Bing maps with VB

Question

Hi I have written a piece of code which allows the program to take a postcode from a text box then type it into Bing for the user. This works perfectly fine when I use www.bing.com but if I was to use http://www.bing.com/maps/?mkt=en-gb so that the postcode is type directly into Bing maps then it crashes. I have included a copy of my code which works with the standard Bing search but would like some advice on allowing the program to search directly into Bing maps without the program crashing.

Thank you

Public Class Form1

Dim Automate As Boolean


Private Sub BTNMAPP_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BTNMAPP.Click
    Automate = True
    BingBrowserWindow.Navigate("https://www.bing.com")
End Sub


Private Sub BingBrowserWindow_DocumentCompleted(sender As Object, e As WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs) Handles BingBrowserWindow.DocumentCompleted
    If Automate = True Then Automate = False Else Exit Sub
    Dim txt As HtmlElement = BingBrowserWindow.Document.GetElementById("q")
    Dim btn As HtmlElement = BingBrowserWindow.Document.GetElementById("go")

    txt.SetAttribute("value", PostcodeTextBox.Text)
    btn.InvokeMember("click")

End Sub

Answer 1

You can find documentation on how to create a custom URL to the Bing Maps consumer site here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn217138.aspx

That said, you really should be using the Bing Maps WPF control inside of your app. It makes for a much better user experience and would make your align with the terms of use of Bing Maps. Similarly you should be using the Bing search API's instead of loading the Bing search page in your app.