Simply view Google maps data

Posted by Kulani Mahadewa on July 28, 2012
Posted in: Developing Android Map Applications. 4 Comments

Hi, today i’ll explain a simple way to load Google maps. But there is a limitation with this method as this way you can only view the data already available with the Google maps. Here you can just use the Activity class of android.jar.  If you want to add additional locations you have to use the classes comes with the  Google APIs  by Google Inc.

This method let you find any location on the Google maps by street, city and country. You can use an instance of the Intent class in this case. Intent class is usually uses to launch an Activity from another Activity. Here you can pass a String of the location details as data to the Intent instance, via Uri.parse().  Now when you start the Activity, it starts searching the address we specified in the String by street, city and country.

First of all you can create a form which takes three texts as inputs with a button in the layout file (.xml). Then in your Activity class set the  name of the xml file you created in the setContentView() method as follows.

public class navigationApp extends Activity {
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
}}
Next create instances of each UI component by giving their id inside the onCreate() as follows.

final EditText input1 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.blank1);
final EditText input2 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.blank2);
final EditText input3 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.blank3);
Button b=(Button)findViewById(R.id.Button1);

When the button is clicked, get the values of each input field and create a single String separated from “,” using concat(). Now pass this String as a parameter to the instance of Intent and call the startActivity() as follows.
b.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(View v) {
String s1=input1.getText().toString().trim();
String s2=input2.getText().toString().trim();
String s3=input3.getText().toString().trim();
String r=”geo:0,0?q=”;
String l=r.concat(s3)+”,”;
String l2=l.concat(s2)+”,”;
String l3=l2.concat(s1);
Intent searchAddress = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,Uri.parse(l3));
startActivity(searchAddress);
}
});

When you run this application on the emulator and click on the button the Google map will be loaded at the location you specified as follows.

4 comments on “Simply view Google maps data”

  1. Its really good that you blog what you learn or what you do.
    Keep up the good work Tharakaa.
    Try to make your blog a step by step guide for a person learning android app dev.

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