Node.js Client for Google Maps Services

Use Node.js? Want to geocode something? Looking for directions? This library brings the Google Maps API Web Services to your Node.js application.

The Node.js Client for Google Maps Services is a Node.js Client library for the following Google Maps APIs:

• Directions API
• Distance Matrix API
• Elevation API
• Geocoding API
• Places API
• Roads API
• Time Zone API

Keep in mind that the same terms and conditions apply to usage of the APIs when they're accessed through this library.

Attention!

This library is designed for server-side Node.js applications. Attempting to use it client-side, in either the browser or any other environment like React Native, may in some cases work, but mostly will not. Please refrain from reporting issues with these environments when attempting to use them, since server-side Node.js applications is the only supported environment for this library. For other environments, try the Maps JavaScript API, which contains a comparable feauture set, and is explicitly intended for use with client-side JavaScript.

Features

• Retry on Failure Automatically retry when intermittent failures occur. That is, when any of the retryable 5xx errors are returned from the API.

• Rate-limiting Requests are rate-limited by the client, which helps prevent reaching the server-enforced rate limit.

Quick Start

$ npm install @google/maps

Note: You'll need to have npm 2.7.0 or greater installed, since this library is hosted as a scoped package.

Create a new client object by calling createClient()

const googleMapsClient = require('@google/maps').createClient({
  key: 'your API key here'
});

Make requests to the Google Maps APIs by calling methods on the client object.

// Geocode an address.
googleMapsClient.geocode({
  address: '1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA'
}, function(err, response) {
  if (!err) {
    console.log(response.json.results);
  }
});

You may use promise-based solution also.

const googleMapsClient = require('@google/maps').createClient({
  key: 'your API key here',
  Promise: Promise
});

googleMapsClient.geocode({address: '1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA'})
  .asPromise()
  .then((response) => {
    console.log(response.json.results);
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    console.log(err);
  });

For more usage examples, check out the tests.

View the reference documentation

Additional documentation for the included web services is available at https://developers.google.com/maps/.

API keys

Each Google Maps Web Service request requires an API key or client ID. API keys are freely available with a Google Account at https://developers.google.com/console. The type of API key you need is a Server key.

To get an API key:

1. Visit https://developers.google.com/console and log in with a Google Account.
2. Select one of your existing projects, or create a new project.
3. Enable the API(s) you want to use. The Node.js Client for Google Maps Services accesses the following APIs:
   • Directions API
   • Distance Matrix API
   • Elevation API
   • Geocoding API
   • Places API
   • Roads API
   • Time Zone API
4. Create a new Server key.
5. If you'd like to restrict requests to a specific IP address, do so now.

For guided help, follow the instructions for the Directions API. You only need one API key, but remember to enable all the APIs you need. For even more information, see the guide to API keys.

When you have an API key, you can create a client object:

var googleMapsClient = require('@google/maps').createClient({
  key: 'your API key here'
});

Client IDs

Google Maps APIs Premium Plan customers can use their client ID and secret to authenticate, instead of an API key.

var googleMapsClient = require('@google/maps').createClient({
  clientId: 'Add your client ID here',
  clientSecret: 'Add your client secret here',
});

Important: This key should be kept secret on your server.

Developing

In order to run the end-to-end tests, you'll need to supply your API key via an environment variable.

$ export GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=AIza-your-api-key
$ npm test

Support

This library is community supported. We're comfortable enough with the stability and features of the library that we want you to build real production applications on it. We will try to support, through Stack Overflow, the public surface of the library and maintain backwards compatibility in the future; however, while the library is in version 0.x, we reserve the right to make backwards-incompatible changes. If we do remove some functionality (typically because better functionality exists or if the feature proved infeasible), our intention is to deprecate and give developers a year to update their code.

If you find a bug, or have a feature suggestion, please log an issue. If you'd like to contribute, please read How to Contribute.

Command-line Interface

Installing via npm also provides the googlemaps command-line utility, which can then be used to pipe JSON results to other command-line programs:

$ googlemaps directions --origin 'Sydney Town Hall' --destination 'Parramatta, NSW'