Google Places API Alternative - google-maps

My IOS app (Swift 5) HEAVILY relies on googles places API specifically the Places Autocomplete. I'm using it to get addresses and places to show on the map for users. Is there an alternative for this now that they have stopped supporting it or is there a way to fetch autocompleted places using a string. ANY help is greatly appreciated. It's essential for my app to continue working.

Google has not stopped supporting Places Autocomplete. You can migrate to the new Places SDK for IOS following this migration guide. You may also refer to the places autocomplete guide here.
Hope this helps!

Related

Google Maps API error: Google Maps API error: ApiNotActivatedMapError

I am trying to use google maps distance matrix api in my project to get distance between 2 places. I have also enable this api in google developer console. But I am continuously getting error ApiNotActivatedMapError.
I am using sample code provided by google as distance-matrix .
When you use a library or service via the Maps-Javascript-API, and use a key, you only need to activate the Google Maps JavaScript API .
When you get the particular error with the linked example you obviously didn't activate the Google Maps JavaScript API for your project.
Update:
since June 22, 2016 you need also to activate the related API(Webservice) for new applications when you want to use the following features:
geocoding service
directions service
distanceMatrix service
elevation service
places library
Old question.. But.. I had n similar issue recently with a ApiNotActivatedMapError using geocoding but Konerak's comment helped me get to this really nice post.
Basically, you can activate your API's here: https://console.developers.google.com/apis/library
Activating Google Maps JavaScript API along with the already activate Geocoding API solved my problem.
Hope it helps someone in a similar position :)
This link is enabled API https://console.developers.google.com/apis/library. For default emulator and in iOS its disabled, but in this console you can active this API.

Google Maps iOS SDK - Search for places

I'm new to both iOS programming & the Google Maps iOS SDK, so apologies if this is a basic question.
I want to include a Google map, in an app and give users the ability to search for various places (restaurants, bars, gyms, etc) within a certain radius of a marker.
I know this is possible using the javascript api, but can it be done using the maps iOS SDK? I have read all of the information here and have searched Stack Overflow & Google but I can't really find anything that gives me any pointers.
Within the documentation, Google say that using a URL Scheme you can launch a native iOS app and pass in parameters for searches, directions etc. Is this what I need to be using, or is that more tailored to a webapp?
Any help, advice, or pointers to tutorials (other than the ones provided by Google) would be massively appreciated.
Cheers
The Google Maps URL Scheme can currently only be used to open the Google Maps app to search for a location or for directions. It can't search for places. Also, if your own app did this, then it would shut down your app and switch to the maps app, which may not be what you want. It will also only work if the user has installed the Google Maps app.
You would probably want to use the Google Places API to make http requests from your native app. You can request a response in either JSON or XML format. Then you'll need to parse the response, and use it to add markers to a GMSMapView using the Google Maps SDK for iOS.
This blog post describes this library which the blog post's author wrote to wrap the Google Places API. You wouldn't need most of this code, but it might give you an idea of where to start. This class is the main one which handles the requests to the places API.
Note that this library uses a third-party JSON parser - SBJsonParser. As of version 5.0 iOS includes a native JSON parser, NSJSONSerialization. So if your app's minimum supported iOS version is 5.0 or higher, you don't need to use a third-party library.

Pure AS3 AIR map for mobile app

The iOS/Android app I am building requires a map component and just wondering what experts here would recommend using?
The app is being developed using pure AS3 and come across MapQuest. I only really need to be able to drop multiple markers and click markers for information. No directions, search etc.
Thanks
You might consider using a StageWebView instance with the HTML version of Google Maps.
You should be able to find helpful articles on the web. Sample: http://www.igorcosta.org/?p=350
Anyway, this might get tricky. :-/
I think Google Maps is still a good idea, but I’m not sure if it will work on mobile:
http://www.gotoandlearn.com/play.php?id=104
Beware that Google Maps API for Flash is deprecated.
Note (form Google Maps API page):
The Google Maps API for Flash has been officially deprecated as of September 2, 2011. The API will continue to work until September 2, 2014. We encourage you to migrate your code to version 3 of the Maps JavaScript API.
If not, you'll probably have to create a native extension.

GWT + Google Maps API v3

I need Google Maps API v3 calls in my GWT Project, more specifically an Autocomplete-Feature for Places like in Google-Maps and the DirectionServices.
We already tried 2 approaches to get v3 access, but none was satisfying:
Using the GWT SuggestionBox Widget + Geocoder suggestions. This solution is very slow and even worser, the constraints you can put on the suggested Places is just country codes (e.g. "uk") and, even worse, it seems to be not working.
Google Maps API v3 Wrapper for GWT done by branflake2267. There seems to be a conflict between the wrapper and the already existing (older) GWT Google Maps API lib. When one tries to remove the Google GWT-maps-api from the project, severe changes would have to be made, since the structure of the API seems different (some Classes are not within the Wrapper).
Does somebody maybe had a similar problem and a solution for this? How can I get the Google Maps V3 API working in my GWT project?
Thank you very much guys for any help on this!
There is an official port of Maps v3 supported by Google which can be found here, but it is still in pre-release.
For more info, look at the comments of this bug.
Be very careful with Maps v3 it has some serious issues when used with the latest GWTversions. It does not appear to use Overlays and uses ArrayHelper all of which cause problems on GWT 2.1 and up..
I've had good luck with the branflake API on GWT 2.8. However, it hasn't been updated in years and still uses API version 3.10. Unfortunately I'm going to have to either for it and take on maintaining my own version of it or find an alternative at some point.
For now, tho, it's still very much a usable solution.
https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.github.branflake2267/gwt-maps-api

Do I really need the Google Maps API key?

I am planning to release a commercial website (I have ads there and a shop) which is freely available for everybody. I want to add a google map to show some points of interest. The question is: Do I need the google api key for that or can I just use the iframe code that google gives me? Theoretically that would work, too.
I searched google, but could not find a clear answer...
Thanks :-)
v2 of the Google Maps API is deprecated, so you should ideally use v3.
v3 does not need an API key as mentioned in the documentation.
Since v3 is the official version now, I assume the links given in google maps are for the version. You can always just try and see if embedding the iframe works for you. Though as noted, you can't really customize the map, so you should use the API. It's very simple to set up a basic map (read the tutorial).
You don't need the Google Maps API key as long as you don't plan to include any special or customized maps in your website.
Using the iframe version is fine for basic Maps integration.
The API Key is free anyway, so there is no problem in obtaining one. You should also be free to use the iframe as well, as long as your site is publicly available to everyone without a payed login or anything like that.
As long as you meet Google Maps TOS, you can use both. If you don't meet those TOS, don't use any of it.
A Google Maps API key is required for v2 of the API, not for v3 as far as I know,
and neither for requests to Static Maps API v2.