Beginning Android Programming with Android Studio, Fourth Edition

Chapter 10Location-Based Services

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER

• Displaying Google Maps in your Android application
• Displaying zoom controls on the map
• Switching between the different map views
• Retrieving the address location touched on the map
• Performing geocoding and reverse geocoding
• Obtaining geographical data using GPS, Cell-ID, and Wi-Fi triangulation
• Monitoring for a location
• Building a location tracker application

CODE DOWNLOAD

The wrox.com code downloads for this chapter are found at www.wrox.com/go/beginningandroidprog on the Download Code tab. The code is in the Chapter 10 download and individually named according to the names throughout the chapter.

You have seen the explosive growth of mobile apps in recent years. One category of apps that is very popular is Location-Based Services, commonly known as LBS. LBS apps track your location, and might offer additional services such as locating amenities nearby, offering suggestions for route planning, and so on. Of course, one of the key ingredients in an LBS app is maps, which present a visual representation of your location.

This chapter shows you how to make use of Google Maps in your Android application, as well as how to manipulate the map view programmatically. In addition, you find out how to obtain your geographical location using the LocationManager class available in the Android SDK. This chapter ends with a project to build a location tracker application that you can install on an Android ...