Call Maps for directions from inside your app - iOS5 iOS6

Question

Here is a strange problem: My app should be able to call the built in Maps in iOS (both 5.1 and 6). Turns out that it works just fine under iOS6 but not under iOS5.1. The maps i

Answer 1

You can use MKPlacemark and MKMapItem to launch the Maps app with both a coordinate and a title on the map pin:

NSString *pinTitle;
CLLocationCoordinate2D coordinate;

MKPlacemark *placemark = [[MKPlacemark alloc] initWithCoordinate:coordinate addressDictionary:@{(id)kABPersonAddressStreetKey: pinTitle}];
MKMapItem *mapItem = [[MKMapItem alloc] initWithPlacemark:placemark];

if ([mapItem respondsToSelector:@selector(openInMapsWithLaunchOptions:)])
{
    [mapItem openInMapsWithLaunchOptions:@{MKLaunchOptionsDirectionsModeKey: MKLaunchOptionsDirectionsModeDriving}];
}
else
{
    // Google Maps fallback
    NSString *urlString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=%f,%f&saddr=Current+Location", locationItem.coordinate.latitude, locationItem.coordinate.longitude];
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:urlString]];
}

Note that you'll need to link against AddressBook.framework and also add #import somewhere in your code to make use of the kABPersonAddressStreetKey constant.