A React hook to access data from the Geolocation API.
Using npm
:
npm install --save react-hook-geolocation
Using yarn
:
yarn add react-hook-geolocation
import useGeolocation from "react-hook-geolocation";
const ComponentWithGeolocation = () => {
const geolocation = useGeolocation();
return !geolocation.error ? (
<ul>
<li>Latitude: {geolocation.latitude}</li>
<li>Longitude: {geolocation.longitude}</li>
<li>Location accuracy: {geolocation.accuracy}</li>
<li>Altitude: {geolocation.altitude}</li>
<li>Altitude accuracy: {geolocation.altitudeAccuracy}</li>
<li>Heading: {geolocation.heading}</li>
<li>Speed: {geolocation.speed}</li>
<li>Timestamp: {geolocation.timestamp}</li>
</ul>
) : (
<p>No geolocation, sorry.</p>
);
};
There is a way to use PositionOptions
to fine tune response coming from watchPosition
of the Geolocation API.
If you want to use this feature, simply provide useGeolocation
with a PositionOptions
object:
const geolocation = useGeolocation({
enableHighAccuracy: true,
maximumAge: 15000,
timeout: 12000,
});
You can supply a second parameter to useGeolocation
which will be called every time the data from the Geolocation API is updated. This callback function is then called with the geolocation
object with all its properties.
If you don't use PositionOptions
, I recommend that you supply {}
as your first argument.
const onGeolocationUpdate = (geolocation) => {
console.log("Here’s some new data from the Geolocation API: ", geolocation);
};
const geolocation = useGeolocation({}, onGeolocationUpdate);
The best practice is to only try to geolocate the user on the user’s request, or at least when it is indicated to the user why the browser is asking for their location.
If you would like to bail out of this hook immediately asking for geolocation access from the user when the component mounts, you can pass a third isEnabled
parameter to the hook with the value false
, and set it to true
later once the reason for asking for geolocation is indicated to the user.
const geolocation = useGeolocation({}, () => {}, false);
Setting this parameter from true
to false
will not cut access to already retrieved geolocation data, it will however stop watching for changes in geolocation data until the parameter is set back to true
again.
Access to data from the Geolocation API needs user permission.
If permission to access geolocation was previously granted by the user, geolocation data will be available. If permission to access was not granted previously, the user will be prompted to give permission when the component mounts.
If permission was previously denied by the user, if the user agent does not support the Geolocation API, or if some other error occurs, the object returned from the hook will still contain all members, and values will be null
. If you are lucky, geolocation.error.message
and geolocation.error.code
might contain something useful to help you determine what went wrong.
Geolocation API is available only in secure contexts (a.k.a. only using HTTPS).
Getting geolocation data can take time, especially with high accuracy enabled – getting a GPS fix can take up to a minute.
Contributions are welcome. File bug reports, create pull requests, feel free to reach out at [email protected].