Advanced Usage
The Mapbox Search SDK for Android is in public preview. All features and workflows are subject to change.
Search engine help users find specific addresses, points of interest (POIs), and places. The Mapbox Search SDK for Android provides the SearchEngine
class for:
Forward geocoding is likely what comes to mind when you think about a typical search experience: for the given String
query a user gets geographic coordinates of an address or place. For example, you can type in Lincoln Memorial
and retrieve the geographic location of a place that matches that query (-77.050,38.889
).
Reverse geocoding is an opposite operation of forward geocoding: for the given geographic coordinates a user gets place names or addresses. For example, turning -77.050, 38.889
into 2 Lincoln Memorial Circle NW
address.
Category search allows you to select a category (for example, restaurants
) and retrieve a list of POIs that belong to that category. For example, if you want to display many restaurants within walking distance of a theater on a map, you can use category search with the restaurants
category.
Integration
The Mapbox Search SDK for Android provides a SearchEngine
class for executing forward geocoding search requests, reverse geocoding search requests, and making category search requests. You can obtain an instance of the engine via the SearchEngine.createSearchEngine(SearchEngineSettings)
function or via the createSearchEngineWithBuiltInDataProviders(SearchEngineSettings)
function to obtain an instance of the engine with history
and favorites
data providers registered by default.
val searchEngine = SearchEngine.createSearchEngine(
SearchEngineSettings(getString(R.string.mapbox_access_token))
)
or
val searchEngine = SearchEngine.createSearchEngineWithBuiltInDataProviders(
SearchEngineSettings(getString(R.string.mapbox_access_token))
)
API type
SearchEngine
factory-functions createSearchEngine()
and createSearchEngineWithBuiltInDataProviders()
accept optional parameter apiType
which defines the search endpoint that will be used for search requests.
There are two types of the ApiType
:
ApiType.GEOCODING
.SearchEngines
created with theGEOCODING
API Type will target the Geocoding API. This is a default API Type for theSearchEngine
.ApiType.SBS
.SearchEngines
created with theSBS
API Type will target the Mapbox Search API, which will soon be replaced with Mapbox Search Box API.
POI metadata in search responses
SearchEngine
might provide POI metadata in search responses. The metadata includes:
- Place's information like phone number, website, open hours
- Average rating and number of reviews
- Parking information
- Place images
This data can be accessed via SearchResult.metadata
. By default, the metadata is available to selected customers only, contact sales team if you are interested in receiving metadata as part of search results.
Add search to an app
This example will show you how to use pre-built UI component to quickly add search to an app.
Open the activity’s XML manifest file. Set permissions and reference the name of the Application you created in the last step:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" /><uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" /> <applicationandroid:allowBackup="true"android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"android:label="@string/app_name"android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"android:theme="@style/AppTheme"> <activityandroid:name=".MainActivity"android:exported="true"> <intent-filter><action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" /><category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /></intent-filter></activity></application>
Open the activity’s XML layout file and add the following view:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><FrameLayoutxmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"android:layout_width="match_parent"android:layout_height="match_parent"> <EditTextandroid:id="@+id/query_edit_text"android:layout_width="match_parent"android:layout_height="56dp"android:hint="Where to?"android:paddingHorizontal="16dp"/> <com.mapbox.search.ui.view.SearchResultsViewandroid:id="@+id/search_results_view"android:layout_width="match_parent"android:layout_height="match_parent"android:layout_marginTop="56dp"android:paddingVertical="16dp"/></FrameLayout>
Create a new Activity or open an existing Activity and add the code below:
