Develop Reference

Google maps Places API nearby search for auto-check in

We are using the nearby search feature as described here (https://developers.google.com/places/web-service/search) to perform auto check-in in Android as well as iOS mobile apps.
However, when we call the web API, many of the nearby locations do not show up in our results. At the same time, I do receive notifications from the Google Maps App on my Android phone, asking if i am at the venue meaning the google maps app correctly detects my location.
As an example I was dining at Nando's located at:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nando's+PERi-PERi/#41.8854864,-87.6238967,19.85z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x714d54c7334f4af6!8m2!3d41.885548!4d-87.624252
But when I called the nearby search, Nando's did not show up in my list of nearby places. I checked and my gps coordinates were correct and google maps was able to detect my location and check me in.
Anybody know why this happens? Is there a workaround or a solution for this problem?

You didn't post the Places API query, so it is difficult to say what is wrong in your application.
I tried it myself and it worked for me as expected. Let suppose I have a GPS coordinate 41.885565,-87.62425, this is a position more or less of the Nando's you mentioned in the description (have a look at Geocoder tool):
https://google-developers.appspot.com/maps/documentation/utils/geocoder/#q%3D41.885565%252C-87.62425
Now I can create a nearby search request for location 41.885565,-87.62425 with results rank by distance, so the nearest place will be the first in response and also we have to apply a type parameter in the request according to the documentation:
If rankby=distance (described under Optional parameters below) is specified, then one or more of keyword, name, or type is required.
The resulting request is
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?location=41.885565%2C-87.62425&rankby=distance&type=restaurant&key=MY_API_KEY
With this request I get Nando's (place ID ChIJ9xIeWq8sDogR9kpPM8dUTXE) as the first item in the response
"results":[
{
"geometry":{
"location":{
"lat":41.8855475,"lng":-87.6242518
},
"viewport":{
"northeast":{
"lat":41.8870082302915,"lng":-87.62290226970849
},
"southwest":{
"lat":41.8843102697085,"lng":-87.6256002302915
}
}
},
"icon":"https://maps.gstatic.com/mapfiles/place_api/icons/restaurant-71.png",
"id":"a29ff7d92a100fd6f5a8c0e34dff84806838f2d9",
"name":"Nando's PERi-PERi",
"opening_hours":{
"open_now":false,
"weekday_text":[
]
},
"photos":[
{
"height":3036,
"html_attributions":[
"Marco Laure"
],
"photo_reference":"CmRaAAAAwbEPFsgrrjKVrplwBAAmKhKe5CkFX9wn_x1ZF9d6K8rRdT8tRUiW23-qEGLwbuf1wePdUkSrSN21a8r696kXGv6KYG42mI7RaDf2n80iLJlDVtEXys1KK4Hn9_nebsLwEhC6CQemKH3oHLe52i5m-JzOGhQoYbUFTntC5IuEzvASfjPvhDgr_g",
"width":4048
}
],
"place_id":"ChIJ9xIeWq8sDogR9kpPM8dUTXE",
"price_level":1,
"rating":4.2,
"reference":"CmRRAAAARrKCjwMLRvvXncBVw9pCf8RNq1GpfjDrHD8Jh_du12zBJxJ_eaGidizxAny31qn24BgZDpab346A3_QYbgaUMMZOnratR9XBNkQNS1a-DCPSFggzNjsUoOl_QQkhQU-DEhDExmV2z_pyXAkAoxRzIAVQGhT5kjoH3myVM7-vraAlw0EG512ykw",
"scope":"GOOGLE",
"types":[
"restaurant","food","point_of_interest","establishment"
],
"vicinity":"117 East Lake Street, Chicago"
},
I hope this helps!

Android Mapbox geocoding

I was trying to convert an address string into geo location.
Here is the simple code:
MapboxGeocoder client = new MapboxGeocoder.Builder()
.setAccessToken(MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN)
.setLocation("some place")
.setProximity(longitude, latitude)/*a location of new zealand*/
.setType(GeocoderCriteria.TYPE_ADDRESS)
.build();
It works fine and return a list of location from all over the world, however, I only want it return the location in New Zealand. How can I setup a boundary.

You can use the country parameter to limit results to a particular country. You can also use the bbox param to limit results to an arbitrary bounding box. The proximity parameter is just a bias, not a strict filter.
More information is available from the API docs.

