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swiftmapkitcore-locationmklocalsearchmkmapitem

Why is MKLocalSearch for "nearby restaurants" returning locations in different cities?


I'm building a a simple application that allows a user to save their location for later.

The Goal: A user pins their address when at a business, and we save the name of the business

My approach: I'm requesting the location from a locationManager. Then I reverse geocode the CLLocation into a CLPlacemark. Since the placemark isn't recognizing the business name, I start a MKLocalSearch for "restaurants nearby". The response.mapItems are returning locations in completely different cities.

I have specified the region and verified that the placemark is correctly returning the user's address. So, I believe the issue lays within the MKLocalSearch.

Why does it return results for different cities?

Updated: All code From View Controller

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    let locationManager = CLLocationManager()
    var places = [MKMapItem]()

    let naturalLanguageQuery = "closest places to eat"
    let queries = ["restaurants", "places to eat", "breakfast", "lunch", "dinner"]

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        //  Do any additional setup after loading here
        locationManager.delegate = self
        locationManager.desiredAccuracy = kCLLocationAccuracyBest
    }

    override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewWillAppear(animated)
        if CLLocationManager.authorizationStatus() == .notDetermined {
            locationManager.requestWhenInUseAuthorization()
        }
    }

    @IBAction func getLocation() {
        if CLLocationManager.authorizationStatus() == .authorizedWhenInUse {
            locationManager.requestLocation()
        }
    }

    func add(placemark: CLPlacemark) {
        search(placemark: placemark, index: self.queries.count - 1)
    }

    func searchCompleted(placemark: CLPlacemark) {
        guard let foo = Scraper.shared.sortByDistance(userPlacemark: placemark, items: places) else { return }
        for item in Scraper.shared.filterForUnique(items: foo) {
            print(item)
            if item.placemark.addressString == placemark.addressString {

            }
        }
    }

    func search(placemark: CLPlacemark, index: Int) {
        let request = MKLocalSearchRequest()
        guard let coordinate = placemark.location?.coordinate else { return }
        request.region = MKCoordinateRegionMakeWithDistance(coordinate, 1600, 1600)
        request.naturalLanguageQuery = queries[index]
        MKLocalSearch(request: request).start { (response, error) in
            guard error == nil else { return }
            guard let response = response else { return }
            guard response.mapItems.count > 0 else { return }

            for item in response.mapItems {
                self.places.append(item)
            }

            if index != 0 {
                self.search(placemark: placemark, index: index - 1)
            } else {
                self.searchCompleted(placemark: placemark)
            }
        }
    }
}

extension ViewController: CLLocationManagerDelegate {
    func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, didUpdateLocations locations: [CLLocation]) {
        let geocoder = CLGeocoder()
        if let loc = locations.last {
            geocoder.reverseGeocodeLocation(loc) { (placemarks, error) in
                if let error = error {
                    print("error")
                } else {
                    if let placemark = placemarks?.first {

                        print(placemark.debugDescription)
                        self.add(placemark: placemark)
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, didFailWithError error: Error) {
        print(error.localizedDescription)
    }
}

Solution

  • Given your code, it appears your logic is correct, but depending on the location, you may not get what you want. Apple's documentation for the MKCoordinateRegion states that "specifying a region does not guarantee that the results will all be inside the region. It is merely a hint to the search engine." MKLocalSearch Documentation