NativeScript plugin for Google Maps SDK

This is a cross-platform (iOS & Android) Nativescript plugin for the Google Maps API

Prerequisites

iOS - Cocoapods is installed

Android - Latest Google Play services SDK installed

Google Maps API Key - Go to the Google Developers Console, create a project, and enable the Google Maps Android API and Google Maps SDK for iOS APIs. Then under credentials, create an API key.

Installation

Install the plugin using the NativeScript CLI tooling

tns plugin add nativescript-google-maps-sdk

Setup Google Maps API

See demo code included here

Live Demo here

Setup Android API Key

Nativescript < 4

First copy over the template string resource files for Android

cp -r node_modules/nativescript-google-maps-sdk/platforms/android/res/values app/App_Resources/Android/

Next modify the file at app/App_Resources/Android/values/nativescript_google_maps_api.xml, uncomment nativescript_google_maps_api_key string and replace PUT_API_KEY_HERE with your api key.

Then, in your AndroidManifest.xml located at app/App_Resources/Android/AndroidManifest.xml insert into your <application> tags

<meta-data
            android:name="com.google.android.geo.API_KEY"
            android:value="@string/nativescript_google_maps_api_key" />

Nativescript 4+

First copy over the template string resource files for Android

cp -r node_modules/nativescript-google-maps-sdk/platforms/android/res/values app/App_Resources/Android/src/main/res

Next modify the file at app/App_Resources/Android/src/main/res/values/nativescript_google_maps_api.xml, uncomment nativescript_google_maps_api_key string and replace PUT_API_KEY_HERE with your api key.

Then, in your AndroidManifest.xml located at app/App_Resources/Android/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml insert into your <application> tags

<meta-data
            android:name="com.google.android.geo.API_KEY"
            android:value="@string/nativescript_google_maps_api_key" />

The plugin will default to latest available version of the Android play-services-maps SDK. If you need to change the version, you can add a project ext property googlePlayServicesVersion like so:

//   /app/App_Resources/Android/app.gradle

project.ext {
    googlePlayServicesVersion = "+"
}

Setup iOS API Key

In the main script of your app app.js, use the following to add the API key (providing your key in place of PUT_API_KEY_HERE)

if(application.ios) {
  GMSServices.provideAPIKey("PUT_API_KEY_HERE");
}

If you are using Angular, you need to modify the app.module.ts as follows:

import * as platform from "platform";
declare var GMSServices: any;
....
if (platform.isIOS) { 
  GMSServices.provideAPIKey("PUT_API_KEY_HERE");
}

Adding the MapView

Modify your view by adding the namespace xmlns:maps="nativescript-google-maps-sdk" to your page, then using the <maps:mapView /> tag to create the MapView.

 <!-- /app/main-page.xml -->
 <Page 
    xmlns="http://www.nativescript.org/tns.xsd"
    xmlns:maps="nativescript-google-maps-sdk"
    >
  <GridLayout>
    <maps:mapView latitude="{{ latitude }}" longitude="{{ longitude }}" mapAnimationsEnabled="{{ mapAnimationsEnabled }}"
    								zoom="{{ zoom }}" bearing="{{ bearing }}" 
    								tilt="{{ tilt }}" padding="{{ padding }}" mapReady="onMapReady"  
   								markerSelect="onMarkerSelect" markerBeginDragging="onMarkerBeginDragging"
   								markerEndDragging="onMarkerEndDragging" markerDrag="onMarkerDrag"
   								cameraChanged="onCameraChanged" 
                                cameraMove="onCameraMove" />
  </GridLayout>
</Page>

Properties

The following properties are available to you for adjusting camera view.