To get "setCountry" you need to us MapboxGeocoding not MapboxGeocoder like this
import com.mapbox.services.api.geocoding.v5.*;
.
MapboxGeocoding client = new MapboxGeocoding.Builder()
.setAccessToken("pk.eyJ1IjoiamViMTkyMDA0IiwiYSI6ImNpbWNyODZyaDAwMmZ1MWx2dHdzcHQ5M2EifQ.IZsMnB3wOYFIaX1A5sy7Mw")
.setLocation(constraint.toString())
.setCountry("us")
.setGeocodingType(GeocodingCriteria.TYPE_POI)
.setProximity(position)
.build();
I wasn't able to get setCountry until I used this.

Foursquare API: get set of featured photos

I'm working on Android app which uses Foursquare API. For fetching results I use /venues/explore endpoint. I want to make fancy detail screen with set of photos as Foursquare does(example) So, according to documentation, when I make request for nearby places, I use parameter venuePhotos=1, but always get one photo from the count result of featured photos (example). Is this a bug of API or I got it wrong :) ?
I'm using hurl.it for monitoring response from certain requests.
here is my API request(I removed my client id and secret):
GET https://api.foursquare.com/v2/venues/explore?venuePhotos=1&limit=10&radius=500&v=20160215&ll=55.693053,12.584903&client_secret=//&client_id=//
client_id:
client_secret:
limit: 10
ll: 55.693053,12.584903
radius: 500
v: 20160215
venuePhotos: 1
And I get always one photo in photo count for regular and featured photos in every venue. Response example:
{"reasons": {},"venue": {"id": "4c41ae26af052d7fbba97d79","name": "Femmeren - jazz-værtshus","contact": {},"location": {},"categories": [],"verified": false,"stats": {},"price": {},"rating": 8.2,"ratingColor": "73CF42","ratingSignals": 11,"allowMenuUrlEdit": true,"photos": {"count": 1,"groups": []},"hereNow": {},"featuredPhotos": {"count": 1,"items": []}},"tips": [],"referralId": "e-0-4c41ae26af052d7fbba97d79-3"},

Thanks for clarifying your question. The venuePhotos=1 parameter will include a single photo in the response from the venues/explore endpoint. This is extremely useful if you need to display a single photo in a list of venues. To get more photos for a venue, you need to hit the venues/photos endpoint and pass the venueId you want the photos from -> https://api.foursquare.com/v2/venues/VENUE_ID/photos

Using Google Maps and Baidu Maps in same app

I'm wondering if there are anyone out that have implemented Google Maps V2 and Baidu Maps in the same version; because GM doesn't work as intended in China?
Or should I split the project into two branches instead? However it would be nice to skip having two branches to maintain.

My solution for this was to implement GM as usual, however if the user has China set (via settings) static maps is to be used, BUT the static map is fetched from Baidu instead of google.
staticUrl = "http://api.map.baidu.com/staticimage?center="
+ location.getLongitude() + "," + location.getLatitude()
+ "&width=" + width + "&height=" + width + "&zoom=15"
+ "&markers=" + location.getLongitude() + "," + location.getLatitude();
Result of https://api.map.baidu.com/staticimage?center=121,31&width=300&height=300&zoom=15:
This method is NOT recommended if trying to implement a real map solution.
Since I have different locations only used by different countries, this solution could be used.
So, that is how I solved it. Hope someone finds this helpful.

Also, I have found that if you use http://ditu.google.cn while in China, it does work.
When using on-line maps in China for your application, whether it's Google Maps or Baidu, there is a transformation of latitude and longitude for legal reasons.
The satellite view in Google Maps uses "Earth" (WGS-84) coordinates. The map view of GMaps in China uses "Mars" coordinates (GCJ-02), and there is code to convert between the two. Baidu maps use the "Bearpaw" coordinates, with a different offset. The Baidu Map API has a demo converting between Google's coordinates and its own systems.
In China, GPS, like everything, has an extra layer of complication :)
If you have built this app, please post the details. Having an English interface to Baidu maps would be great.

