Using Google Places Search Box. How to initiate a search by clicking a button?

Question

Either I am an idiot or this was an egregious oversight on the part of the Google Maps team.

I am attempting to trigger a places search request on a button click event i

Answer 1

You need to first trigger focus on the input element, then trigger a keydown event with code 13 (enter key).

var input = document.getElementById('target');

google.maps.event.trigger(input, 'focus')
google.maps.event.trigger(input, 'keydown', {
    keyCode: 13
});

JSFiddle demo