The map supports 2 kind of pushpins: databound and non-databound. In
that matter, it is pretty close to the ListBox control in ASP.NET 2.0:
You can add items "statically", and you can still databind it and the
dataitems can be appended (so it doesn't replace your statically added
items). This is what the map can do as well.
You can databind the map like you can databind the listview. The map
has properties like DataLatitudeField and DataLongitudeField (which
default to "Latitude" and "Longitude" respectively). This means you
could add an atlas DataSource control to your page and add a
binding between this datasource and the map. The code could look like
this:
<atlas:DataSource id="customerData" runat="server" serviceURL="Customers.asmx" />
<atlas:VirtualEarthMap Runat='server" ....>
<Bindings>
<atlas:Binding DataContext="customerData" DataPath="data" Property="data" />
</Bindings>
</atlas:VirtualEarthMap>
Your webservice should return something IEnumerable, where each "row" has a property "Latitude" and "Longitude".
Additionally, you can statically add pushpins too:
<atlas:VirtualEarthMap Runat="server" ...>
<Pushpins>
<atlas:Pushpin Latitude="..." Longitude="..." PushpinImageUrl="..." />
</Pushpins>
</atlas:VirtualEarthMap>
Please note that static pushpins can have bindings too (which you can
use to bind data to this pushpin, which can be used in the popup):
<atlas:VirtualEarthMap Runat="server" ...>
<Pushpins>
<atlas:Pushpin Latitude="..." Longitude="..." PushpinImageUrl="...">
<Bindings>
<atlas:Binding DataContext="someContext" Property="data" />
</Bindings>
</atlas:Pushpin>
</Pushpins>
<Popup>
<atlas:Label Runat="server">
<Bindings>
<atlas:Binding DataPath="CustomerName" Property="text" />
</Bindings>
</atlas:Label>
</Popup>
</atlas:VirtualEarthMap>
If you want to programmatically add pushpins, you should create a
Pushpin object and add that to the pushpins property of the map, like
so:
var myPushpin = new Web.UI.Pushpin();
myPushpin......
var pushpins = myMap.get_pushpins();
pushpins.add(myPushpin); <- when we add the pushpin to the map, the pushpin will be parented to (and know about) the map
myPushpin.initialize(); <- We need to initialize _after_ adding it
to the map. This initialize function takes care of actually adding the
pushpin to the map (visually).
Please let me know if you have any questions, or can't get this working. I could help you to get you up to speed.
Update: by the way, this is a cool example that you have made.
You could even do it all declaratively :). For example, you could
return customer data (with latitude/longitude), and bind that to a
ListView AND the map. Additionally, you could add a "navigate to"
button to the listview, and add an action to the button which invokes
the "panTo" method on the map. You could then click on this button and
the map will center the pushpin of that customer :).