You can use both Google Maps and Baidu Maps side by side, but make sure to convert from the WGS-84 coordinates (used by most of the world) to Baidu's coordinates (BD-09, different from China's GCJ-02). Here's some code that does that, based on an example from the Baidu Maps API:
// Google coordinates
var gPoint = new BMap.Point(121.4914, 31.2423); // lon, lat of the Bund Museum in Shanghai - https://www.google.com/maps/#31.2423,121.4914,19z
// gPoint = new BMap.Point(-122.0851053, 37.4219593); // lon, lat of the Googleplex (no Baidu map data but zooms out in Mountain View)
var labelOffset = { offset: new BMap.Size(20, -10) };
// Initialize map
var map = new BMap.Map('allmap');
map.centerAndZoom(gPoint, 15);
map.addControl(new BMap.ScaleControl({anchor: BMAP_ANCHOR_TOP_LEFT})); // add scale
map.addControl(new BMap.NavigationControl());
map.addControl(new BMap.MapTypeControl()); // map type control: street/satellite/2.5D
map.enableScrollWheelZoom(); // mouse wheel scroll is disabled by default
// Add Google marker and label
var markerG = new BMap.Marker(gPoint);
map.addOverlay(markerG);
markerG.setLabel(new BMap.Label('Google coordinates marker appears<br/>at incorrect location on Baidu Map', labelOffset));
// Coordinate conversion ... GCJ-02 coordinates ... Baidu coordinates
BMap.Convertor.translate(gPoint, 2, function (point) {
var marker = new BMap.Marker(point);
map.addOverlay(marker);
marker.setLabel(new BMap.Label('Converted to Baidu coordinates:<br/>' +
point.lng + ', ' +
point.lat +
'<br/>(note the offset of ' + (map.getDistance(gPoint, point)).toFixed(2) + ' meters)',
labelOffset));
map.addOverlay(new BMap.Polyline([gPoint, point])); // draw a line between points
});
<style type="text/css">
body, html,#allmap {width: 100%;height: 100%;overflow: hidden;margin:0;font-family:"微软雅黑";}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://api.map.baidu.com/api?v=2.0&ak=gd0GyxGUxSCoAbmdyQBhyhrZ"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://developer.baidu.com/map/jsdemo/demo/convertor.js"></script>
<div id="allmap"></div>
If the snippet above doesn't work due to the way StackOverflow sandboxes scripts, try the JSbin demo of Google -> Baidu coordinates conversion instead.
If you must perform the conversion offline, check out the evil transform project on GitHub.
It's unclear though what coordinate types browsers localized in Chinese will return via the navigator.geolocation API. I've made a test app for that and posted the question at
Showing navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition in Baidu Maps.
Further reading:
What causes the GPS shift in China?
Restrictions on geographic data in China

PROBABLY a bit late to the party, but I accidentally stumbled across something recently which might help you.
I tried baidu maps and it was shockingly difficult to setup and terrible to use so I had a look around and suddenly, google maps worked for me without a vpn!
I realised that the old google china server was still active and if you try:
maps.google.cn
you'll find that creating an iframe using the google.cn address works!

Try to use this way with Google coordinate
http://api.map.baidu.com/marker?location=39.916979519873,116.41004950566&output=html

If your server can access GM without issues (eg. your hosting is not in China mainland or it is but has uncensored connection), why don't you have server do loading data from GM and route it to user instead? We did that for few projects in the past, worked like a charm.
p.s. you could make php pull static map from GM for requested long/lat, store it into temp file on server, then pass back url to the temp file. From user's perspective they would be looking at (static) GM.
p.p.s. If you need user to be able to use GM's UI (do pan/zoom) then you'd need a bit more complex php that would alter all JS loaded from GM so all data would still be requested to your server which would then get maps - so basically to avoid any requests from client machine to be sent to GM server, but all to be sent to yours instead.

Does createRoute method support lat/Lng in Mapquest?

This is a question about Mapquest Android Maps API.
Does anyone know that the createRoute method is supporting lat/Lng or not in mapquest?
public void createRoute(java.lang.String from, java.lang.String to)
The document I found here:
I have read the "Location Format Documentation" : link
It seems that createRoute method supports lat/Lng.
I tried to input lat/Lng a whole day but it returns me an error message only:
Unable to create route.
Error: -1"
Message:[null]

Are you still seeing this error message? The MapQuest Android Maps API does support lat/lng input for routing. Here is a sample request that uses lat/lng inputs:
private void displayRoute() {
RouteManager routeManager= new
RouteManager( this );
routeManager.setMapView( map );
routeManager.createRoute( "{latLng:{lat:37.765007,lng:-122.239937}}" , "Fremont, CA" );
}
Also, The MapQuest Developer Network has an Android Maps API forum. It is also a good resource to check!

You can write like this
RouteManager routeManager = new RouteManager(this);
routeManager.setMapView(map);
routeManager.createRoute("37.002004,35.322998", "36.802687,34.632812");
or like this
RouteManager routeManager = new RouteManager(this);
routeManager.setMapView(map);
routeManager.createRoute("Any City Name", "Any City Name");
MapQuest is supporting this types