Author: sick skills

Integrating Google Maps into a React app is a powerful location-based feature. It helps for live user tracking to delivery routes, geo-fencing, and real-time movement progression. It is one of the simplest jobs with the help of the Google Maps JavaScript API and React libraries.

Real-time location tracking improves the usability of your apps. It can be implemented for dashboards, for tracking location on Duty, or anything that involves dynamic location-based requirements.

This React example helps to integrate Google Maps into React. It renders dynamic maps to the UI and displays markers to pinpoint the live location. It continuously updates the user’s position using the browser’s Geolocation API.

Google Maps Integration steps

These are the few steps to enable required Google API services and configure the key credentials with the React App. This process builds a channel between the enduser and the Google cloud services for which they are registered with.

1. Login with Google Cloud Console and create a new project.
2. Choose APIs and Services and enable Maps JavaScript API.
3. Go to Credentials menu and CREATE CREDENTIALS -> API Key to generate API key.
4. Install React Google Maps library in your app using npm install @react-google-maps/api.
5. Configure this key to your React app when loading React Google Maps JS library.

The credentials page shows the list of API keys generated. You can restrict the keys for specific domains or for using particular Google API services.

Rendering Google Maps with current location

The TrackLocation JSX shows HTML components for displaying the Google Map and a location search option.

If the location search is not applied, it is showing the marker on the users current location.

src/components/TrackLocation.jsx

import { useState } from "react";
import SearchBox from "./SearchBox";
import MapContainerComponent from "./MapContainerComponent"; export default function TrackLocation() { const [searchQuery, setSearchQuery] = useState("");
return ( <div style={{ display: "flex" }}> <SearchBox onSearch={setSearchQuery} /> <MapContainerComponent searchQuery={searchQuery} /> </div> );
}

React Google Maps Component

This is the main component which initiates the React Google Maps library by configuring the Google Cloud API service key.

It manages React states for having the Map instance, map marker location and the searched location. The marker location is depends on two factors. It will be changed dynamically to show the real-time location of the user. Also, it is changed when the search is applied.

With the help of the client side Geo location capabilities, navigator.geolocation gets the latitude and longitude of the user’s position. Then it is used to build the location object to plot the marker to the map.

src/components/MapContainerComponent.jsx

import { useEffect, useState } from "react";
import { GoogleMap, useJsApiLoader } from "@react-google-maps/api";
import LocationMarker from "./LocationMarker"; export default function MapContainerComponent({ searchQuery }) { const [map, setMap] = useState(null); const [userLocation, setUserLocation] = useState(null); const [searchLocation, setSearchLocation] = useState(null); const { isLoaded } = useJsApiLoader({ googleMapsApiKey: "YOUR API KEY", libraries: ["places"], }); useEffect(() => { if (navigator.geolocation) { const watchId = navigator.geolocation.watchPosition( (pos) => { const newLoc = { lat: pos.coords.latitude, lng: pos.coords.longitude, }; setUserLocation(newLoc); if (map && !searchLocation) { map.setCenter(newLoc); map.setZoom(13); } }, (err) => console.error("Location error:", err), { enableHighAccuracy: true, maximumAge: 1000 } ); return () => navigator.geolocation.clearWatch(watchId); } else { console.error("Geolocation not supported"); } }, [map, searchLocation]); useEffect(() => { if (!searchQuery || !window.google || !map) return; const geocoder = new window.google.maps.Geocoder(); geocoder.geocode({ address: searchQuery }, (results, status) => { if (status === "OK" && results[0]) { const loc = results[0].geometry.location; const newSearchLoc = { lat: loc.lat(), lng: loc.lng() }; setSearchLocation(newSearchLoc); if (userLocation) { const bounds = new window.google.maps.LatLngBounds(); bounds.extend(userLocation); bounds.extend(newSearchLoc); map.fitBounds(bounds); } else { map.setCenter(newSearchLoc); map.setZoom(12); } } else { console.warn("Location not found for:", searchQuery); } }); }, [searchQuery, map, userLocation]); const zoomToLocation = (loc) => { if (!map || !loc) return; map.panTo(loc); map.setZoom(15); }; return ( <div className="map-container"> {isLoaded && ( <GoogleMap mapContainerStyle={{ width: "100%", height: "100vh" }} center={userLocation || { lat: 20.5937, lng: 78.9629 }} zoom={userLocation ? 13 : 5} onLoad={setMap} options={{ streetViewControl: false, mapTypeControl: false, fullscreenControl: false, }}> <LocationMarker position={userLocation} title="Your Location" onClick={() => zoomToLocation(userLocation)} /> <LocationMarker position={searchLocation} title="Tracked Location" onClick={() => zoomToLocation(searchLocation)} /> </GoogleMap> )} {userLocation && ( <button className="floating-btn" onClick={() => zoomToLocation(userLocation)}> My Location </button> )} </div> );
}

This LocationMarker component is part of the main React component that accepts the users location or searched location. It pins the marker to the Map based on the location details.

src/components/LocationMarker.js

import React from "react";
import { Marker } from "@react-google-maps/api"; export default function LocationMarker({ position, title, onClick }) { return position ? <Marker position={position} title={title} onClick={onClick} /> : null;
}

Google Maps Search feature

The search form contains interface to enter the place to mark on the Map. When the search is applied, the LocationMarker rendered with the position:searchLocation shows the marker on the right place.

src/components/SearchBox.jsx

import { useState } from "react"; export default function SearchBox({ onSearch }) { const [query, setQuery] = useState(""); const handleSubmit = (e) => { e.preventDefault(); if (query.trim()) onSearch(query); }; return ( <div className="search-sidebar"> <h3 className="sidebar-title">Track Location</h3> <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}> <input type="text" placeholder="Enter a place" value={query} onChange={(e) => setQuery(e.target.value)} className="search-input" /> <button type="submit" className="search-btn"> Search </button> </form> </div> );
}

Conclusion

Real-time location tracking in React becomes easy with the joint capabilities of the Geolocation API and Google Maps. It changes the user’s position on movement. This example enriches user experience with a live movement tracking feature. And, it will be easy to use in a location-based React application that needs to render users’ live locations.

