Application development environment for MapInfo Professional.

MapBasic is a complete, BASIC-like programming language used to create custom applications for use with MapInfo Professional or special MapInfo runtimes. MapBasic extends geographic functionality, automates repetitive operations, and integrates MapInfo Professional with other applications - quickly and easily.

Build Custom Applications

With MapBasic, a custom application can be as simple as adding a menu item to MapInfo Professional or as sophisticated as redesigning the entire user interface and extending the functionality of MapInfo Professional. You can modify the MapInfo Professional user interface by adding customized toolbars, menus and dialog boxes to suit the specific needs and technical sophistication of the end user. You can even hide unneeded functionality or change the terminology to reflect a specific application.

Integrate MapInfo Professional

MapBasic allows you to work in the programming languages you are most familiar with and integrates the optimal amount of mapping functionality into applications. Another advantage to the Integrated Mapping feature is even as MapInfo Professional is running in the background, it remains as a hidden server to the application - allowing the end user to see only one application interface. The Integrated Mapping feature also lets you control MapInfo Professional through popular development tools such as Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, Delphi and C++, giving you the ability to:

• Control MapInfo Professional through OLE Automation
• Add mapping to your Visual Basic application with as little as five lines of code
• Create MapInfo windows inside other custom programs. For instance, you can create a MapInfo Professional window inside your Visual Basic form. Integrated Mapping allows you to 'reparent' MapInfo Professional windows so they look and act like part of your Visual Basic (or other language) interface. If you've been wanting to add 'a little bit of mapping' to your custom applications, this is the tool for the job
• Program in development environments of your choice. If you're a C++ programmer, you can do all of your coding in C++

You can use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) to communicate with other software packages. Plus, MapBasic applications can call routines in Windows Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL) files.