Issue retrieving longitude/latitude using Google Static Maps

Question

I am running into an issue where I need to get the Longitude / Latitude from an address that is passed into an AsyncTask that retrieves a Google Static Map.

This AsyncTask can take a set of coordinates and create a map, and it can also take an address that is retrieved using Google Places API.

The issue I am having is that I don't know how I can retrieve the coordinates of the address that is passed in. Does anyone know a way that I can get the Long/Lat? The only way I have figured out how to do it is by using another AsyncTask. I would rather not make 2 requests though.

CREATE STATIC MAP class CreateStaticMapAsyncTask extends AsyncTask {

    private static final String STATIC_MAPS_API_BASE = "https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap";
    private static final String STATIC_MAPS_API_SIZE = "300x300";

    @Override
    protected void onPreExecute() {
        addTask(); // adds one to task count.
        super.onPreExecute();

    }

    @Override
    protected Bitmap doInBackground(String... params) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        locationString = params[0];
        Log.e("LOCATION STRING", locationString);
        Bitmap bmp = null;
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(STATIC_MAPS_API_BASE);
        try {
            sb.append("?center=").append(
                    URLEncoder.encode(locationString, "UTF-8"));
        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e1) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e1.printStackTrace();
        }
        sb.append("&size=" + STATIC_MAPS_API_SIZE);
        sb.append("&key=" + API_KEY);
        String url = new String(sb.toString());
        Log.e("URL", sb.toString());

        HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
        HttpGet request = new HttpGet(url);

        InputStream in = null;
        try {
            in = httpclient.execute(request).getEntity().getContent();
            bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(in);
            in.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return bmp;

    }

    protected void onPostExecute(Bitmap bmp) {
        super.onPostExecute(bmp);
        if (bmp != null) {
            ByteArrayOutputStream stream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
            bmp.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 100, stream);
            data = stream.toByteArray();
            removeTask();
            // allTasksComplete();

        }
    }
}

Answer 1

You need the Geocoder class.

A class for handling geocoding and reverse geocoding. Geocoding is the process of transforming a street address or other description of a location into a (latitude, longitude) coordinate.

If you go over the example, you will see that Geocoder is used in a background thread. Since you already have an AsyncTask, you can add the code to doInBackground() itself. The example will need to be modified because you need a latitude and longitude from address and not the other way around.

You will need the getFromLocationName() method:

Returns an array of Addresses that are known to describe the named location, which may be a place name such as "Dalvik, Iceland", an address such as "1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA", an airport code such as "SFO", etc.. The returned addresses will be localized for the locale provided to this class's constructor.

Then from the Address object, you can get the latitude and longitude.