How To Add Android Google Places API Autocomplete

Google places API is defiantly one of the coolest API out there. It allows you to query for registered locations and get useful information about them. The base places API supports 3 majors actions you can do:

1. Add an online place picker to your Android app so the user can select a place from a live map
2. Send information to google about new places or other information you receive from your users
3. Display places Autocomplete as an input so users can start typing a location and select it from an auto-generated list of places

This tutorial will show how to add the Autocomplete input. The places list is repopulated with relevant places results according to the search value.

We start by adding our GEO API key to the AndroidManifest file, you can get an API key yourself from here

	<meta-data
	android:name="com.google.android.geo.API_KEY"
	android:value="@string/google_maps_key" />

view raw AndoridManifest.xml hosted with by GitHub

After you have an API key, create an Autocomplete element inside your layout view file

	<AutoCompleteTextView
	android:id="@+id/add_alarm_form_to"
	android:layout_height="wrap_content"
	android:inputType="text|textMultiLine"
	android:layout_width="fill_parent"
	android:layout_marginBottom="20dp"
	android:maxLines="2"
	android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
	android:layout_row="1"
	android:fontFamily="sans-serif-light"
	android:textSize="16dp"
	android:layout_column="0"
	android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
	android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
	android:theme="@style/JOTInput"
	android:hint="@string/destination_hint">
	</AutoCompleteTextView>

view raw autocomplete.xml hosted with by GitHub

The activity class makes sure we’re connected to google’s API and initialize the Autocomplete element with a new Adapter

	public class AddAlarmActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements GoogleApiClient.ConnectionCallbacks, GoogleApiClient.OnConnectionFailedListener {
	private GoogleApiClient mGoogleApiClient = null;
	private PlaceAutocompleteAdapter mToAdapter;
	private static final int REQUEST_RESOLVE_ERROR = 1001;
	private static final String DIALOG_ERROR = "dialog_error";
	private boolean mResolvingError = false;
	private AutoCompleteTextView mToAutocompleteView;
	// bounds for the entire world
	private static final LatLngBounds BOUNDS = new LatLngBounds(new LatLng(-85, -180), new LatLng(85, 180));
	@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
	super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
	setContentView(R.layout.YOUR_LAYOUT_FILE);
	buildGoogleApiClient();
	mToAutocompleteView = (AutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.add_alarm_form_to);
	mToAutocompleteView.setOnItemClickListener(mToAutocompleteClickListener);
	mToAdapter = new PlaceAutocompleteAdapter(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, mGoogleApiClient, BOUNDS, null);
	mToAutocompleteView.setAdapter(mToAdapter);
	}
	private AdapterView.OnItemClickListener mToAutocompleteClickListener = new AdapterView.OnItemClickListener() {
	@Override
	public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
	/*
	Retrieve the place ID of the selected item from the Adapter.
	The adapter stores each Place suggestion in a PlaceAutocomplete object from which we
	read the place ID.
	*/
	final PlaceAutocompleteAdapter.PlaceAutocomplete item = mToAdapter.getItem(position);
	final String placeId = String.valueOf(item.placeId);
	Log.i(TAG, "Autocomplete item selected: " + item.description);
	/*
	Issue a request to the Places Geo Data API to retrieve a Place object with additional
	details about the place.
	*/
	PendingResult<PlaceBuffer> placeResult = Places.GeoDataApi
	.getPlaceById(mGoogleApiClient, placeId);
	placeResult.setResultCallback(mToUpdatePlaceDetailsCallback);
	// Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Clicked: " + item.description, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
	Log.i(TAG, "Called getPlaceById to get Place details for " + item.placeId);
	}
	};
	/**
	* Callback for results from a Places Geo Data API query that shows the first place result in
	* the details view on screen.
	*/
	private ResultCallback<PlaceBuffer> mToUpdatePlaceDetailsCallback = new ResultCallback<PlaceBuffer>() {
	@Override
	public void onResult(PlaceBuffer places) {
	if (!places.getStatus().isSuccess()) {
	// Request did not complete successfully
	Log.e(TAG, "Place query did not complete. Error: " + places.getStatus().toString());
	places.release();
	return;
	}
	places.release();
	}
	};
	protected synchronized void buildGoogleApiClient() {
	mGoogleApiClient = new GoogleApiClient.Builder(this)
	.addConnectionCallbacks(this)
	.addOnConnectionFailedListener(this)
	.addApi(Places.GEO_DATA_API)
	.build();
	}
	@Override
	public void onConnected(Bundle bundle) {
	Log.i(TAG, "Connection started");
	}
	@Override
	public void onConnectionSuspended(int i) {
	Log.i(TAG, "Connection suspended");
	}
	@Override
	public void onConnectionFailed(ConnectionResult result) {
	Log.e(TAG, "onConnectionFailed: ConnectionResult.getErrorCode() = " + result.getErrorCode());
	if (mResolvingError) {
	// Already attempting to resolve an error.
	return;
	} else if (result.hasResolution()) {
	try {
	mResolvingError = true;
	result.startResolutionForResult(this, REQUEST_RESOLVE_ERROR);
	} catch (IntentSender.SendIntentException e) {
	// There was an error with the resolution intent. Try again.
	mGoogleApiClient.connect();
	}
	} else {
	// Show dialog using GooglePlayServicesUtil.getErrorDialog()
	showErrorDialog(result.getErrorCode());
	mResolvingError = true;
	}
	}
	/* Creates a dialog for an error message */
	private void showErrorDialog(int errorCode) {
	// Create a fragment for the error dialog
	ErrorDialogFragment dialogFragment = new ErrorDialogFragment();
	// Pass the error that should be displayed
	Bundle args = new Bundle();
	args.putInt(DIALOG_ERROR, errorCode);
	dialogFragment.setArguments(args);
	dialogFragment.show(getSupportFragmentManager(), "errordialog");
	}
	/* Called from ErrorDialogFragment when the dialog is dismissed. */
	public void onDialogDismissed() {
	mResolvingError = false;
	}
	/* A fragment to display an error dialog */
	public static class ErrorDialogFragment extends DialogFragment {
	public ErrorDialogFragment() { }
	@Override
	public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
	// Get the error code and retrieve the appropriate dialog
	int errorCode = this.getArguments().getInt(DIALOG_ERROR);
	return GooglePlayServicesUtil.getErrorDialog(errorCode,
	this.getActivity(), REQUEST_RESOLVE_ERROR);
	}
	@Override
	public void onDismiss(DialogInterface dialog) {
	// ((MainActivity)getActivity()).onDialogDismissed();
	}
	}
	@Override
	protected void onStart() {
	super.onStart();
	mGoogleApiClient.connect();
	}
	@Override
	protected void onStop() {
	if (mGoogleApiClient.isConnected()) {
	mGoogleApiClient.disconnect();
	}
	super.onStop();
	}
	}

view raw AutocompleteActivity.java hosted with by GitHub

Cheers