Get Started

Use Cocoapods

The Places SDK for iOS is available as two CocoaPod pods. The first of these pods, GooglePlaces, contains all places functionality which does not require a map (programmatic APIs and the autocomplete UI widget), while GooglePlacePicker is a separate pod containing a widget for searching for and selecting a place from a map.

CocoaPods is an open source dependency manager for Swift and Objective-C Cocoa projects. If you don't already have the CocoaPods tool, install it on macOS by running the following command from the terminal. For details, see the CocoaPods Getting Started guide.

sudo gem install cocoapods

Create a Podfile for the Places SDK for iOS and use it to install the SDK and its dependencies:

1. If you don't have an Xcode project yet, create one now and save it to your local machine. (If you're new to iOS development, create a Single View Application.)
2. Create a file named Podfile in your project directory. This file defines your project's dependencies.
3. Edit the Podfile and add your dependencies. Here is an example which specifies your application target name, and the names of both pods that come with the Places SDK for iOS (GooglePlacePicker and GoogleMaps are only required if you are using the place picker sample):

   source 'https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git'
   target 'YOUR_APPLICATION_TARGET_NAME_HERE' do
     pod 'GooglePlaces'
     pod 'GoogleMaps'
   end

4. Save the Podfile.

5. Open a terminal and go to the directory containing the Podfile:

   cd <path-to-project>

6. Run the pod install command. This will install the APIs specified in the Podfile, along with any dependencies they may have.

   pod install

7. Close Xcode, and then open (double-click) your project's .xcworkspace file to launch Xcode. From this time onwards, you must use the .xcworkspace file to open the project.

Install manually

This guide shows how to manually add the GooglePlaces framework to your project and configure your build settings in Xcode.

1. Download the SDK source files:
   • GooglePlaces-3.3.0
   • GoogleMaps-3.3.0
2. Unpack the source files.
3. Launch Xcode and either open an existing project, or create a new project. If you're new to iOS, create a Single View Application, and disable Use Storyboards and enable Use Automatic Reference Counting.
4. Remove any Maps bundles from previous releases from your project.
5. Drag the following bundles into your project (when prompted, select Copy items if needed):
   • GooglePlaces-3.x.x/Frameworks/GooglePlaces.framework
   • GoogleMaps-3.x.x/Base/Frameworks/GoogleMapsBase.framework
6. Right-click GooglePlaces.framework in your project, and select Show In Finder.
7. Drag the GooglePlaces.bundle from the Resources folder into your project. When prompted, ensure Copy items into destination group's folder is not selected.
8. Select your project from the Project Navigator, and choose your application's target.
9. Open the Build Phases tab, and within Link Binary with Libraries, add the following frameworks:
   • GooglePlaces.framework
   • GoogleMapsBase.framework
   • Accelerate.framework
   • CoreData.framework
   • CoreGraphics.framework
   • CoreImage.framework
   • CoreLocation.framework
   • CoreTelephony.framework
   • CoreText.framework
   • GLKit.framework
   • ImageIO.framework
   • libc++.tbd
   • libz.tbd
   • OpenGLES.framework
   • QuartzCore.framework
   • SystemConfiguration.framework
   • UIKit.framework

10. Choose your project, rather than a specific target, and open the Build Settings tab.

11. In the Other Linker Flags section, add -ObjC. If these settings are not visible, change the filter in the Build Settings bar from Basic to All.

Swift

import UIKit
import GooglePlaces

class ViewController: UIViewController {

  var placesClient: GMSPlacesClient!

  // Add a pair of UILabels in Interface Builder, and connect the outlets to these variables.
  @IBOutlet var nameLabel: UILabel!
  @IBOutlet var addressLabel: UILabel!

  override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    placesClient = GMSPlacesClient.shared()
  }

  // Add a UIButton in Interface Builder, and connect the action to this function.
  @IBAction func getCurrentPlace(_ sender: UIButton) {

    placesClient.currentPlace(callback: { (placeLikelihoodList, error) -> Void in
      if let error = error {
        print("Current Place error: \(error.localizedDescription)")
        return
      }

      self.nameLabel.text = "No current place"
      self.addressLabel.text = ""

      if let placeLikelihoodList = placeLikelihoodList {
        let place = placeLikelihoodList.likelihoods.first?.place
        if let place = place {
          self.nameLabel.text = place.name
          self.addressLabel.text = place.formattedAddress?.components(separatedBy: ", ")
            .joined(separator: "\n")
        }
      }
    })
  }
}

Objective-C

#import "ViewController.h"
@import GooglePlaces;

@interface ViewController ()
// Add a pair of UILabels in Interface Builder, and connect the outlets to these variables.
@property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *nameLabel;
@property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *addressLabel;
@end

@implementation ViewController {
  GMSPlacesClient *_placesClient;
}

- (void)viewDidLoad {
  [super viewDidLoad];
  _placesClient = [GMSPlacesClient sharedClient];
}

// Add a UIButton in Interface Builder, and connect the action to this function.
- (IBAction)getCurrentPlace:(UIButton *)sender {
  [_placesClient currentPlaceWithCallback:^(GMSPlaceLikelihoodList *placeLikelihoodList, NSError *error){
    if (error != nil) {
      NSLog(@"Current Place error %@", [error localizedDescription]);
      return;
    }

    self.nameLabel.text = @"No current place";
    self.addressLabel.text = @"";

    if (placeLikelihoodList != nil) {
      GMSPlace *place = [[[placeLikelihoodList likelihoods] firstObject] place];
      if (place != nil) {
        self.nameLabel.text = place.name;
        self.addressLabel.text = [[place.formattedAddress componentsSeparatedByString:@", "]
                                  componentsJoinedByString:@"\n"];
      }
    }
  }];
}
@end