Ionic 5 Geolocation Native Plugin Tutorial

Ionic Geolocation Native Plugin Example Tutorial

This Angular post is compatible with Angular 4 upto latest versions, Angular 7, Angular 8, Angular 9, Angular 10, Angular 11, Angular 12 and Angular 13

Compatible with Ionic 4 & 5 Angular

Using Ionic’s Geolocation native plugin we can get current coordinates and other information like accuracy, speed, timestamp, altitude etc.

Let’s check how to install Geolocation Native plugin in Ionic Angular application.

Install Geolocation Plugin

Run following NPM commands in project root using the terminal window:

$ ionic cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-geolocation
$ npm install @ionic-native/geolocation

Import in App Module

To use the Geolocation plugin, open app.module.ts file to import the Geolocation class then update the imports array as shown below:

// app.module.ts
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { RouteReuseStrategy } from '@angular/router';

import { IonicModule, IonicRouteStrategy } from '@ionic/angular';
import { SplashScreen } from '@ionic-native/splash-screen/ngx';
import { StatusBar } from '@ionic-native/status-bar/ngx';

import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { AppRoutingModule } from './app-routing.module';

import { Geolocation } from '@ionic-native/geolocation/ngx';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [AppComponent],
  entryComponents: [],
  imports: [BrowserModule, IonicModule.forRoot(), AppRoutingModule],
  providers: [
    StatusBar,
    SplashScreen,
    Geolocation,
    { provide: RouteReuseStrategy, useClass: IonicRouteStrategy }
  ],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule {}

Use Geolocation

In the home.page.html add a button to call getCoordinates() method and a list to watch location changes by looping the locationTraces object using *ngFor directive.

<ion-header [translucent]="true">
  <ion-toolbar>
    <ion-title>
      Ionic Action Sheet Demo
    </ion-title>
  </ion-toolbar>
</ion-header>

<ion-content [fullscreen]="true" class="ion-padding">

  <ion-list>

    <ion-item *ngFor="let location of locationTraces">
      <ion-label class="ion-text-wrap">
        <ion-label>Time: {{location.timestamp | date:'M/d/yy, h:mm a'}}</ion-label>
        <ion-label>Latitude: {{location.latitude}} Longitude: {{location.longitude}}</ion-label>
        <ion-label>Accuracy: {{location.accuracy}}</ion-label>
      </ion-label>
    </ion-item>

  </ion-list>

  <div class="ion-text-center">

    <ng-container *ngIf="!locationWatchStarted; else elseTemplate">
      <ion-button color="primary" (click)="getCoordinates()">Start Location</ion-button>
    </ng-container>
    <ng-template #elseTemplate>
      Location Watch Started!
    </ng-template>

  </div>




</ion-content>

Now in the home.page.ts file import Geolocation to use its methods getCurrentPosition() which returns the current device coordinates with other information:

The watchPosition() method keeps the track of changes in device location and returns the coordinates object when locations change.

// home.page.ts
import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { Geolocation } from '@ionic-native/geolocation/ngx';
@Component({
  selector: 'app-home',
  templateUrl: 'home.page.html',
  styleUrls: ['home.page.scss'],
})
export class HomePage {

  locationWatchStarted:boolean;
  locationSubscription:any;

  locationTraces = [];
  
  constructor(
    private geolocation: Geolocation
  ) { }

  getCoordinates() {
    this.geolocation.getCurrentPosition().then((resp) => {

      this.locationTraces.push({
        latitude:resp.coords.latitude,
        longitude:resp.coords.latitude,
        accuracy:resp.coords.accuracy,
        timestamp:resp.timestamp
      });

    }).catch((error) => {
      console.log('Error getting location', error);
    });

    this.locationSubscription = this.geolocation.watchPosition();
    this.locationSubscription.subscribe((resp) => {

      this.locationWatchStarted = true;
      this.locationTraces.push({
        latitude:resp.coords.latitude,
        longitude:resp.coords.latitude,
        accuracy:resp.coords.accuracy,
        timestamp:resp.timestamp
      });

    });
  }


}

In the locationTraces current and updated location will be pushed to show in list.