googleMaps in Twig & PHP

Whether you are working in Twig or PHP, the GoogleMaps helper class exists to make your life a little easier. It includes wrapper methods for some of the most common use-cases you will encounter.

Using it in Twig

As long as this plugin is installed and enabled, the googleMaps object will be globally available in Twig. Nothing else needs to be done to instantiate it.

Using it in PHP

You must be sure to use the helper class in order to reference it in your own plugin or module.

use doublesecretagency\googlemaps\helpers\GoogleMaps;

Throughout these docs, you will see references to GoogleMaps in PHP. Although it's rarely stated, in each instance you must make sure to use the helper class.

When should I rely on the helper methods?

As much as possible. If there is a helper method which directly addresses the problem that you are trying to solve, it is preferable to use the helper method rather than the underlying service method (or whatever the helper method may be wrapping). The goal of this is to provide consistency and uniformity across and within projects.

However, if your use case is not covered by this collection of helper methods, then feel free to rely directly on the underlying service methods. It's unrealistic to expect the helper methods to cover 100% of use-cases, so do what you must in order to get the job done.

The helper class makes things easier across several major features...

Feature	What do the helper methods do?
Dynamic Maps	Create and/or retrieve existing dynamic maps.
Static Maps	Create static maps.
Geocoding	Perform a geocoding address lookup.
Visitor Geolocation	Determine a visitor's location via geolocation.
API Service	Manually manage the Google API keys.