Address Search for the Google Map widget on App Maker

Question

I see the Google Map widget documentation for App Maker says I can bind a datasource to it so that user can input an address to update the map. Is it possible to bind it to something like a Places search box in App Maker?

It'd be great if I don't need to create my own datasource to enable an address search.

Answer 1

You can build Address Search using Suggest Box, Calculated Datasource and Geocoder Apps Script service

/**
 * Creates address suggestion record.
 * @param {Object} geocode Geocode object received from Maps Geocoder.
 * @return {AddressSuggestion} Created suggestion record.
 */
function createAddressSuggestion_(geocode) {
  var record = app.models.AddressSuggestion.newRecord();
  record.Address = geocode.formatted_address;
  return record;
}


/**
 * Gets address suggestions Maps Geocoder.
 * @param {string} term Start of address string to search for.
 * @return {Array<AddressSuggestion>} Array of suggestion records.
 */
function getAddressSuggestions_(term) {
  // TODO: Uncomment to set clientId and Google Maps API Key
  // Maps.setAuthentication('your_client_id', 'your_signing_key');

  var response = Maps.newGeocoder().geocode(term);
  var geocodes = response.results;

  return geocodes.map(createAddressSuggestion_);
}

One more important important thing: you need to say Suggest Box to handle your datasource as whole records otherwise it will filter out all results that have no exact match with your _startsWith term: