Hi there, I'm on to building more travel apps following the successful submission to iTunes of my first couple for iOS. I really to want to build the best travel apps I can and I have a list as long as my arm of features I'd like to include in future releases. The first (and most important) feature are offline maps. I've looked through every post in the Maps section fo the BT forum, googled and trawled stack overflow but I can't seem to find a solution (simple or otherwise) that's written in plain English. My requirement is thus; to load an offline map (with markers) for a particular city. The map should be viewable down to about '14 zoom level' and should allow the user to tap an icon to expand information about the particular mapping point. Any suggestions on this would be greatly received. Read on if you're interested in the avenues I've looked into so far.. - Using a PDF file of a map at a really high resolution (I think this a ridiculous thought, but important to know how my dev mind works!). This, however, would only be static and would not allow user interaction I think. - Tiling from Openstreetmap. Openstreetmap would be my preferred supplier of the data and I've looked through their wiki for a solution. However, is it just a case of downloading the tiles for the area I wan't to map then embedding this somehow in a HTML doc? - If I did download the tiles from OSM, how on earth do I use them? - Ideally, I'd like a solution that would work for both iOS and Android. I hope I haven't sounded like too much of a newbie but, hey, I am kind of! Thanks, Stephen.

Hi Stephen, NOT a newbie question at all! All of your ideas are solid and tons of developers have spent a very long time trying to work this out. I think, and I'm just guessing here, that the super-duper-crazy-huge PDF (so it's zoomable) is the most common approach. I'm not a fan of the approach but it does work. The fact is, this is a really hard problem to solve. The good news is....Apple and Google have both threatened to make Offline Mapping a built in feature of the iOS. If this is true, and we see it as consumers, it's logical that we'll be able to extend it as developers. Whoo hoo. So I guess you have a decision to make. Continuing to brew-up your custom solution, or, wait it a out a bit to see if the big guys suddenly take all your problems away and make it "easy." I think the hardest part will be trying to guess how long the dev. time may take. I'de hate to see you spend 2 months working on something to then see it available "right in the middle of your progress." That would suck. I'm not sure how helpful these remarks are but I don't have a solution, don't know of a better solution (that you didn't list) and can only hope iOS / Android make this easier in the VERY near future.

Several options: Figure out how to use Back Country Navigator ( Android) via intents. Use Google's new offline feature. Use Open Streetmaps Fred

Hi David, thanks for the advice, very useful to know I'm not approaching it from the complete wrong angle. It'll be interesting to see what Google/Apple bring out. I spent a lot of time on the openstreetmap wiki yesterday and there does seem to be solution, so I might just keep digging (I'm heartened by the fact that several other competitors apps have used openstreetmaps for offline use). Hi Fred, openstreetmap I think will be my preferred choice as I want to avoid the charges that Google will impose when my app is mega successful (!!). The other option I'm looking at is a company called MapBox who seem to do somtehing aligned to what I'm looking for. It involves the integration of their SDK (which scares the life out of me - how do I call a screen from another SDK??!) but I'll post if I make it. So for now, I may stick with a massive PDF (or, maybe all of the tiles in a html file, grid layout). Let's see how this ends up! Stephen.

MapBox - heard some good things about this, don't worry too much about how to "load a screen from an SDK" - it's not that tough. When you see the soon to be released Plugin Creator Tool you'll likely create your own MapBox plugin. This will be a UIViewController / Class File that you'll end up adding your MapBox code to. Lastly: And, don't freak out about this one...but it's worth considering. Apple can get very VERY draconian sometimes when it comes to features, styles, UI guidelines, etc. In the early days, they would NOT allow a map that was not their built in mapping functions. In other words, they were hell bent on only allowing "iOS Maps" in iOS Apps. Made some sense actually. Today, things are very different and I'll be MapBox and other solutions will be fine. This is especially true considering the changes iOS 6 promises (mentioned above). But...it wanted to make sure you at least thought about the idea of Apple rejecting your plans simply because of a technicality. Very very doubtful that this would happen today. Keep kickin' apps.

Hi, I'm in exactly the same position JimmySaver was when he OP'd this. I'm interested in creating an guided tour for use on mobile phones and handhelds. The location where the guided tour is to be used offers NO mobile web access. I need the maps to be 100% offline downloaded onto the mobile device. I've got the photos, descriptions, even the super-huge Adobe AI file that is the map. As far as what to do next, I'm flummoxed. I really don't want to spend a lot of money, nor do I have a lot of time. I'd really really appreciate someone getting me started. MapBox looks really cool. Does it work with BuzzTouch?

Hey Camajan, thanks for keeping the thread alive! I'll be honest, I've had other projects on lately so this has slid more than I would have wished. After posting, I did have a play around with the MapBox SDK in their sample app download. It was a little complex, but it was workable. My problem came with integrating the sdk with the BT one. I'll get on this again in a few weeks and, if I find anything, I'll report back. Good luck and let me know if you make any progress!

Similar topic on this thread, a few different answers for you in that one: https://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=2046640D1FE306179570319&fid=2C1C22C1EADEDB22F61C5E5&sortColumn=FT.id&sortUpDown=&currentPage=1