Google maps saving draggable directions

Question

You can create markers in my web application and create a route with google directions with those markers. But I want the user to be able to change the route aswell and i've found draggable directions in the google maps api v3. Is there a way to save the changed directions in the database so you can create the exact route again with that information?

Solution 1

I'm going to assume that the following is all true:

var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map_canvas'), {
        zoom: 8,
        center: new google.maps.LatLng(/* center of map */),
        mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
    }),
    directions = new google.maps.DirectionsService(),
    displayer = new google.maps.DirectionsRenderer({
        draggable: true
    });

displayer.setMap(map);
directions.route({
    origin: new google.maps.LatLng(/* start point */),
    destination: new google.maps.LatLng(/* end point */),
    travelMode: google.maps.DirectionsTravelMode.DRIVING
}, function (result) {
    displayer.setDirections(result);
});

Basically, this just assumes that the start- and end-points have already been chosen and the default route has already been drawn. (NOTE: The DirectionsRenderer has been initialized with draggable: true.)

When the user changes the route, the application fires a directions_changed event. We can track that like so:

google.maps.event.addListener(displayer, 'directions_changed', some_method);

Something else also happens when the change the route: a new waypoint is created. Here's how we get at all the waypoints:

var some_method = function () {
    var waypoints = displayer.directions.route[0].legs[0].via_waypoint;
};

The variable waypoints is an array of objects describing the stops the route makes on its way to the destination. (Note that more assumptions have been made: you're using route[0], legs[0], etc.)

Each waypoint object has a location property, which contains the latitude and longitude (available in location.wa and location.ya respectively, for some reason). So we can tell the application, every time the user changes the route, to rotate through (and store) all the lats and longs of the current waypoints. Once you have those, you can decide how you want to store them (AJAX to a server-side page that stores them in a database, localStorage, etc.)

Then!

The next time you load this page, you can grab those waypoints from the storage and initialize the route like so:

directions.route({
    origin: new google.maps.LatLng(/* start point */),
    destination: new google.maps.LatLng(/* end point */),
    travelMode: google.maps.DirectionsTravelMode.DRIVING,
    waypoints: [
        { location: new google.maps.LatLng(/* lat/lng go here */) } // repeat this as necessary
    ]
}, function (result) {
    displayer.setDirections(result);
});

This should maintain the new route that the user chose. One final note: I left a lot out of this answer, like how they save it, how you know which user wants which route, etc. But the foundation is there. Godspeed.

Solution 2

This might be something that changed between sdleihssirhc's answer and now, but I tried the above solution and it kept failing on displayer.directions.route[0] saying it was undefined.

It looks like the attribute was changed to routes which took me a while to figure out. Using the line below works for me:

var waypoints = displayer.directions.routes[0].legs[0].via_waypoint;

Hopefully that will save some time and frustration for anyone trying to get this to work.

Comments

[axs]

excellent explanation and answer. Just a very small/minor correction - In var waypoints = displayer.directions.route[0].legs[0].via_waypoint; It has to be routes and not route

[bart]

If you add the field stopover: false to each waypoint in the call to restore the route, then they'll appear as a little draggable circle, just like before you saved it.