Xamarin.iOS.GooglePlacesAutocomplete

A simple Google Places API autocompleting search view controller for native Xamarin iOS apps. Inspired by the brilliant Swift example created by Howard Wilson.

Contributing

Solution is currently incomplete. If you wish to contribute, you're very welcome to submit pull requests or get in touch.

Obtaining API key

Use the Google Developers Console to enable the 'Google Places API Web Service' and create a 'Server' API key credential. In both cases do not use the iOS options.

Installing

NuGet package:

PM> Install-Package DurianCode.iOS.Places

How to implement PlacesViewController

Ensure that you install Newtonsoft.Json in your iOS project.

Using the PlacesViewController programmatically

If you are creating your iOS app without using storyboards, or wish to launch the view programmatically:

// 1. Instantiate the PlacesViewController
placesViewController = new PlacesViewController();
placesViewController.apiKey = "<Your API key here>";

// 2. (OPTIONAL) Set the search criteria to match your needs
placesViewController.SetPlaceType(PlaceType.Cities);
placesViewController.SetLocationBias(new LocationBias(40.7058316, -74.2581935, 1000000));

// 3. Subscribe to PlaceSelected delegate to get place details
placesViewController.PlaceSelected += HandlePlaceSelection;

// 4. Instantiate the UINavigationController to contain the PlacesViewController
placesViewContainer = new UINavigationController(placesViewController);

// 5. Present the view
PresentViewController(placesViewContainer, true, null);

Your HandlePlaceSelection delegate method:

void HandlePlaceSelection(object sender, JObject placeData)
{ 
    // 6. Handle the place details however you wish
    Console.WriteLine($"{placeData}");
}

Using the PlacesViewController with Storyboards (iOS Designer)

To implement using the iOS designer for Xamarin or XCode Storyboard Editor:

1. Drag a new UINavigationController into the storyboard (ensuring it also places a child view controller)

2. Select the new child view controller and in Identity>Class dropdown, select PlacesViewController:

3. Add a new 'Push Modal' segue from the view controller you wish to launch the Places view controller from, to the new Navigation controller.

4. In the properties window, give the segue a custom Name

5. back in your view controller, add this action to a control such as a UIButton:

MyButton.TouchUpInside += (sender, e) => // For example
{ 
    PerformSegue("MyCustomSegue", this);
};

6. Override the PrepareForSegue method as follows:

public override void PrepareForSegue(UIStoryboardSegue segue, Foundation.NSObject sender)
{
    base.PrepareForSegue(segue, sender);

    if (segue.Identifier.Equals("MyCustomSegue"))
    { 
        var vc = (PlacesViewController)segue.DestinationViewController.ChildViewControllers[0];
        vc.apiKey = "<Your API key here>";

        // (OPTIONAL) Customize the search parameters
        vc.SetPlaceType(PlaceType.Address);
        vc.SetLocationBias(new LocationBias(40.7058316, -74.2581935, 1000000));

        vc.PlaceSelected += HandlePlaceSelection;
    }
}

7. Finally, create the HandlePlaceSelection(), which will be called whenever a place is selected:

void HandlePlaceSelection(object sender, JObject placeDetails)
{
    // Handle as you wish
    Console.WriteLine($"{placeDetails}");
}

Search Parameters

Place Type

from Google:

You may restrict results from a Place Autocomplete request to be of a certain type by passing a types parameter.

The parameter specifies a type or a type collection. If nothing is specified, all types are returned.

PlaceType enum values:

• .All
• .Geocode
• .Address
• .Establishment
• .Regions
• .Cities

Location Biasing

From Google:

If you do not supply the location and radius, the API will attempt to detect the user's location from their IP address, and will bias the results to that location. If you would prefer to have no location bias, set the location to '0,0' and radius to '20000000' (20 thousand kilometers), to encompass the entire world.

Styling

You can style the Places view controller to match your app's UI:

// If using programmatically, style the view after placing in container UINavigationController:

placesViewContainer = new UINavigationController(placesViewController);

placesViewController.NavigationController.NavigationBar.BarStyle = UIBarStyle.Default;
placesViewController.NavigationController.NavigationBar.Translucent = false;
placesViewController.NavigationController.NavigationBar.TintColor = UIColor.Magenta;
placesViewController.NavigationController.NavigationBar.BarTintColor = UIColor.Yellow;
placesViewController.Title = "Type Address";

// If using with storyboards, style the view in the PrepareForSegue override:

if (segue.Identifier.Equals("MyCustomSegue"))
{
    ...

    vc.NavigationController.NavigationBar.BarStyle = UIBarStyle.Default;
    vc.NavigationController.NavigationBar.Translucent = false;
    vc.NavigationController.NavigationBar.TintColor = UIColor.Magenta;
    vc.NavigationController.NavigationBar.BarTintColor = UIColor.Yellow;
    vc.Title = "Type Address";
    
    ...
}

Place Object

You can utilize the Place object by using 'DurianCode.iOS.Places.GooglePlace'. For example:

void HandlePlaceSelection(object sender, JObject placeData)
{ 
    var place = new Place(placeData);
    Console.WriteLine($"Place: {place.name}, Coordinates: {place.latitude},{place.longitude}");
    Console.WriteLine(place.raw); // prints the full place details json result
}