Find Places Nearby in Google Maps using Google Places API–Android App

This Android tutorial is to learn about using Google Places API to find places nearby in Google maps. I will walk you through to create an Android app to find nearby places to you. There are two steps in this tutorial,

1. Show current location on map using Google Maps API.
2. Find places Nearby using Google Place API.

Google Places API

Google Places API is one among the many APIs provided by Google and this is to get geographic information about places using HTTP request. We need to pass the latitude and longitude coordinates of the location to know about the location.

To authenticate with the Google Places API, we need to get a API key. The type of key is “Server Key”. The steps are common for all the APIs. You should login to the Google API console and create a server key. You can refer the previous linked tutorial to for more detail.

Android Application to Find Nearby Places using Google Places

The following example application first gets the current location and shows the Google map accordingly. Then based on user input the type of geographic location that needs to find is done. Example for keywords to find using the Google Places API are atm, hospital, airport, bank, etc.

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Prerequisite

Google Play Services is required for Google Maps and Google Places. If you are using Android Studio and Gradle, you should have the following dependencies added in build.grade file.

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:20.+'
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:6.1.+'
}

AndroidManifest.xml

Note the following permissions to be given for the app. The API_KEY specified here in the manifest is for Google Maps.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.javapapers.android.googleplacesdetail">

    <permission
        android:name="com.javapapers.android.googleplacesdetail.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE"
        android:protectionLevel="signature" />

    <uses-permission android:name="com.javapapers.android.googleplacesdetail.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
    <uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />

    <uses-feature
        android:glEsVersion="0x00020000"
        android:required="true" />

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
        <activity
            android:name=".GooglePlacesActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_name">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

        <meta-data
            android:name="com.google.android.gms.version"
            android:value="@integer/google_play_services_version" />

        <meta-data
            android:name="com.google.android.maps.v2.API_KEY"
            android:value="AIzafSyBBDFDFxrYDadfaK-7HsCABg4LZpdk2wJnKZsfvq6A" />
    </application>
</manifest>

Google Places Activity

The API key specified here is for the Google Places API access and it’s a server key. We are using LocationListener to get the current location and show in Google maps. Using the location received, we get the latitude and longitude and the form the Google Places API request http url.

GooglePlacesActivity.java

package com.javapapers.android.googleplacesdetail;

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.FragmentActivity;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;

import com.google.android.gms.common.ConnectionResult;
import com.google.android.gms.common.GooglePlayServicesUtil;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.CameraUpdateFactory;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.GoogleMap;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.SupportMapFragment;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.model.LatLng;

public class GooglePlacesActivity extends FragmentActivity implements LocationListener {

    private static final String GOOGLE_API_KEY = "AIzaSSDFSDF8Kv2eP0PM8adf5dSDFysdfas323SD3HA";
    GoogleMap googleMap;
    EditText placeText;
    double latitude = 0;
    double longitude = 0;
    private int PROXIMITY_RADIUS = 5000;

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

        //show error dialog if GoolglePlayServices not available
        if (!isGooglePlayServicesAvailable()) {
            finish();
        }
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_google_places);

        placeText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.placeText);
        Button btnFind = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnFind);
        SupportMapFragment fragment = (SupportMapFragment) getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.googleMap);
        googleMap = fragment.getMap();
        googleMap.setMyLocationEnabled(true);
        LocationManager 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);

        btnFind.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                String type = placeText.getText().toString();
                StringBuilder googlePlacesUrl = new StringBuilder("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?");
                googlePlacesUrl.append("location=" + latitude + "," + longitude);
                googlePlacesUrl.append("&radius=" + PROXIMITY_RADIUS);
                googlePlacesUrl.append("&types=" + type);
                googlePlacesUrl.append("&sensor=true");
                googlePlacesUrl.append("&key=" + GOOGLE_API_KEY);

                GooglePlacesReadTask googlePlacesReadTask = new GooglePlacesReadTask();
                Object[] toPass = new Object[2];
                toPass[0] = googleMap;
                toPass[1] = googlePlacesUrl.toString();
                googlePlacesReadTask.execute(toPass);
            }
        });
    }

    private boolean isGooglePlayServicesAvailable() {
        int status = GooglePlayServicesUtil.isGooglePlayServicesAvailable(this);
        if (ConnectionResult.SUCCESS == status) {
            return true;
        } else {
            GooglePlayServicesUtil.getErrorDialog(status, this, 0).show();
            return false;
        }
    }


    @Override
    public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
        latitude = location.getLatitude();
        longitude = location.getLongitude();
        LatLng latLng = new LatLng(latitude, longitude);
        googleMap.moveCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLng(latLng));
        googleMap.animateCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.zoomTo(12));
    }

    @Override
    public void onProviderDisabled(String provider) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }

    @Override
    public void onProviderEnabled(String provider) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }

    @Override
    public void onStatusChanged(String provider, int status, Bundle extras) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    }
}

Google Places AsyncTask

We use an AsyncTask to run the the request in background. It runs in a separate thread and requests the Google server for the Google Places information.