References:

1. React Google Maps API wrapper.
2. Google Maps rendering best practices.

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Written by Vincy, a web developer with 15+ years of experience and a Masters degree in Computer Science. She specializes in building modern, lightweight websites using PHP, JavaScript, React, and related technologies. Phppot helps you in mastering web development through over a decade of publishing quality tutorials.

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A responsive navigation bar is a one of a must-needed requirement of any modern web application. It is an easy job if the navigation bar contains single level menu and action controls. But, it will be complex it is a multi-level menu to fit the layout into a small viewport.

With this React example code you’ll learn how to build a responsive React navbar. It includes a multi-level dropdown menu for different view port. It will a plugable and reusable React component for your different application frontend.

Responsive navbar in React header

This React JSX code has the a responsive navigation bar component. It provides 1) menu bar with Desktop and mobile variants, 2)sub menu bar with click-to-expand effect.

The menuData contains the array of multi-level menu items. The image shown below renders the horizontal menu on the site header.

src/components/Navbar/Navbar.jsx

import { useState } from "react";
import menuData from "./MenuData";
import Dropdown from "./DropDown";
import "../../../public/assets/css/style.css"; const Navbar = () => { const [menuOpen, setMenuOpen] = useState(false); const [openIndex, setOpenIndex] = useState(null); const toggleSubmenu = (index, e) => { if (window.innerWidth <= 768) { e.preventDefault(); setOpenIndex(openIndex === index ? null : index); } };
return ( <nav className="navbar"> <div className="navbar-container"> <h2 className="logo"></h2> <button className="menu-toggle" onClick={() => setMenuOpen(!menuOpen)} aria-label="Toggle menu" > ☰ </button> <ul className={`menu ${menuOpen ? "open" : ""}`}> {menuData.map((menu, i) => ( <li key={i} className="menu-item has-submenu"> <a href="#" onClick={(e) => toggleSubmenu(i, e)}> {menu.title} <span className="expand">▼</span> </a> {menu.subMenu && ( <Dropdown items={menu.subMenu} className={openIndex === i ? "open" : ""} /> )} </li> ))} </ul> </div> </nav>
);
};
export default Navbar;

These are the main and submenu items defined for this React example.

src/components/Navbar/MenuData.js

const menuData = [ { title: "Popular Toys", subMenu: [ { title: "Video Games", subMenu: [ { title: "Car", subMenu: ["Racing Car", "Toy Car", "Remote Car"] }, "Bike Race", "Fishing" ] }, "Barbies", "Teddy Bear", "Golf Set" ] }, { title: "Recent Toys", subMenu: [ "Yoyo", "Doctor Kit", { title: "Fun Puzzle", subMenu: ["Cards", "Numbers"] }, "Uno Cards" ] }, { title: "Toys Category", subMenu: [ "Battery Toys", { title: "Remote Toys", subMenu: ["Cars", "Aeroplane", "Helicopter"] }, "Soft Toys", "Magnet Toys" ] }
]; export default menuData;

React menu dropdown hooks to toggle submenu

A component Dropdown returns the submenu look-and-feel. The React state openIndex has the menu open/close state by its index.

The Dropdown component’s expand/collapse state is depends on the menuOpen set with a toggle action. The menu toggle effect is for the mobile view to slide down the menu options on clicking a burger icon.

src/components/Navbar/DropDown.jsx

import { useState } from "react"; const Dropdown = ({ items, className }) => { const [openIndex, setOpenIndex] = useState(null); const toggleSubmenu = (index, e) => { if (window.innerWidth <= 768) { e.preventDefault(); setOpenIndex(openIndex === index ? null : index); } }; return ( <ul className={`dropdown ${className || ""}`}> {items.map((item, i) => typeof item === "string" ? ( <li key={i}> <a href="#">{item}</a> </li> ) : ( <li key={i} className="has-submenu"> <a href="#" onClick={(e) => toggleSubmenu(i, e)}> {item.title} <span className="expand">›</span> </a> {item.subMenu && ( <Dropdown items={item.subMenu} className={openIndex === i ? "open" : ""} /> )} </li> ) )} </ul> );
};
export default Dropdown;

Mobile menu navbar view

This heading shows the mobile view of this responsive navbar. In the mobile view, a burger icon will be appeared on the top right corner of the web layout.

This icon’s click event is bound to toggle a sliding menu. In this sliding menu, each menu items are vertically expandable to show its submenu.

References:

1. Navigation bar modals with Material Design.
2. Free navigation bar templates by Figma.

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Written by Vincy, a web developer with 15+ years of experience and a Masters degree in Computer Science. She specializes in building modern, lightweight websites using PHP, JavaScript, React, and related technologies. Phppot helps you in mastering web development through over a decade of publishing quality tutorials.

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