Here is some working code that uses the Places Web Service API, this should help you get the functionality you're looking for.
General documentation can be found here.
Suported types of Place Types can be found here.
The following is a simple example. First, generate your query string for the API:
public StringBuilder sbMethod() {
//use your current location here
double mLatitude = 37.77657;
double mLongitude = -122.417506;
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?");
sb.append("location=" + mLatitude + "," + mLongitude);
sb.append("&radius=5000");
sb.append("&types=" + "restaurant");
sb.append("&sensor=true");
sb.append("&key=******* YOUR API KEY****************");
Log.d("Map", "api: " + sb.toString());
return sb;
}
Here is the AsyncTask used to query the Places API:
private class PlacesTask extends AsyncTask<String, Integer, String> {
String data = null;
// Invoked by execute() method of this object
@Override
protected String doInBackground(String... url) {
try {
data = downloadUrl(url[0]);
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.d("Background Task", e.toString());
}
return data;
}
// Executed after the complete execution of doInBackground() method
@Override
protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
ParserTask parserTask = new ParserTask();
// Start parsing the Google places in JSON format
// Invokes the "doInBackground()" method of the class ParserTask
parserTask.execute(result);
}
}
Here is the downloadURL() method:
private String downloadUrl(String strUrl) throws IOException {
String data = "";
InputStream iStream = null;
HttpURLConnection urlConnection = null;
try {
URL url = new URL(strUrl);
// Creating an http connection to communicate with url
urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
// Connecting to url
urlConnection.connect();
// Reading data from url
iStream = urlConnection.getInputStream();
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(iStream));
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
String line = "";
while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
sb.append(line);
}
data = sb.toString();
br.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.d("Exception while downloading url", e.toString());
} finally {
iStream.close();
urlConnection.disconnect();
}
return data;
}
ParserTask for parsing the JSON result:
private class ParserTask extends AsyncTask<String, Integer, List<HashMap<String, String>>> {
JSONObject jObject;
// Invoked by execute() method of this object
@Override
protected List<HashMap<String, String>> doInBackground(String... jsonData) {
List<HashMap<String, String>> places = null;
Place_JSON placeJson = new Place_JSON();
try {
jObject = new JSONObject(jsonData[0]);
places = placeJson.parse(jObject);
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.d("Exception", e.toString());
}
return places;
}
// Executed after the complete execution of doInBackground() method
@Override
protected void onPostExecute(List<HashMap<String, String>> list) {
Log.d("Map", "list size: " + list.size());
// Clears all the existing markers;
mGoogleMap.clear();
for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
// Creating a marker
MarkerOptions markerOptions = new MarkerOptions();
// Getting a place from the places list
HashMap<String, String> hmPlace = list.get(i);
// Getting latitude of the place
double lat = Double.parseDouble(hmPlace.get("lat"));
// Getting longitude of the place
double lng = Double.parseDouble(hmPlace.get("lng"));
// Getting name
String name = hmPlace.get("place_name");
Log.d("Map", "place: " + name);
// Getting vicinity
String vicinity = hmPlace.get("vicinity");
LatLng latLng = new LatLng(lat, lng);
// Setting the position for the marker
markerOptions.position(latLng);
markerOptions.title(name + " : " + vicinity);
markerOptions.icon(BitmapDescriptorFactory.defaultMarker(BitmapDescriptorFactory.HUE_MAGENTA));
// Placing a marker on the touched position
Marker m = mGoogleMap.addMarker(markerOptions);
}
}
}
Place_JSON class which is used in ParserTask:
public class Place_JSON {
/**
* Receives a JSONObject and returns a list
*/
public List<HashMap<String, String>> parse(JSONObject jObject) {
JSONArray jPlaces = null;
try {
/** Retrieves all the elements in the 'places' array */
jPlaces = jObject.getJSONArray("results");
} catch (JSONException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
/** Invoking getPlaces with the array of json object
* where each json object represent a place
*/
return getPlaces(jPlaces);
}
private List<HashMap<String, String>> getPlaces(JSONArray jPlaces) {
int placesCount = jPlaces.length();
List<HashMap<String, String>> placesList = new ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>>();
HashMap<String, String> place = null;
/** Taking each place, parses and adds to list object */
for (int i = 0; i < placesCount; i++) {
try {
/** Call getPlace with place JSON object to parse the place */
place = getPlace((JSONObject) jPlaces.get(i));
placesList.add(place);
} catch (JSONException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
return placesList;
}
/**
* Parsing the Place JSON object
*/
private HashMap<String, String> getPlace(JSONObject jPlace) {
HashMap<String, String> place = new HashMap<String, String>();
String placeName = "-NA-";
String vicinity = "-NA-";
String latitude = "";
String longitude = "";
String reference = "";
try {
// Extracting Place name, if available
if (!jPlace.isNull("name")) {
placeName = jPlace.getString("name");
}
// Extracting Place Vicinity, if available
if (!jPlace.isNull("vicinity")) {
vicinity = jPlace.getString("vicinity");
}
latitude = jPlace.getJSONObject("geometry").getJSONObject("location").getString("lat");
longitude = jPlace.getJSONObject("geometry").getJSONObject("location").getString("lng");
reference = jPlace.getString("reference");
place.put("place_name", placeName);
place.put("vicinity", vicinity);
place.put("lat", latitude);
place.put("lng", longitude);
place.put("reference", reference);
} catch (JSONException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return place;
}
}
Lastly, invoke the process like this:
StringBuilder sbValue = new StringBuilder(sbMethod());
PlacesTask placesTask = new PlacesTask();
placesTask.execute(sbValue.toString());
Result:
