How to invoke iPhone Maps for Directions with Current Location as Start Address

Question

I know it\'s possible to start the iPhone maps application by calling openURL on a google maps URL with parameters saddr and daddr wit

Answer 1

If you don't want to ask for location permissions and don't have the lat and lng, use the following.

NSString *destinationAddress = @"Amsterdam";

Class itemClass = [MKMapItem class];
if (itemClass && [itemClass respondsToSelector:@selector(openMapsWithItems:launchOptions:)]) {

    CLGeocoder *geocoder = [[CLGeocoder alloc] init];
    [geocoder geocodeAddressString:destinationAddress completionHandler:^(NSArray *placemarks, NSError *error) {
        if([placemarks count] > 0) {

            MKPlacemark *placeMark = [[MKPlacemark alloc] initWithPlacemark:[placemarks objectAtIndex:0]];

            MKMapItem *mapItem = [[MKMapItem alloc]initWithPlacemark:placeMark];

            MKMapItem *mapItem2 = [MKMapItem mapItemForCurrentLocation];


            NSArray *mapItems = @[mapItem, mapItem2];

            NSDictionary *options = @{
        MKLaunchOptionsDirectionsModeKey:MKLaunchOptionsDirectionsModeDriving,
        MKLaunchOptionsMapTypeKey:
            [NSNumber numberWithInteger:MKMapTypeStandard],
        MKLaunchOptionsShowsTrafficKey:@YES
            };

            [MKMapItem openMapsWithItems:mapItems launchOptions:options];

        } else {
            //error nothing found
        }
    }];
    return;
} else {

    NSString *sourceAddress = [LocalizedCurrentLocation currentLocationStringForCurrentLanguage];

    NSString *urlToOpen = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=%@&daddr=%@",
                 [sourceAddress stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding],
                 [destinationAddress stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:urlToOpen]];
}

For ios5, the Current Location needs to be in the correct language. I use the LocalizedCurrentLocation from this post http://www.martip.net/blog/localized-current-location-string-for-iphone-apps

For ios6, I use the CLGeocoder to get the placemark and then open the map with it and the current location.

Remember to add CoreLocation.framework and MapKit.framework