GooglePlacesReadTask.java

package com.javapapers.android.googleplacesdetail;

import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.util.Log;

import com.google.android.gms.maps.GoogleMap;

public class GooglePlacesReadTask extends AsyncTask<Object, Integer, String> {
    String googlePlacesData = null;
    GoogleMap googleMap;

    @Override
    protected String doInBackground(Object... inputObj) {
        try {
            googleMap = (GoogleMap) inputObj[0];
            String googlePlacesUrl = (String) inputObj[1];
            Http http = new Http();
            googlePlacesData = http.read(googlePlacesUrl);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.d("Google Place Read Task", e.toString());
        }
        return googlePlacesData;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
        PlacesDisplayTask placesDisplayTask = new PlacesDisplayTask();
        Object[] toPass = new Object[2];
        toPass[0] = googleMap;
        toPass[1] = result;
        placesDisplayTask.execute(toPass);
    }
}

Show Google Places in Map

Then we use another AsyncTask to parse the HTTP result json object and show the places in Google map.

PlacesDisplayTask.java

package com.javapapers.android.googleplacesdetail;

import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.util.Log;

import com.google.android.gms.maps.GoogleMap;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.model.LatLng;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.model.MarkerOptions;

import org.json.JSONObject;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;

public class PlacesDisplayTask extends AsyncTask<Object, Integer, List<HashMap<String, String>>> {

    JSONObject googlePlacesJson;
    GoogleMap googleMap;

    @Override
    protected List<HashMap<String, String>> doInBackground(Object... inputObj) {

        List<HashMap<String, String>> googlePlacesList = null;
        Places placeJsonParser = new Places();

        try {
            googleMap = (GoogleMap) inputObj[0];
            googlePlacesJson = new JSONObject((String) inputObj[1]);
            googlePlacesList = placeJsonParser.parse(googlePlacesJson);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.d("Exception", e.toString());
        }
        return googlePlacesList;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(List<HashMap<String, String>> list) {
        googleMap.clear();
        for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
            MarkerOptions markerOptions = new MarkerOptions();
            HashMap<String, String> googlePlace = list.get(i);
            double lat = Double.parseDouble(googlePlace.get("lat"));
            double lng = Double.parseDouble(googlePlace.get("lng"));
            String placeName = googlePlace.get("place_name");
            String vicinity = googlePlace.get("vicinity");
            LatLng latLng = new LatLng(lat, lng);
            markerOptions.position(latLng);
            markerOptions.title(placeName + " : " + vicinity);
            googleMap.addMarker(markerOptions);
        }
    }
}

Places.java

package com.javapapers.android.googleplacesdetail;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONException;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;

public class Places {

    public List<HashMap<String, String>> parse(JSONObject jsonObject) {
        JSONArray jsonArray = null;
        try {
            jsonArray = jsonObject.getJSONArray("results");
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return getPlaces(jsonArray);
    }

    private List<HashMap<String, String>> getPlaces(JSONArray jsonArray) {
        int placesCount = jsonArray.length();
        List<HashMap<String, String>> placesList = new ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>>();
        HashMap<String, String> placeMap = null;

        for (int i = 0; i < placesCount; i++) {
            try {
                placeMap = getPlace((JSONObject) jsonArray.get(i));
                placesList.add(placeMap);

            } catch (JSONException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        return placesList;
    }

    private HashMap<String, String> getPlace(JSONObject googlePlaceJson) {
        HashMap<String, String> googlePlaceMap = new HashMap<String, String>();
        String placeName = "-NA-";
        String vicinity = "-NA-";
        String latitude = "";
        String longitude = "";
        String reference = "";

        try {
            if (!googlePlaceJson.isNull("name")) {
                placeName = googlePlaceJson.getString("name");
            }
            if (!googlePlaceJson.isNull("vicinity")) {
                vicinity = googlePlaceJson.getString("vicinity");
            }
            latitude = googlePlaceJson.getJSONObject("geometry").getJSONObject("location").getString("lat");
            longitude = googlePlaceJson.getJSONObject("geometry").getJSONObject("location").getString("lng");
            reference = googlePlaceJson.getString("reference");
            googlePlaceMap.put("place_name", placeName);
            googlePlaceMap.put("vicinity", vicinity);
            googlePlaceMap.put("lat", latitude);
            googlePlaceMap.put("lng", longitude);
            googlePlaceMap.put("reference", reference);
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return googlePlaceMap;
    }
}

Http.java

package com.javapapers.android.googleplacesdetail;

import android.util.Log;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;

public class Http {

    public String read(String httpUrl) throws IOException {
        String httpData = "";
        InputStream inputStream = null;
        HttpURLConnection httpURLConnection = null;
        try {
            URL url = new URL(httpUrl);
            httpURLConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
            httpURLConnection.connect();
            inputStream = httpURLConnection.getInputStream();
            BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream));
            StringBuffer stringBuffer = new StringBuffer();
            String line = "";
            while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
                stringBuffer.append(line);
            }
            httpData = stringBuffer.toString();
            bufferedReader.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.d("Exception - reading Http url", e.toString());
        } finally {
            inputStream.close();
            httpURLConnection.disconnect();
        }
        return httpData;
    }
}

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