How to invoke iPhone Maps for Directions with Current Location as Start Address

Question

I know it\'s possible to start the iPhone maps application by calling openURL on a google maps URL with parameters saddr and daddr wit

Answer 1

I recommend checking out CMMapLauncher, a mini-library that I built to launch Apple, Google, and other iOS mapping apps with a specific mapping request. With CMMapLauncher, the code to get the directions in your question would be:

[CMMapLauncher launchMapApp:CMMapAppAppleMaps
          forDirectionsFrom:[CMMapPoint mapPointWithName:@"Origin"
                                              coordinate:myLatLong]
                         to:[CMMapPoint mapPointWithName:@"Destination"
                                              coordinate:latlong]];

As you can see, it also encapsulates the version checking required between iOS 6 & others.

Answer 2

The real solution can be found here. Z5 Concepts iOS Development Code Snippet

It just requires a little bit of encoding.

- (IBAction)directions1_click:(id)sender
{
    NSString* address = @"118 Your Address., City, State, ZIPCODE";
    NSString* currentLocation = @"Current Location";
    NSString* url = [NSStringstringWithFormat: @"http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=%@&daddr=%@",[currentLocation stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding],[address stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    UIApplication *app = [UIApplicationsharedApplication];
    [app openURL: [NSURL URLWithString: url]];
}

Answer 3

If you don't want to ask for location permissions and don't have the lat and lng, use the following.

NSString *destinationAddress = @"Amsterdam";

Class itemClass = [MKMapItem class];
if (itemClass && [itemClass respondsToSelector:@selector(openMapsWithItems:launchOptions:)]) {

    CLGeocoder *geocoder = [[CLGeocoder alloc] init];
    [geocoder geocodeAddressString:destinationAddress completionHandler:^(NSArray *placemarks, NSError *error) {
        if([placemarks count] > 0) {

            MKPlacemark *placeMark = [[MKPlacemark alloc] initWithPlacemark:[placemarks objectAtIndex:0]];

            MKMapItem *mapItem = [[MKMapItem alloc]initWithPlacemark:placeMark];

            MKMapItem *mapItem2 = [MKMapItem mapItemForCurrentLocation];


            NSArray *mapItems = @[mapItem, mapItem2];

            NSDictionary *options = @{
        MKLaunchOptionsDirectionsModeKey:MKLaunchOptionsDirectionsModeDriving,
        MKLaunchOptionsMapTypeKey:
            [NSNumber numberWithInteger:MKMapTypeStandard],
        MKLaunchOptionsShowsTrafficKey:@YES
            };

            [MKMapItem openMapsWithItems:mapItems launchOptions:options];

        } else {
            //error nothing found
        }
    }];
    return;
} else {

    NSString *sourceAddress = [LocalizedCurrentLocation currentLocationStringForCurrentLanguage];

    NSString *urlToOpen = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=%@&daddr=%@",
                 [sourceAddress stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding],
                 [destinationAddress stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:urlToOpen]];
}

For ios5, the Current Location needs to be in the correct language. I use the LocalizedCurrentLocation from this post http://www.martip.net/blog/localized-current-location-string-for-iphone-apps

For ios6, I use the CLGeocoder to get the placemark and then open the map with it and the current location.

Remember to add CoreLocation.framework and MapKit.framework

Answer 4

NSString* addr = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=Current Location&saddr=%@",startAddr];
NSURL* url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:[addr stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];
[url release];

This works but only when the iPhone/iPod language is set in English. If you want to support other languages you'll have to use a localized string to match the Maps bookmark name.