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Enable Google Maps
The Sharetribe Web Template offers out of the box support for Google Maps API for showing a map and searching locations with search autocompletion. This guide describes how to set up the API key for the API requests to work properly.
Table of Contents
Information
Note: before making the change to Google Maps, you should consider if you are OK with their current pricing. There's a pricing calculator available in their pricing page. The template's default map provider is Mapbox, which is often cheaper. To use Mapbox, see the How to set up Mapbox guide.
Enable Google Maps in your marketplace
To enable Google Maps in your marketplace, you will need a Google Account. In addition, in order to enable the required Google APIs, you will need to enter your billing details.
Generate a Google Maps API key
Go to the Google Maps JavaScript API V3 Reference, and click on "Get started" button in the top bar, and follow the instructions. Save the key for later.
Warning
Make sure to follow API security best practices with your Google Maps API keys. For example, restricting your API key to your client app URL will prevent unauthorised use that would impact your billing.
Enable Google APIs
Follow the instructions in the Getting started section of the Places library documentation to enable using the Google Places API Web Service. You will also need to enable the Maps Static API and Maps JavaScript API.
Assign the API key to an environment variable
The template uses the REACT_APP_GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY environment
variable for the key value. For local development, you can add the
variable in the gitignored .env file in the project root:
REACT_APP_GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=my-key-hereEnable Google Maps in the template
To enable Google Maps, you must toggle a configuration variable found in
configMaps.js.
This configuration variable can be one of two options: 'MAPBOX' or
'GOOGLE_MAPS'. To enable Google Maps in the template, change the
variable to 'GOOGLE_MAPS':
export const mapProvider = 'GOOGLE_MAPS';Further reading
Once you have enabled maps in your marketplace using your chosen map provider, you can change the map's configuration settings. These options allow you to change things like the default search locations and restrict location search to specific countries. Refer to the map configurations article to learn more about the specific configurations you can adjust for maps in your marketplace.