Android Google Maps: Show current Location

Today im gonna show you how to create an android app that shows your current location on the map

Project Structure:

Procedure:
1. To start with, Create an new android project,
Go to start 'start a new project' from the welcome screen > Name it 'CurrentLocation' > Choose 'Google maps activity' *This is the main point* and finish to create the project.

2. After gradle has synced successfully, android studio will open google_maps_api.xml by default. in this xml file, we are required to get our api key from google console and replace it where there is this
phrase "YOUR_KEY_HERE"


 


* Android studio makes it very easy to get the api key because after creating the project, the hash signature is already written in the google_maps_api.xml file.

- Copy the url from the file and paste it to your browser, e.g in my case it's on line 7 in my editor,

https://console.developers.google.com/flows/enableapi?apiid=maps_android_backend&keyType=CLIENT_SIDE_ANDROID&r=

8F:D7:78:DF:61:AB:F8:5B:53:E9:48:39:56:D4:3B:1F:05:E3:4E:05%3Bcom.androidmastermind.currentlocation

> Rememeber to use your projects url, else it won't work.

- The link takes you straight to google api console which will prompt you to enable the maps api by creating a project

- After the page loads, just click on continue...,  A project will be created as 'My Project' ,(will change this later)



-  Another page will load after some few seconds, click on 'Go to credentials'



- A page will load with the package name of your app and the sha-1 certificate fingerprint, You can rename the key the way you want, for my case ill leave it to default and press create.



- A popup window will appear with your api key, just copy it and click ok. At this point we are done with the console,



-  Go back to our android project, in the google_maps_api.xml, paste the api key

<resources>
    <!--    TODO: Before you run your application, you need a Google Maps API key.

    To get one, follow this link, follow the directions and press "Create" at the end:
    https://console.developers.google.com/flows/enableapi?

apiid=maps_android_backend&keyType=CLIENT_SIDE_ANDROID&r=

8F:D7:78:DF:61:AB:F8:5B:53:E9:48:39:56:D4:3B:1F:05:E3:4E:05%

3Bcom.androidmastermind.currentlocation
    You can also add your credentials to an existing key, using this line:

    8F:D7:78:DF:61:AB:F8:5B:53:E9:48:39:56:D4:3B:1F:05:E3:4E:05;com.androidmastermind.currentlocation
    Alternatively, follow the directions here:

    https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/android/start#get-key
    Once you have your key (it starts with "AIza"), replace the "google_maps_key"    string in this file.    -->

    <string name="google_maps_key" templateMergeStrategy="preserve" translatable="false">

AIzaSyBIfHPW-nb4JdNK1TlWuV3XiVIWhmuDvqwN</string>
</resources>

- You can now test your app and see if it displays a map, by default, your supposed to see a map with a marker, if you click it it will popup with 'marker in sydney'
- For this, just fire up genymotion, or plug your device in debug mode.




- Now lets go back to our MainActivity.java and make some changes,
- first thing we will implement LocationListener, this will be monitoring the location in case you move from the current location.
* Be careful to import <<import android.location.LocationListener;>> for the locationlistner, else you may meet some errors later.

- Will also create a method, getCurrentLocation(), that will be fethching the current location, and check if google play services are available before displaying the location.

package com.androidmastermind.currentlocation;

import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
import android.location.Criteria;
import android.location.Location;
import android.location.LocationListener;
import android.location.LocationManager;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.ActivityCompat;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity;
import android.util.Log;

import com.google.android.gms.common.ConnectionResult;
import com.google.android.gms.common.GoogleApiAvailability;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.CameraUpdateFactory;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.GoogleMap;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.OnMapReadyCallback;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.SupportMapFragment;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.model.LatLng;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.model.MarkerOptions;

public class MapsActivity extends FragmentActivity implements OnMapReadyCallback,LocationListener {

    private static final String TAG = "CurrentLocation";
    private GoogleMap mMap;
    protected LocationManager locationManager;
    private static final int PLAY_SERVICES_RESOLUTION_REQUEST = 9000;


    @Override    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        if (!isGooglePlayServicesAvailable()) {
            return;
        }
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_maps);

        // Obtain the SupportMapFragment and get notified when the map is ready to be used.

        SupportMapFragment mapFragment = (SupportMapFragment) getSupportFragmentManager()
                .findFragmentById(R.id.map);
        mapFragment.getMapAsync(this);
    }


    /**     * Manipulates the map once available.

     * This callback is triggered when the map is ready to be used.

     * This is where we can add markers or lines, add listeners or move the camera. In this case,

     * we just add a marker near Sydney, Australia.

     * If Google Play services is not installed on the device, the user will be prompted to install

     * it inside the SupportMapFragment. This method will only be triggered once the user has

     * installed Google Play services and returned to the app.

     */

    @Override

    public void onMapReady(GoogleMap googleMap) {
        mMap = googleMap;

        displayCurrentLocation(mMap);
    }

    private void displayCurrentLocation(GoogleMap mMap) {
        if (ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, android.Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) 

!= PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED

 && ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, android.Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION)

 != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
            // TODO: Consider calling

            //    ActivityCompat#requestPermissions

            // here to request the missing permissions, and then overriding

            //   public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, String[] permissions,

            //                                          int[] grantResults)

            // to handle the case where the user grants the permission. See the documentation

            // for ActivityCompat#requestPermissions for more details.

            return;
        }
        mMap.setMyLocationEnabled(true);
        mMap.getUiSettings().setCompassEnabled(true);
        mMap.getUiSettings().setZoomControlsEnabled(true);

        locationManager = (LocationManager) getSystemService(LOCATION_SERVICE);

        Criteria criteria = new Criteria();
        String bestProvider = locationManager.getBestProvider(criteria, true);
        Location location = locationManager.getLastKnownLocation(bestProvider);

        if (location != null) {
            onLocationChanged(location);

        }

        locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(bestProvider, 20000, 0, this);

    }

    private boolean isGooglePlayServicesAvailable() {
        GoogleApiAvailability apiAvailability = GoogleApiAvailability.getInstance();
        int resultCode = apiAvailability.isGooglePlayServicesAvailable(this);
        if (resultCode != ConnectionResult.SUCCESS) {
            if (apiAvailability.isUserResolvableError(resultCode)) {
                apiAvailability.getErrorDialog(this, resultCode, PLAY_SERVICES_RESOLUTION_REQUEST).show();
            } else {
                Log.i(TAG, "This device is not supported.");
                finish();
            }
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }

    @Override    public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
        double latitude = location.getLatitude();
        double longitude = location.getLongitude();

        LatLng currentLocation = new LatLng(latitude, longitude);
        mMap.addMarker(new MarkerOptions().position(currentLocation).title("My Location"));
        mMap.moveCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLng(currentLocation));
        mMap.animateCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.zoomTo(15));
    }

    @Override

    public void onStatusChanged(String s, int i, Bundle bundle) {

    }

    @Override

    public void onProviderEnabled(String s) {

    }

    @Override

    public void onProviderDisabled(String s) {

    }
}

* That's it, you've successfully created an app that monitors your current location.

> My current location was at Technical University of Kenya
* Run it on a real device to see how it behaves when you move around and change location

See Also:
* Show Nearby Places From a User's Location