Google Autocomplete

I am sharing this component because I was overwhelmed by complicated examples to achieve this simple job. So, I will try to be as simple as I can during my explanation.

Google Autocomplete component is no more than a Vue.js wrapper around the official Google Places API. In spite of the demo written in Vue.js, the Autocomplete object can be pulled in from any JS framework.

Requirements

You will have to install Vue & Vuemit:

npm install vue --save

npm install vuemit --save

The Vuemit library is used to manage the events between the google component and its parent one.

Note: If you happen to be using Vue 1.*, you will have to pull from the vue-1 branch.

Demo

View live demo.

Installation

To install this package you just need to open your console and type npm i google-autocomplete-vue --save. If there are any problems during the installation, you can try again using the force param: npm i -f google-autocomplete-vue --save

Getting started

First of all, you have to sign up on Google API Console to get your API key: https://console.developers.google.com Once this has been done, you will have to copy the API KEY given by google and paste it in your JS file entry point. Example:

• Bootstrap File: bootstrap.js. You will have to require Vuemit in this file to have the events handler set globaly. As so: Example

• Entry point file: demo.js

Note: Important keys have to be kept within an .env file, so be aware of this while pushing your code to your git control.

Second of all, you will have to import the component in your application entry point, so you can call it globally when needed. Example:

import GoogleAutocomplete from 'google-autocomplete-vue';

Validation on server side

Places validation is a laravel library that will help you out to handle your user addresses. Its aim is making sure addresses submitted by users are valid through 3rd party services, as google.

Take a look at its repository: Places Validation

Guide

• First of all, you have to create an entry point to compile the component and generate your bundle file. An example is available here.

• Second of all, you will have to create your vue object to control the component:

require('./bootstrap');


new Vue({

    el: '#demo',


    data:
    {
        output: {}, address: {}, sent: false, response: {}, config: {}
    },


    mounted()
    {
        //Set an event listener for 'setAddress'.
        Vuemit.listen('setAddress', this.onAddressChanged);
        Vuemit.listen('addressWasCleared', this.onAddressCleared);
    },


    methods:
    {
        /**
         * Submit the data to be evaluated.
         *
         * @return {Void}
         */
        submit()
        {
            this.sent = true;
            this.output = this.address;
            this.address = {};
        },


        /**
         * Checks whether the output data is valid.
         *
         * @return {Bool}
         */
        isValid()
        {
            return Object.keys(this.output).length > 0;
        },


        /**
         * Checks whether the output data is not valid.
         *
         * @return {Bool}
         */
        isNotValid()
        {
            return ! this.isValid();
        },


        /**
         * The callback fired when the autocomplete address change event is fired.
         *
         * @param {Object}
         * @return {Void}
         */
        onAddressChanged(payload)
        {
            if (Object.keys(paypload.place).length > 0) {
                this.address = payload.address;
                this.response = payload.response;
            }
        }

        /**
         * The callback fired when the autocomplete clear event is fired.
         *
         * @param {Object}
         * @return {Void}
         */
        onAddressCleared()
        {
            this.address = {};
            this.response = {};
        }
    }
});

See the example here.

• Third of all, you have to compile these two files with browserify, webpack or laravel-elixir-vue-2 to make them readable for every browser. Example:

require('laravel-elixir-vue-2');
var elixir = require('laravel-elixir');

elixir.config.sourcemaps = false;
elixir.config.assetsPath = 'src';

elixir(function(mix)
{
    mix.webpack('demo.js', 'dist/demo.js');
});

See the example here

• Finally, you can use the component in your HTML file using this syntax:

<google-autocomplete
    class = "input"
    input_id = "txtAutocomplete"
    :config = "{type: ['geocode']}"
    placeholder = "type your address"
>
</google-autocomplete>

:config is the config passed to the Autocomplete constructor of the places API. See the documentation. Config corresponds to the options argument in the doc.

See the example here.

Also, you can pass any css class through the "class" prop.

Contributing

Please feel free to fork this package and contribute by submitting a pull request to enhance the functionalities.

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

How can I thank you?

Why not star the github repo? Share the link for this repository on Twitter? Spread the word!

Don't forget to follow me on twitter!

Thanks!

Gustavo Ocanto. [email protected]