Question

I have tried following many tutorials on here and on Google, but it seems like none of the tutorials relate to me.

Basically, so far, I have been able to display the mapview on my app, and implement the setBuiltInZoomControls. I just cant get the map to pinpoint the users current location like on google latitude.

I would like my app to detect my current position and then pinpoint it when i press a button.
I would show you guys what I have done so far with my codes, but after attempting many tutorials, I feel my codes are now too sloppy and incomplete to understand.

If there is any tutorial that I may have overseen, please send me the link. If not, can you please help steer me in the right direction?

Thanks guys, happy coding!

Answer 1

Using the current version of the Google Maps Android API v2, you can show your current position using this code:

showCurrentPosition(myMap);

Below is a code file with a the helper functions you can add to your Activity class:

import com.google.android.gms.maps.CameraUpdate;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.CameraUpdateFactory;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.GoogleMap;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.model.LatLng;

import android.location.Criteria;
import android.location.Location;
import android.location.LocationManager;


private LatLng getCurrentPosition(){
    // location details
    locationManager     = (LocationManager) getSystemService(LOCATION_SERVICE);
    Criteria criteria   = new Criteria();
    String bestProvider = locationManager.getBestProvider(criteria, false);

    Location location   = locationManager.getLastKnownLocation(bestProvider);
    LatLng posLatLon    = new LatLng(location.getLatitude(), location.getLongitude());
    Toast.makeText(this, "position: "+ location.getLatitude() + "," + location.getLongitude(), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    return posLatLon;
}

private LatLng showCurrentPosition(GoogleMap map){
    LatLng posLatLon    = getCurrentPosition();
    CameraUpdate cam    = CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLngZoom(posLatLon, 12.0f);
    mMap.moveCamera(cam);
    return posLatLon;
}