path: root/docs/html/training/location/display-address.jd

page.title=Displaying a Location Address

trainingnavtop=true

@jd:body



<div id="tb-wrapper">
<div id="tb">

<h2>This lesson teaches you to</h2>
<ol>
  <li><a href="#DefineTask">Define the Address Lookup Task</a></li>
  <li><a href="#DisplayResults">Define a Method to Display the Results</a></li>
  <li><a href="#RunTask">Run the Lookup Task</a></li>
</ol>

<h2>You should also read</h2>
<ul>
    <li>
        <a href="{@docRoot}google/play-services/setup.html">Setup Google Play Services SDK</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="retrieve-current.html">Retrieving the Current Location</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="receive-location-updates.html">Receiving Location Updates</a>
    </li>
</ul>
<h2>Try it out</h2>

<div class="download-box">
<a href="http://developer.android.com/shareables/training/LocationUpdates.zip" class="button">Download
  the sample app</a>
<p class="filename">LocationUpdates.zip</p>
</div>

</div>
</div>

<p>
    The lessons <a href="retrieve-current.html">Retrieving the Current Location</a> and
    <a href="receive-location-updates.html">Receiving Location Updates</a> describe how to get the
    user's current location in the form of a {@link android.location.Location} object that
    contains latitude and longitude coordinates. Although latitude and longitude are useful for
    calculating distance or displaying a map position, in many cases the address of the location is
    more useful.
</p>
<p>
    The Android platform API provides a feature that returns an estimated street addresses for
    latitude and longitude values. This lesson shows you how to use this address lookup feature.
</p>
<p class="note">
    <strong>Note:</strong> Address lookup requires a backend service that is not included in the
    core Android framework. If this backend service is not available,
    {@link android.location.Geocoder#getFromLocation Geocoder.getFromLocation()} returns an empty
    list. The helper method {@link android.location.Geocoder#isPresent isPresent()}, available
    in API level 9 and later, checks to see if the backend service is available.
</p>
<p>
    The snippets in the following sections assume that your app has already retrieved the
    current location and stored it as a {@link android.location.Location} object in the global
    variable {@code mLocation}.
</p>
<!--
    Define the address lookup task
-->
<h2 id="DefineTask">Define the Address Lookup Task</h2>
<p>
To get an address for a given latitude and longitude, call
{@link android.location.Geocoder#getFromLocation Geocoder.getFromLocation()}, which returns a
list of addresses. The method is synchronous, and may take a long time to do its work, so you
should call the method from the {@link android.os.AsyncTask#doInBackground
doInBackground()} method of an {@link android.os.AsyncTask}.
</p>
<p>
While your app is getting the address, display an indeterminate activity
indicator to show that your app is working in the background. Set the indicator's initial state
to {@code android:visibility="gone"}, to make it invisible and remove it from the layout
hierarchy. When you start the address lookup, you set its visibility to "visible".
</p>
<p>
The following snippet shows how to add an indeterminate {@link android.widget.ProgressBar} to
your layout file:
</p>
<pre>
&lt;ProgressBar
android:id="&#64;+id/address_progress"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:indeterminate="true"
android:visibility="gone" /&gt;
</pre>
<p>
To create the background task, define a subclass of {@link android.os.AsyncTask} that calls
{@link android.location.Geocoder#getFromLocation getFromLocation()} and returns an address.
Define a {@link android.widget.TextView} object {@code mAddress} to contain the returned
address, and a {@link android.widget.ProgressBar} object that allows you to control the
indeterminate activity indicator. For example:
</p>
<pre>
public class MainActivity extends FragmentActivity {
    ...
    private TextView mAddress;
    private ProgressBar mActivityIndicator;
    ...
    &#64;Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    ...
    mAddress = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.address);
    mActivityIndicator =
            (ProgressBar) findViewById(R.id.address_progress);
    }
    ...
    /**
    * A subclass of AsyncTask that calls getFromLocation() in the
    * background. The class definition has these generic types:
    * Location - A {@link android.location.Location} object containing
    * the current location.
    * Void     - indicates that progress units are not used
    * String   - An address passed to onPostExecute()
    */
    private class GetAddressTask extends
            AsyncTask&lt;Location, Void, String&gt; {
        Context mContext;
        public GetAddressTask(Context context) {
            super();
            mContext = context;
        }
        ...
        /**
         * Get a Geocoder instance, get the latitude and longitude
         * look up the address, and return it
         *
         * &#64;params params One or more Location objects
         * &#64;return A string containing the address of the current
         * location, or an empty string if no address can be found,
         * or an error message
         */
        &#64;Override
        protected String doInBackground(Location... params) {
            Geocoder geocoder =
