How to access google.maps.Map object with react-google-maps

Question

I have a pretty simple react application using https://github.com/tomchentw/react-google-maps but I'm having difficulty understanding how to get a reference to my current map or how to access the google.maps.Map object in a custom component.

I found this on the repo, but after reading through the posts I'm still a little confused.

I'm starting my application building off of the DirectionsRenderer example.

What I want to do next is add my own custom components for picking the starting point and using the Google Maps autocomplete API.

Yes, I know that the package has a component for that already, but I need to do a little more than just search for a location on the map.

In order to accomplish my needs I will do something like

const autocomplete = new google.maps.places.Autocomplete(node);
autocomplete.bindTo('bounds', map);

Where node is the element I'm binding the autocomplete functionality and map is an instance of the google.maps.Map object.

My application thus far:

App.jsx

const App = ({ store }) => (
  <Provider store={store}>
    <div>
      <Sidebar>
        <StartingPoint defaultText="Choose starting point&hellip;" />
      </Sidebar>
      <GoogleApiWrapper />
    </div>
  </Provider>
);

GoogleApiWrapper

const GoogleMapHOC = compose(
  withProps({
    googleMapURL: 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?v=3.exp&libraries=geometry,drawing,places&key=__GAPI_KEY',
    loadingElement: <div style={{ height: '100vw' }} />,
    containerElement: <div style={{ height: '100vh' }} />,
    mapElement: <div style={{ height: '100%' }} />,
  }),
  withScriptjs,
  withGoogleMap,
  lifecycle({
    componentDidMount() {
      const DirectionsService = new google.maps.DirectionsService();

      // make google object available to other components
      this.props.onLoad(google);

      DirectionsService.route({
        origin: new google.maps.LatLng(41.8507300, -87.6512600),
        destination: new google.maps.LatLng(41.8525800, -87.6514100),
        travelMode: google.maps.TravelMode.DRIVING,
      }, (result, status) => {
        if (status === google.maps.DirectionsStatus.OK) {
          this.setState({
            directions: result,
          });
        } else {
          console.error(`error fetching directions ${result}`);
        }
      });
    },
  }),
)(props => (
  <GoogleMap
    ref={props.onMapMounted}
    defaultZoom={13}
    defaultCenter={new google.maps.LatLng(37.771336, -122.446615)}
  >
    {props.directions && <DirectionsRenderer directions={props.directions} />}
  </GoogleMap>
));

If I'm unable to access the google.maps.Map object outside of the wrapper I would alternatively like to access a reference to the element that contains the map so that I may instantiate a new google.maps.Map(ref_to_elem, options);

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

You can do it by React refs:

<GoogleMap ref={(map) => this._map = map} />

function someFunc () { 
    //using, for example as:
    this._map.getCenter() 
    this._map.setZoom(your desired zoom);
}