use-google-autocomplete ⌨️

A tiny React Hook that returns Google Autocomplete results with session_token handling.

Problem

Google's Maps Javascript SDK gives us a default autocomplete experience, with a slightly customizable UI through class names; however, if we want to create a ground up search experience, we'll need to use their REST API. We want to have a hook that does something like this:

The two primary things we need to focus on are:

1. Handle session_tokens

Every time we send a request to the REST endpoint, we need to pass a session_token in order for Google to group shared calls together for billing purposes. Google recommends uuid4 ids, and after a bit of research, 3 minutes is the limit for the lifetime of a session_token, though we need to refresh the session_token when we make a new query to fetch more details about a specific place.

2. Debounce API calls

We dont' want to be sending an API call on every single keystroke, so we'll need to debounce each keystroke and only call the API when a user finishes typing.

The Solution

use-google-autocomplete handles session_tokens by using the recommended uuid4/v4 package to generate unique ids, renewing every 180000ms (3 minutes), and when a user calls getPlaceDetails() to fetch more information regarding a specific place.

The returned values from useGoogleAutocomplete will allow us to focus on creating a custom UI.

Usage

yarn add use-google-autocomplete

or

npm install use-google-autocomplete

import useGoogleAutocomplete from 'use-google-autocomplete'

const App = () => {

  // This will update each time a new `query` prop is passed.
  const { results, isLoading, error, getPlaceDetails } = useGoogleAutocomplete({
    apiKey: '<API_KEY>',
    query: 'New York',
    options: {
      types: '(cities)',
    },
  })


  return (
    <ul>
      {results.predictions.map(prediction => (
        <li key={prediction.place_id}>
          <Component prediction={prediction} />
        </li>
      })
    </ul>
  )
}

Props

apiKey

String value of your Google API key. Make sure to enable the Maps API in your console.

type

String value of 'places' or 'query' | defaults to 'places' This will determine if we use 'autocomplete' or 'queryautocomplete' (reference)

query

String value of a search query.

options

Object of Google options

Return values

results

Array of Google search results

isLoading

Boolean | True when fetching Google API data

error

Null or string value of the current error, if there is any.

getPlaceDetails

Function getPlaceDetails( placeId: string, placeDetailOptions: { fields?: string[], region?: string, language?: string })

This function must be used if you are trying to get more information about a place (ex; latitude/longitude). It'll fetch the Place data and renew our session_token.