JavaME LWUIT: is there appropriate map lib?

Question

I am developing JavaME LWUIT application which needs to display some data on map. And I'd like to use Google Maps for this.
I thought about the requirements to the maps and their user interface. They are listed below:

• Pannable map. It should be possible to scroll the map using the touch interface or navigation arrow buttions which are displayed on the map.
• Zoomable map. At the best, there should be appropriate +/- buttons displayed on the map.
• Search location by address and move to it (menu command).
• Remember the last visited location.
• Marker for the current location.
• Markers with customable icon and text which is displayed when select the marker (click on it or select somehow).

I spent some time searching for appropriate Map Library for JavaME/LWUIT. I expected to find a free library and map service (ha-ha).
See my results below:

1. MIDMaps library. URL: http://www.jappit.com/blog/midmaps-google-maps-java-me-library/ That library uses the Google Static Map Service. Not bad... but it needs a lot further improvements... I found the follwoing issues with that library:
   • Markers: impossible to customize marker's icon and text. Displaying the marker's text on click/selection is not supported.
   • Map Panning: no UI controls for this (arrow buttons). Doing panning with menu commands is not a user-friendly.
   • Map Zooming: no UI controls for this (+/- buttons). Not so important...
   • License: not permitted to use in a mobile app if not a Google Premier User. Not a problem...
2. Nokia Maps API for JavaME. URL: http://www.developer.nokia.com/Develop/Maps/Maps_API_for_Java_ME/ Did not try. But looks like that lib fulfills all my requirements. I am not sure about the following things:
   • Quality of the maps.
   • How much does it cost? I mean the cost of using the map service.
3. Nutiteq lib which uses OpenStreetMap service. URL: http://www.nutiteq.com/map-api Not free the lib, but the map service.
4. Guidebee Map API. URL: http://www.guidebee.biz/ It's not free.

Now it's a time for me to ask questions. What should I do? Are there any advices?
Maybe I missed some possibilities or lib/services?
Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

After some additional investigations I decided to use Nokia Maps. And now I have a working application which displays interactive map with my data markers on it and also my current location.

I chose Nokia Maps API because it provided real dynamic maps (panning, zooming, tiling) and fulfilled all my requirements, except "Remember the last visited location" (can be implemented on my own).

I met the following problems:

• Using the maps from LWUIT, not from an ordinary MIDP application. I used the approach shown here Nutiteq SDK with LWUIT and also implemented my own MapWidget class for LWUIT.
• Displaying additional info on marker click. There is no support for this in the lib. I had to implement it on my own. Details are here JavaME Nokia Maps API: how to display additional info on marker click

Additional info related to the choosing proper map library can be found here Discussion on Nokia Forum

Answer 2

See the Makeover demo in SVN (I updated it to use Google maps instead of Yahoo maps API which was killed off). The GoogleService API should be available in the SVN history it was (deleted because of licensing nonsense) within the IO services directory and it includes local search etc.

Terrence has a a demo that includes allot of interesting features including a browseable map.

You can also look at Waze although I haven't checked it myself, I saw people using open street map and AFAIK there is an open source mapping application based on that (although the license might not be appropriate for you but it might still be useful as a learning aid).