCommand}"/>
                        </i:EventTrigger>
                    </i:Interaction.Triggers>
                </Image>
            </Grid>
            <StackPanel x:Name="DetailsPanel" Visibility="{Binding Path=Visibility}">
                <Grid x:Name="TestGrid" Background="Black">
                    <StackPanel Margin="5,5,0,0">
                        <!--TextBlock tap-->
                        <i:Interaction.Triggers>
                            <i:EventTrigger EventName="Tap">
                                <cmd:EventToCommand PassEventArgsToCommand="True"                                                    
                                                    Command="{Binding ElementName=NearbyMap, Path=DataContext.Pushpin_OnTapCommand}"/>
                            </i:EventTrigger>
                        </i:Interaction.Triggers>
                        <TextBlock  Text="{Binding LocationName}" Foreground="White" FontSize="25"/>
                        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding StreetName}" Foreground="White" />
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding StreetNumber}" Foreground="White" />
                        </StackPanel>
                        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding DistanceToDisplay}" Foreground="White" />
                        </StackPanel>

                    </StackPanel>
                </Grid>
                <Polygon Fill="Black"  Points="0,0 29,0 0,29" Width="29" Height="29" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Visibility="Visible"/>
                <Grid Height="40" Width="30" Margin="-13,-13,0,0" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
                    <Image Source="/Assets/Images/push2.png" Width="40" Height="40">
                        <i:Interaction.Triggers>
                            <i:EventTrigger EventName="Tap">
                                <cmd:EventToCommand PassEventArgsToCommand="True"
                                                    Command="{Binding ElementName=NearbyMap, Path=DataContext.Rectangle_OnTapCommand}"/>
                            </i:EventTrigger>
                        </i:Interaction.Triggers>
                    </Image>
                </Grid>
            </StackPanel>
        </Grid>
    </ControlTemplate>
</ctrls:BaseUserControl.Resources>

<Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0">
    <maps:Map x:Name="NearbyMap" 
                  Center="{Binding MapCenter, Mode=TwoWay}"
                  ZoomLevel="15"
                  dp:MapPushPinDependency.ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Locations, Mode=OneWay}"
              >
        <i:Interaction.Triggers>
            <i:EventTrigger EventName="Tap">
                <cmd:EventToCommand PassEventArgsToCommand="True"
                                    Command="{Binding ElementName=NearbyMap, Path=DataContext.Map_OnTapCommand}"/>

            </i:EventTrigger>
        </i:Interaction.Triggers>
        <maptk:MapExtensions.Children>
            <maptk:MapItemsControl Name="StoresMapItemsControl">
                <maptk:MapItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
                    <DataTemplate>
                        <maptk:Pushpin x:Name="PushPins" GeoCoordinate="{Binding Location}" Visibility="Visible" Content="{Binding LocationName}" Template="{StaticResource PushPinTemplate}"/>
                    </DataTemplate>
                </maptk:MapItemsControl.ItemTemplate>              
            </maptk:MapItemsControl>
            <maptk:UserLocationMarker x:Name="UserLocationMarker" Visibility="Visible" GeoCoordinate="{Binding MyLocation}"/>
        </maptk:MapExtensions.Children>
    </maps:Map>
</Grid>

Answer 5

@Depechie

private void RectangleTapAction(GestureEventArgs e)
    {
        var pushpinControl = TryFindParent<Pushpin>(e.OriginalSource as UIElement);
        var pushpin = (pushpinControl as FrameworkElement).DataContext as PushPinModel;

        Locations.Where(t => t.Id != pushpin.Id).ToList().ForEach(t => t.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed);
        pushpin.Visibility = pushpin.Visibility == Visibility.Visible ? Visibility.Collapsed : Visibility.Visible;

        e.Handled = true;

    }

Locations is an ObservableCollection and there is a Linq where I hide the textbox for other pushpins. PushPinModel has an attribute representing the visibility.