Question

I’m developing a cross-platform PhoneGap app, and I’d like a string of text in a ‘Location’ field, when tapped, to open up the native Google Maps app in PhoneGap or Android.

Everyone seems to be embedding their maps directly in PhoneGap these days with the Google Maps API v3.

BUT, I’d rather not, so that…

1. my user’s get ‘turn-by-turn-directions’ of the native Maps app, and to,
2. prevent PhoneGap’s performance issues with Geolocation enabled.

So far I’ve found:

1. this guide to open native Google Maps in iOS in Mobile Safari, and in the native browser on other platforms.
2. this guide to invoke Google Applications on Android Devices. (This is native, not HTML5 in PhoneGap.)

But I don’t think that works in PhoneGap, aka UIWebView, so… we need this guide on integrating PhoneGap with Google Maps on the iPhone. And another for Android.

To open native Google Maps on iPhone in PhoneGap, the command is:

<a href="/javascript:Device.exec("openmap:q=QUERY');">QUERY</a>

I have yet to test this, and I need to find the same code for Android. The final execution of this would need to open the Native Google Apps on either platform, and also on an HTML5 web version.

Any tips?

Answer 1

Do Something like this for Android:

 <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=TD Bank Garden Boston, MA">

Android OS will ask if you want to open this with Browser or the Maps App.