Salesforce Lightning: Google Places Autocomplete Predictions Search

I have created a lookup component which on entering few characters of a location will display location predictions.

There are 3 methods that has been defined in client-side controller:

• keyPressController: executed when the user enters a search key. I have taken into consideration that the user need to enter at least 3 characters to fetch the location predictions.
• selectOption: executed when the user selects a value from the list box
• clear: executed on click of cross icon to remove the selected value from the lookup

To fetch the results, I am calling Place Autocomplete service, a part of the Google Places API Web Service, using the below Apex method, which returns location predictions in response to this HTTP request. For more details about this web service, please check the link in the references section of this post.

@AuraEnabled
public static string getAddressAutoComplete(String input, String types) {
    String url = 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json?input='
            + EncodingUtil.urlEncode(input, 'UTF-8')
            + '&types=' + types
            + '&key=' + GoogleMapsController.getGoogleMapsAPIKey();
    return GoogleMapsController.getHttp(url);
}

The response which is in JSON format is parsed in Javascript in the helper method of the component as below:

displayOptionsLocation: function (component, searchKey) {
    var action = component.get("c.getAddressAutoComplete");
    action.setParams({
        "input": searchKey,
        "types": '(regions)'
    });

    action.setCallback(this, function (response) {
        var state = response.getState();
        if (state === "SUCCESS") {
            var options = JSON.parse(response.getReturnValue());
            var predictions = options.predictions;
            var addresses = [];
            if (predictions.length > 0) {
                for (var i = 0; i < predictions.length; i++) {
                    addresses.push(
                        {
                            value: predictions[i].types[0],
                            label: predictions[i].description
                        });
                }
                component.set("v.filteredOptions", addresses);
            }
        }
    });
    $A.enqueueAction(action);
}

The look and feel of this component is controlled by $A.util.addClass and $A.util.removeClass methods.

Please check the github link for the component code below:
https://github.com/iamsonal/GoogleMapsAutocomplete

References:
https://developers.google.com/places/web-service/autocomplete

Lightning: Fetch current location details using Google Maps API

Using Google Maps, I was trying to fetch the current city and other details in a Lightning component using Javascript, but I was getting some error in browser console. I believe that is because of Locker service as described in the reference link. So I had to take a different approach.

But first, we need the latitude and longitude of the user who is accessing the Lightning page. The HTML Geolocation API is used to get the geographical position of a user. Since this can compromise privacy, the position is not available unless the user approves it. The getCurrentPosition() method is used to return the user's position. The example below returns the latitude and longitude of the user's position.

checkGeoLocation : function(component, event, helper) {
    if (navigator.geolocation) {
        navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(position) {
            var lat = position.coords.latitude;
            var lon = position.coords.longitude;
            var action = component.get("c.getCityName");
            action.setParams({
                "latitude": lat,
                "longitude": lon
            });
            action.setCallback(this, function(response) {
                var state = response.getState();
                if (state === "SUCCESS") {
                    var location = response.getReturnValue();
                }
            });
            $A.enqueueAction(action);
        });
    } else {
        console.log('Your browser does not support GeoLocation');
    }
}

To fetch the city details, we need to invoke the Google maps API. We need to send the location details as parameters. The results element in the response needs to be parsed in Apex to extract the desired values. In my case, JsonReader class did the work for me.

Please go through the documentation of Google maps, the link of which has been provided in the reference section. The following fields of the results element are of significance:
1. address_components[]
2. types[]

@AuraEnabled
public static String getCityName (Decimal latitude, Decimal longitude) {
    String url = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=' + latitude + ',' + longitude + '&sensor=true';
    JsonReader jsonobj = new JsonReader(getHttp(url));
    String status = jsonObj.getString('status');
    System.debug(status);
    
    JsonReader addressComponentObj = null;
    String locality= null;
    String adminAreaLevel2= null;
    List<Object> types = null;
    
    for(Object obj : jsonObj.getList('results[0].address_components')) {
        addressComponentObj = new JsonReader(obj);
        types = addressComponentObj.getList('types');
        for(Object typeObj : types) {
            String type = (String) typeObj;
            if (type.equalsIgnoreCase('locality')) {
                locality = addressComponentObj.getString('long_name');
            }
            if (type.equalsIgnoreCase('administrative_area_level_2')) {
                adminAreaLevel2 = addressComponentObj.getString('short_name');
            }
        }
    }
    return (locality + ', ' + adminAreaLevel2);
}

And that's it.

Reference: http://www.rattanpal.com/2017/03/19/salesforce-implement-google-maps-lightning-components/
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/intro