A Flutter plugin to easily handle realtime location in iOS and Android

Flutter Location Plugin

Now, most modern smartphone platforms have tools that allow users to share their current location with others. It’s very useful for users when using. Besides providing the current location, many methods also deal with getting a location on the Android and iOS platforms. It also provides callbacks when the location is changed.

In this section, I will recommend a plugin for Flutter to easily do it. 

And here’s how to do it.

Getting Started

First of all, there are two methods for the iOS and Android operating systems. They will be compatible with any of your platforms. Follow the detailed steps below.

Android

In order to use this plugin in Android, you have to add this permission in AndroidManifest.xml :

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />

Update your gradle.properties file with this:

android.enableJetifier=true
android.useAndroidX=true
org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx1536M

Please also make sure that you have those dependencies in your build.gradle:

  dependencies {
      classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.3.0'
      classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:4.2.0'
  }
...
  compileSdkVersion 28

iOS

And to use it in iOS, you have to add this permission in Info.plist :

NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription
NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription

Warning: there is currently a bug in the iOS simulator in which you have to manually select a Location several in order for the Simulator to actually send data. Please keep that in mind when testing in the iOS simulator.

Example App

The example app uses Google Maps Flutter Plugin, add your API Key in the AndroidManifest.xml and in AppDelegate.m to use the Google Maps plugin.

Sample Code

Then you just have to import the package with

import 'package:location/location.dart';

Look into the example for utilization, but a basic implementation can be done like this for a one-time location :

var currentLocation = LocationData;

var location = new Location();

// Platform messages may fail, so we use a try/catch PlatformException.
try {
  currentLocation = await location.getLocation();
} on PlatformException catch (e) {
  if (e.code == 'PERMISSION_DENIED') {
    error = 'Permission denied';
  } 
  currentLocation = null;
}

You can also get continuous callbacks when your position is changing:

var location = new Location();

location.onLocationChanged().listen((LocationData currentLocation) {
  print(currentLocation.latitude);
  print(currentLocation.longitude);
});

Public Method Summary

In this table you can find the different functions exposed by this plugin:

You should try to manage permission manually with requestPermission() to avoid error, but plugin will try handle some cases for you.

Objects

class LocationData {
  final double latitude; // Latitude, in degrees
  final double longitude; // Longitude, in degrees
  final double accuracy; // Estimated horizontal accuracy of this location, radial, in meters
  final double altitude; // In meters above the WGS 84 reference ellipsoid
  final double speed; // In meters/second
  final double speedAccuracy; // In meters/second, always 0 on iOS
  final double heading; //Heading is the horizontal direction of travel of this device, in degrees
  final double time; //timestamp of the LocationData
}


enum LocationAccuracy { 
  POWERSAVE, // To request best accuracy possible with zero additional power consumption, 
  LOW, // To request "city" level accuracy
  BALANCED, // To request "block" level accuracy
  HIGH, // To request the most accurate locations available
  NAVIGATION // To request location for navigation usage (affect only iOS)
}

Note: you can convert the timestamp into a DateTime with: DateTime.fromMillisecondsSinceEpoch(locationData.time.toInt())

GitHub

https://github.com/Lyokone/flutterlocation