This android tutorial is to help learn location based service in android platform. Knowing the current location in an android mobile will pave the way for developing many innovative Android apps to solve peoples daily problem. For developing location aware application in android, it needs location providers. There are two types of location providers,
- GPS Location Provider
- Network Location Provider
Network Location Provider vs GPS Location Provider
- Network Location provider is comparatively faster than the GPS provider in providing the location co-ordinates.
- GPS provider may be very very slow in in-door locations and will drain the mobile battery.
- Network location provider depends on the cell tower and will return our nearest tower location.
- GPS location provider, will give our location accurately.
Create LocationManager instance as reference to the location service
For any background Android Service, we need to get reference for using it. Similarly, location service reference will be created using getSystemService() method. This reference will be added with the newly created LocationManager instance as follows.
locationManager = (LocationManager) getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE); |
Request current location from LocationManager
After creating the location service reference, location updates are requested using requestLocationUpdates() method of LocationManager. For this function, we need to send the type of location provider, number of seconds, distance and the LocationListener object over which the location to be updated.
locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER, 0, 0, this); |
Receive location update from LocationListener on change of location
LocationListener will be notified based on the distance interval specified or the number seconds.
package com.shir60bhushan.gpsLocation;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.location.Location;
import android.location.LocationListener;
import android.location.LocationManager;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.util.Log;
public class MainActivity extends Activity implements LocationListener{
protected LocationManager locationManager;
protected LocationListener locationListener;
protected Context context;
TextView txtLat;
String lat;
String provider;
protected String latitude,longitude;
protected boolean gps_enabled,network_enabled;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
txtLat = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview1);
locationManager = (LocationManager) getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);
locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER, 0, 0, this);
}
@Override
public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
txtLat = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview1);
txtLat.setText("Latitude:" + location.getLatitude() + ", Longitude:" + location.getLongitude());
}
@Override
public void onProviderDisabled(String provider) {
Log.d("Latitude","disable");
}
@Override
public void onProviderEnabled(String provider) {
Log.d("Latitude","enable");
}
@Override
public void onStatusChanged(String provider, int status, Bundle extras) {
Log.d("Latitude","status");
}
}
Xml layout will be As follows
