Google Maps Location APIs

APIs Used

1. Maps JavaScript API

Purpose: Display the interactive Google Map in the React frontend.

Used for:

• Showing the map

• Moving the map

• Clicking on the map

• Dragging the marker

• Selecting latitude/longitude

Frontend example:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js

2. Places Autocomplete API

Purpose: Show address/location suggestions while the customer types.

Example:

Customer types:
"isb"

Google returns:
Islamabad, Pakistan
Islamabad International Airport
Islamabad Capital Territory
...

Current Laravel endpoint:

GET /checkout/autocomplete?query=isb

Current Google endpoint:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json

Important: Google returned:

REQUEST_DENIED
You must enable Billing on the Google Cloud Project

Therefore, billing must be enabled on the Google Cloud project connected to the API key.

3. Geocoding API

Purpose: Convert an address into latitude and longitude.

Example:

"Islamabad, Pakistan"
        ↓
lat: 33.6844
lng: 73.0479

Current Laravel service:

GoogleMapsGeocodingService

Endpoint:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json

4. Routes API / Distance Calculation

Purpose: Calculate driving distance and travel time between restaurant and customer.

Example:

Restaurant
    ↓
  driving
    ↓
Customer
    ↓
8.4 km

For a simple delivery radius, such as:

Restaurant radius = 10 km

we can use the existing Haversine calculation locally instead of making a Google request.

This can reduce API usage.

Recommended Checkout Flow

Customer enters address
          ↓
Places Autocomplete
          ↓
Customer selects suggestion
          ↓
Get latitude + longitude
          ↓
Check delivery area
          ↓
┌───────────────────────┐
│ Within delivery area? │
└───────────────────────┘
       ↓           ↓
      YES          NO
       ↓           ↓
   Continue      Reject
   checkout      delivery

Google APIs vs Local Calculation

Important

Google Maps Platform requires billing to be enabled for the project for the Google service currently being used.

error:

REQUEST_DENIED
You must enable Billing on the Google Cloud Project