                    new Geocoder(mContext, Locale.getDefault());
            // Get the current location from the input parameter list
            Location loc = params[0];
            // Create a list to contain the result address
            List&lt;Address&gt; addresses = null;
            try {
                /*
                 * Return 1 address.
                 */
                addresses = geocoder.getFromLocation(loc.getLatitude(),
                        loc.getLongitude(), 1);
            } catch (IOException e1) {
            Log.e("LocationSampleActivity",
                    "IO Exception in getFromLocation()");
            e1.printStackTrace();
            return ("IO Exception trying to get address");
            } catch (IllegalArgumentException e2) {
            // Error message to post in the log
            String errorString = "Illegal arguments " +
                    Double.toString(loc.getLatitude()) +
                    " , " +
                    Double.toString(loc.getLongitude()) +
                    " passed to address service";
            Log.e("LocationSampleActivity", errorString);
            e2.printStackTrace();
            return errorString;
            }
            // If the reverse geocode returned an address
            if (addresses != null &amp;&amp; addresses.size() &gt; 0) {
                // Get the first address
                Address address = addresses.get(0);
                /*
                 * Format the first line of address (if available),
                 * city, and country name.
                 */
                String addressText = String.format(
                        "&#037;s, &#037;s, &#037;s",
                        // If there's a street address, add it
                        address.getMaxAddressLineIndex() &gt; 0 ?
                                address.getAddressLine(0) : "",
                        // Locality is usually a city
                        address.getLocality(),
                        // The country of the address
                        address.getCountryName());
                // Return the text
                return addressText;
            } else {
                return "No address found";
            }
        }
        ...
    }
    ...
}
</pre>
<p>
The next section shows you how to display the address in the user interface.
</p>
<!-- Define a method to display the address -->
<h2 id="DisplayResults">Define a Method to Display the Results</h2>
<p>
    {@link android.os.AsyncTask#doInBackground doInBackground()} returns the result of the address
    lookup as a {@link java.lang.String}. This value is passed to
    {@link android.os.AsyncTask#onPostExecute onPostExecute()}, where you do further processing
    on the results. Since {@link android.os.AsyncTask#onPostExecute onPostExecute()}
    runs on the UI thread, it can update the user interface; for example, it can turn off the
    activity indicator and display the results to the user:
</p>
<pre>
    private class GetAddressTask extends
            AsyncTask&lt;Location, Void, String&gt; {
        ...
        /**
         * A method that's called once doInBackground() completes. Turn
         * off the indeterminate activity indicator and set
         * the text of the UI element that shows the address. If the
         * lookup failed, display the error message.
         */
        &#64;Override
        protected void onPostExecute(String address) {
            // Set activity indicator visibility to "gone"
            mActivityIndicator.setVisibility(View.GONE);
            // Display the results of the lookup.
            mAddress.setText(address);
        }
        ...
    }
</pre>
<p>
    The final step is to run the address lookup.
</p>
<!-- Get and display the address -->
<h2 id="RunTask">Run the Lookup Task</h2>
<p>
    To get the address, call {@link android.os.AsyncTask#execute execute()}. For example, the
    following snippet starts the address lookup when the user clicks the "Get Address" button:
</p>
<pre>
public class MainActivity extends FragmentActivity {
    ...
    /**
     * The "Get Address" button in the UI is defined with
     * android:onClick="getAddress". The method is invoked whenever the
     * user clicks the button.
     *
     * &#64;param v The view object associated with this method,
     * in this case a Button.
     */
    public void getAddress(View v) {
        // Ensure that a Geocoder services is available
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT &gt;=
                Build.VERSION_CODES.GINGERBREAD
                            &amp;&amp;
                Geocoder.isPresent()) {
            // Show the activity indicator
            mActivityIndicator.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
            /*
             * Reverse geocoding is long-running and synchronous.
             * Run it on a background thread.
             * Pass the current location to the background task.
             * When the task finishes,
             * onPostExecute() displays the address.
             */
            (new GetAddressTask(this)).execute(mLocation);
        }
        ...
    }
    ...
}
</pre>
<p>
    The next lesson, <a href="geofencing.html">Creating and Monitoring Geofences</a>, demonstrates
    how to define locations of interest called <b>geofences</b> and how to use geofence monitoring
    to detect the user's proximity to a location of interest.
</p>