import android.Manifest.permissionimport android.content.Contextimport android.content.pm.PackageManagerimport android.os.Bundleimport android.text.Editableimport android.text.TextWatcherimport android.widget.EditTextimport android.widget.Toastimport androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivityimport androidx.core.app.ActivityCompatimport androidx.core.content.ContextCompatimport com.mapbox.search.ApiTypeimport com.mapbox.search.ResponseInfoimport com.mapbox.search.SearchEngineimport com.mapbox.search.SearchEngineSettingsimport com.mapbox.search.ServiceProviderimport com.mapbox.search.offline.OfflineResponseInfoimport com.mapbox.search.offline.OfflineSearchEngineimport com.mapbox.search.offline.OfflineSearchEngineSettingsimport com.mapbox.search.offline.OfflineSearchResultimport com.mapbox.search.record.HistoryRecordimport com.mapbox.search.result.SearchResultimport com.mapbox.search.result.SearchSuggestionimport com.mapbox.search.ui.view.CommonSearchViewConfigurationimport com.mapbox.search.ui.view.DistanceUnitTypeimport com.mapbox.search.ui.view.SearchResultsView class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() { override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)setContentView(R.layout.activity_main) val accessToken = getString(R.string.mapbox_access_token) val queryEditText = findViewById<EditText>(R.id.query_edit_text)val searchResultsView = findViewById<SearchResultsView>(R.id.search_results_view)searchResultsView.initialize(SearchResultsView.Configuration(commonConfiguration = CommonSearchViewConfiguration(DistanceUnitType.IMPERIAL))) val searchEngine = SearchEngine.createSearchEngineWithBuiltInDataProviders(apiType = ApiType.GEOCODING,settings = SearchEngineSettings(accessToken)) val offlineSearchEngine = OfflineSearchEngine.create(OfflineSearchEngineSettings(accessToken)) val searchEngineUiAdapter = SearchEngineUiAdapter(view = searchResultsView,searchEngine = searchEngine,offlineSearchEngine = offlineSearchEngine,) searchEngineUiAdapter.addSearchListener(object : SearchEngineUiAdapter.SearchListener { private fun showToast(message: String) {Toast.makeText(applicationContext, message, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()} override fun onSuggestionsShown(suggestions: List<SearchSuggestion>, responseInfo: ResponseInfo) {// not implemented} override fun onSearchResultsShown(suggestion: SearchSuggestion,results: List<SearchResult>,responseInfo: ResponseInfo) {// not implemented} override fun onOfflineSearchResultsShown(results: List<OfflineSearchResult>, responseInfo: OfflineResponseInfo) {// not implemented} override fun onSuggestionSelected(searchSuggestion: SearchSuggestion): Boolean {return false} override fun onSearchResultSelected(searchResult: SearchResult, responseInfo: ResponseInfo) {showToast("SearchResult clicked: ${searchResult.name}")} override fun onOfflineSearchResultSelected(searchResult: OfflineSearchResult, responseInfo: OfflineResponseInfo) {showToast("OfflineSearchResult clicked: ${searchResult.name}")} override fun onError(e: Exception) {showToast("Error happened: $e")} override fun onHistoryItemClick(historyRecord: HistoryRecord) {showToast("HistoryRecord clicked: ${historyRecord.name}")} override fun onPopulateQueryClick(suggestion: SearchSuggestion, responseInfo: ResponseInfo) {queryEditText.setText(suggestion.name)} override fun onFeedbackItemClick(responseInfo: ResponseInfo) {// not implemented}}) queryEditText.addTextChangedListener(object : TextWatcher { override fun onTextChanged(s: CharSequence, start: Int, before: Int, after: Int) {searchResultsView.search(s.toString())} override fun beforeTextChanged(s: CharSequence, start: Int, count: Int, after: Int) {// not implemented} override fun afterTextChanged(e: Editable) { /* not implemented */ }}) if (!isPermissionGranted(permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION)) {ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(this,arrayOf(permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION),PERMISSIONS_REQUEST_LOCATION)}} private companion object { private const val PERMISSIONS_REQUEST_LOCATION = 0 fun Context.isPermissionGranted(permission: String): Boolean {return ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, permission) == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED}}}
Run your application and you will see a functional search UI. Begin typing in the search bar to see results:
Search Engine Pricing
There is no separate charge if you choose to use Mapbox Search SDK for Android to access our APIs, you only pay by the Search API usage.
Usage of the Search Engine depends on the API type you choose. Details about the number of API requests included in the free tier and the cost per request beyond what is included in the free tier are available on the pricing page.
- For API type
GEOCODING
, see Temporary Geocoding API Pricing, - For API type
SBS
/SearchBox
, see Search Box API Sessions Pricing.