capacitor-native-geocoder

Native geocoding (Apple CLGeocoder / Android android.location.Geocoder) for Capacitor 7.

• ✅ Capacitor 7 compatible (@capacitor/core peer dependency)
• ✅ Android API 34 ready (GeocodeListener on API 33+)
• ✅ iOS Deployment Target ≥ 15, bundled MapKit + Contacts
• ✅ Forward/Reverse Geocoding + Suggest (Autocomplete)

ℹ️ A forwardSuggestPlaces endpoint is planned for a future version. The current API is prepared for it but intentionally does not expose the method yet.

Installation

npm install @socialmedialabs/capacitor-native-geocoder

Then sync native platforms:

npx cap sync

Quick Start

import { NativeGeocoder } from '@socialmedialabs/capacitor-native-geocoder';

const { results } = await NativeGeocoder.forwardGeocode({
  address: 'Brandenburg Gate, Berlin',
  maxResults: 3,
});
console.log(results);

Android

1. Ensure your android/capacitor.settings.gradle contains the correct include path. If you use the generator, Cap Sync handles this automatically:

   include ':capacitor-native-geocoder'
   project(':capacitor-native-geocoder').projectDir = new File('../node_modules/capacitor-native-geocoder/android')

2. Make sure your app project sets both compileSdk and targetSdk to 34.

iOS

1. Ensure your Xcode project uses iOS 15.0 or higher as deployment target.
2. After each sync: cd ios && pod install.

TypeScript API

import { NativeGeocoder } from 'capacitor-native-geocoder';

const { results } = await NativeGeocoder.reverseGeocode({
  lat: 52.52,
  lon: 13.405,
  maxResults: 3,
  defaultLocale: 'de_DE',
});

Methods

| Method | Description | | ------ | ----------- | | reverseGeocode(options) | Coordinates → addresses. | | forwardGeocode(options) | Address → coordinates (multiple results possible). | | forwardSuggest(options) | Autocomplete suggestions; returns precise coordinates on iOS (where available) and Geocoder-based approximations on Android. |

Options

interface ReverseGeocodeOptions {
  lat: number;
  lon: number;
  useLocale?: boolean;
  defaultLocale?: string;
  maxResults?: number; // 1..5
}

interface ForwardGeocodeOptions {
  address: string;
  useLocale?: boolean;
  defaultLocale?: string;
  maxResults?: number; // 1..5
}

interface ForwardSuggestOptions {
  query?: string;
  address?: string; // fallback for existing integrations
  useLocale?: boolean;
  defaultLocale?: string;
  maxResults?: number; // 1..5
}

All methods return:

type GeocoderResponse = {
  results: NativeGeocoderResult[];
};

NativeGeocoderResult includes latitude/longitude, country, postal code, administrative levels, street metadata, optional points of interest, and a formatted display label.

Web Platform

reverseGeocode and forwardGeocode are not available on the Web and will throw UNIMPLEMENTED. forwardSuggest returns an empty array, allowing autocomplete-based UI to gracefully degrade.

Error Handling

• Android returns an empty array on no result. Network or geocoder issues are logged and surfaced as empty lists.
• iOS distinguishes between “no result” (empty list) and actual errors.
• Both platforms clamp maxResults to between 1 and 5.
• Locale: default is the device language. Set useLocale: false to enforce a neutral (English) lookup.

Development

npm run build
# runs clean → tsc → rollup

Before publishing:

1. Update the version in package.json and CapacitorNativeGeocoder.podspec.
2. Run npm run build, verify the output with npm pack.
3. Update changelog and create git tag.

License

MIT © socialmedialabs.de