Using Address Instead Of Longitude And Latitude With Google Maps API

edwoollard picture edwoollard · Apr 10, 2013 · Viewed 144.2k times · Source

I've heard that it is possible to submit an Address instead of Longitude and Latitude and this would be much more feasible for my system. The user has to input their address when creating their profile and their profile afterwards will then display a Google Maps of their house. I currently have the Google Maps API working perfectly with Longitude and Latitude:

<head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css.css" />
    <title>Login Page</title>

<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no" />
<style type="text/css">
  html { height: 100% }
  body { height: 100%; margin: 0; padding: 0 }
  #map-canvas { height: 100% }
</style>
<script type="text/javascript"
  src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=MYKEY&sensor=false">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  function initialize() {
    var mapOptions = {
  center: new google.maps.LatLng(52.640143,1.28685),
      zoom: 15,
      mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
    };
    var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map"),
        mapOptions);

var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
    position: new google.maps.LatLng(52.640143,1.28685),
    map: map,
    title: "Mark On Map"
});
  }
  google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', initialize);
</script>

</head>

Please could somebody assist me to alter my code so that it enables the Google Maps API to request an Address in its place because I want to read the Address of the user directly from mySQL database.

Answer

geocodezip picture geocodezip · Apr 10, 2013

See this example, initializes the map to "San Diego, CA".

Uses the Google Maps Javascript API v3 Geocoder to translate the address into coordinates that can be displayed on the map.

<html>
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no"/>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>
<title>Google Maps JavaScript API v3 Example: Geocoding Simple</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  var geocoder;
  var map;
  var address ="San Diego, CA";
  function initialize() {
    geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
    var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(-34.397, 150.644);
    var myOptions = {
      zoom: 8,
      center: latlng,
    mapTypeControl: true,
    mapTypeControlOptions: {style: google.maps.MapTypeControlStyle.DROPDOWN_MENU},
    navigationControl: true,
      mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
    };
    map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), myOptions);
    if (geocoder) {
      geocoder.geocode( { 'address': address}, function(results, status) {
        if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
          if (status != google.maps.GeocoderStatus.ZERO_RESULTS) {
          map.setCenter(results[0].geometry.location);

            var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow(
                { content: '<b>'+address+'</b>',
                  size: new google.maps.Size(150,50)
                });
    
            var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
                position: results[0].geometry.location,
                map: map, 
                title:address
            }); 
            google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function() {
                infowindow.open(map,marker);
            });

          } else {
            alert("No results found");
          }
        } else {
          alert("Geocode was not successful for the following reason: " + status);
        }
      });
    }
  }
</script>
</head>
<body style="margin:0px; padding:0px;" onload="initialize()">
 <div id="map_canvas" style="width:100%; height:100%">
</body>
</html>

working code snippet:

var geocoder;
var map;
var address = "San Diego, CA";

function initialize() {
  geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
  var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(-34.397, 150.644);
  var myOptions = {
    zoom: 8,
    center: latlng,
    mapTypeControl: true,
    mapTypeControlOptions: {
      style: google.maps.MapTypeControlStyle.DROPDOWN_MENU
    },
    navigationControl: true,
    mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
  };
  map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), myOptions);
  if (geocoder) {
    geocoder.geocode({
      'address': address
    }, function(results, status) {
      if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
        if (status != google.maps.GeocoderStatus.ZERO_RESULTS) {
          map.setCenter(results[0].geometry.location);

          var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({
            content: '<b>' + address + '</b>',
            size: new google.maps.Size(150, 50)
          });

          var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
            position: results[0].geometry.location,
            map: map,
            title: address
          });
          google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function() {
            infowindow.open(map, marker);
          });

        } else {
          alert("No results found");
        }
      } else {
        alert("Geocode was not successful for the following reason: " + status);
      }
    });
  }
}
google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', initialize);
html,
body,
#map_canvas {
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
}
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?key=AIzaSyCkUOdZ5y7hMm0yrcCQoCvLwzdM6M8s5qk"></script>
<div id="map_canvas" ></div>