32. Working with maps and geolocation in Flutter

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Chapter 32 of our e-book is dedicated to an extremely important and relevant topic in application development: working with maps and geolocation in Flutter. This chapter will guide you through the basics and advanced concepts of how to implement these features in your apps using Flutter and Dart.

Before diving into the code, let's understand a little more about what geolocation is and why it's so important. Geolocation is the identification or estimation of the real geographic location of an object, such as a radar, cell phone or computer connected to the Internet. In app development, geolocation is often used to personalize user content based on their current location or provide functionality such as driving directions, order tracking, and more.

Now, let's start with the basics of how to implement geolocation in Flutter. The first thing we need to do is add the correct dependencies to our 'pubspec.yaml' file. We need the 'geolocator' package to access the device's location services and the 'google_maps_flutter' package to display the maps. Add the following lines to your 'pubspec.yaml' file:

dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter
  geolocator: ^7.0.3
  google_maps_flutter: ^2.0.6

After adding the dependencies, don't forget to run the command 'flutter pub get' in the terminal to install the packages.

With the dependencies installed, we can start working with geolocation. First, we need to request permission to access the device's location. This can be done using the 'requestPermission' method of the 'geolocator' package. Here is an example of how to do this:

import 'package:geolocator/geolocator.dart';

void requestLocationPermission() async {
  LocationPermission permission = await Geolocator.requestPermission();

  if (permission == LocationPermission.denied) {
    // Handle permission denied
  } else if (permission == LocationPermission.deniedForever) {
    // Handle permission denied forever
  } else {
    // Permission granted
  }
}

After getting the permission, we can get the device's current location using the 'getCurrentPosition' method. Here is an example:

void getCurrentLocation() async {
  Position position = await Geolocator.getCurrentPosition(desiredAccuracy: LocationAccuracy.high);
  print(position);
}

This will return the device's current position, including latitude and longitude.

Now that we have the current location, we can display this on a map using the 'google_maps_flutter' package. First, we need to create a new 'GoogleMap' widget and provide the starting location. Here is an example of how to do this:

GoogleMap(
  initialCameraPosition: CameraPosition(
    target: LatLng(position.latitude, position.longitude),
    zoom: 14.4746,
  ),
);

This will create a new map centered on the device's current location. We can add markers, draw routes and much more.

I hope this chapter was helpful in understanding how to work with maps and geolocation in Flutter. In the next chapter, we'll cover more advanced topics like working with background location services, reverse geocoding, and more.

Remember that practice is the key to mastering any skill, so be sure to try out what you've learned in this chapter on your own projects. Happy coding!

Next page of the Free Ebook:

26733. Integration of payments in Flutter