Steps for instructing Google Maps to identify the location of a provided Google Maps URL

Question

Steps for instructing Google Maps to identify the location of a provided Google Maps URL

Is it possible to extract longitude and latitude data from a shared URL and place them into a marker? For example, users might copy and paste the 'Share' URL from Google Maps.

For instance:

or Direct Location: https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/38%C2%B054'53.8%22N+77%C2%B006'01.6%22W/@38.914936,-77.102638,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d38.914936!4d-77.100444?hl=en

I want to create a marker at the location shared in the URL using initialization code.

From what I've gathered from other questions, the GeoCode API may be useful, but I'm unsure how to parse the URLs above to extract the necessary data in JavaScript. Any examples of Ajax calls to APIs or similar methods would be greatly appreciated.

javascript ajax google-maps google-maps-api-3

Answer 1

Answer №1

The latitude and longitude information is embedded within the URLs, making it simple to extract. By using the function putMarkerAtURLCoordinates(SHARED_URL), you can automatically place a marker on the map at the specified coordinates of the URL, assuming that your Google Maps instance is named "map".

function putMarkerAtURLCoordinates(url){
    // Extract latlng object from URL
    var myLatLng = getLatLngFromURL(url)
    // Create marker and add it to the map
    var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
          position: myLatLng,
          map: map,
          title: 'Marker title here'
    });
}

function getLatLngFromURL(url){
    // Decode URL if it's URL-encoded
    url = decodeURIComponent(url)
    // Find index of "@" character
    var atindex = url.indexOf("@")
    // Separate the latitude and longitude values by splitting at the comma
    var urlparts = url.slice(atindex+1).split(",")
    // Parse the values as floats
    var lat = parseFloat(urlparts[0])
    var lng = parseFloat(urlparts[1])
    // Return as an object
    return {lat:lat,lng:lng}
}

It's important to note that this method may not be sustainable in the long run. Any changes to Google's URL format could render this solution ineffective.

Answer 2

The latitude and longitude information is embedded within the URLs, making it simple to extract. By using the function putMarkerAtURLCoordinates(SHARED_URL), you can automatically place a marker on the map at the specified coordinates of the URL, assuming that your Google Maps instance is named "map".

function putMarkerAtURLCoordinates(url){
    // Extract latlng object from URL
    var myLatLng = getLatLngFromURL(url)
    // Create marker and add it to the map
    var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
          position: myLatLng,
          map: map,
          title: 'Marker title here'
    });
}

function getLatLngFromURL(url){
    // Decode URL if it's URL-encoded
    url = decodeURIComponent(url)
    // Find index of "@" character
    var atindex = url.indexOf("@")
    // Separate the latitude and longitude values by splitting at the comma
    var urlparts = url.slice(atindex+1).split(",")
    // Parse the values as floats
    var lat = parseFloat(urlparts[0])
    var lng = parseFloat(urlparts[1])
    // Return as an object
    return {lat:lat,lng:lng}
}

It's important to note that this method may not be sustainable in the long run. Any changes to Google's URL format could render this solution ineffective.

Steps for instructing Google Maps to identify the location of a provided Google Maps URL

Answer №1

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