Events

The following events are available:

The property gMap gives you access to the raw platform Map Object - see their SDK references for how to use them ( iOS | Android )

//  /app/main-page.js

var mapsModule = require("nativescript-google-maps-sdk");

function onMapReady(args) {
  var mapView = args.object;

  console.log("Setting a marker...");
  var marker = new mapsModule.Marker();
  marker.position = mapsModule.Position.positionFromLatLng(-33.86, 151.20);
  marker.title = "Sydney";
  marker.snippet = "Australia";
  marker.userData = { index : 1};
  mapView.addMarker(marker);
  
  // Disabling zoom gestures
  mapView.settings.zoomGesturesEnabled = false;
}

function onMarkerSelect(args) {
   console.log("Clicked on " +args.marker.title);
}

function onCameraChanged(args) {
    console.log("Camera changed: " + JSON.stringify(args.camera)); 
}

function onCameraMove(args) {
    console.log("Camera moving: "+JSON.stringify(args.camera));
}

exports.onMapReady = onMapReady;
exports.onMarkerSelect = onMarkerSelect;
exports.onCameraChanged = onCameraChanged;
exports.onCameraMove = onCameraMove;

UI Settings

You can adjust the Map UI settings after mapReady by changing the below properties on mapView.settings

Styling

Use gMap.setStyle(style); to change the map styling.

For Angular map styling, use this.mapView.setStyle(<Style>JSON.parse(this.styles)); inside of the onMapReady function. In this example this.mapView is the imported MapView from the plugin and this.styles is a reference to a json file that was created using the link below. The <Style> was also imported from the plugin as { Style }.

For map styles, see Google Maps Style Reference and the Styling Wizard.

Custom Info Windows (Beta)

To customize the marker info windows, define a template in your view like so:

 <!-- /app/main-page.xml -->
 <Page 
    xmlns="http://www.nativescript.org/tns.xsd"
    xmlns:maps="nativescript-google-maps-sdk"
    >
  <GridLayout>
       <maps:mapView mapReady="onMapReady">
            <!-- Default Info Window Template -->       		
            <maps:mapView.infoWindowTemplate>
                <StackLayout orientation="vertical" width="200" height="150" >
                    <Label text="{{title}}" className="title" width="125"   />
                    <Label text="{{snippet}}" className="snippet" width="125"   />
                    <Label text="{{'LAT: ' + position.latitude}}" className="infoWindowCoordinates"  />
                    <Label text="{{'LON: ' + position.longitude}}" className="infoWindowCoordinates"  />
                </StackLayout>
            </maps:mapView.infoWindowTemplate>
            <!-- Keyed Info Window Templates -->   
            <maps:mapView.infoWindowTemplates>
                <template key="testWindow">
                    <StackLayout orientation="vertical" width="160" height="160" >
                        <Image src="res://icon" stretch="fill"  height="100" width="100" className="infoWindowImage" />
                        <Label text="Let's Begin!" className="title" />
                    </StackLayout>
                </template>
            </maps:mapView.infoWindowTemplates>
        </maps:mapView>
  </GridLayout>
</Page>

If a marker has the infoWindowTemplate property set like so:

var marker = new mapsModule.Marker();
marker.infoWindowTemplate = 'testWindow';

This will use the template with that key. If it's not set then it'll use the default custom template if set, overwise the standard info window.

** Known Issue - External Images fail to show in iOS info windows (local Images work fine)

Using with Angular

See angular demo code included here

// /app/map-example.component.ts

import {Component, ElementRef, ViewChild} from '@angular/core';
import {registerElement} from "nativescript-angular/element-registry";

// Important - must register MapView plugin in order to use in Angular templates
registerElement("MapView", () => require("nativescript-google-maps-sdk").MapView);

@Component({
    selector: 'map-example-component',
    template: `
    <GridLayout>
        <MapView (mapReady)="onMapReady($event)"></MapView>
    </GridLayout>
    `
})
export class MapExampleComponent {

    @ViewChild("MapView") mapView: ElementRef;

    //Map events
    onMapReady = (event) => {
        console.log("Map Ready");
    };
}

Clustering Support (Issue #57)

There is a seperate plugin in development thanks to @naderio - see nativescript-google-maps-utils

Get Help

Checking with the Nativescript community is your best bet for getting help.

If you have a question, start by seeing if anyone else has encountered the scenario on Stack Overflow. If you cannot find any information, try asking the question yourself. Make sure to add any details needed to recreate the issue and include the “NativeScript” and "google-maps" tags, so your question is visible to the NativeScript community.

If you need more help than the Q&A format Stack Overflow can provide, try joining the NativeScript community Slack. The Slack chat is a great place to get help troubleshooting problems, as well as connect with other NativeScript developers.

Finally, if you have found an issue with the NativeScript Google Maps SDK itself, or requesting a new feature, please report them here Issues.