Project README

This project aims to provide a comprehensive guide to building a frontend application that integrates the Google Maps API with React. The guide covers everything from setting up the project to adding advanced features like geocoding and routing.

Introduction

The article will walk through the process of integrating Google Maps API into a React application to create interactive maps with location-based services. The guide will cover setting up the project, creating UI components, creating a map component, and adding features like custom markers, distance between two points, search for a location, and custom overlays.

Project Setup and Structure

This project is broken down into different branches for each feature to make it easier to follow along with the guide. The branches are as follows:

• main - The main branch contains the final code for the project.
• setup - The setup branch contains the code for setting up the project.
• map-component - The map-component branch contains the code for creating the map component.
• ui-components - The ui-components branch contains the code for creating UI components.
• map-features/add-markers - The map-features branch contains the code for adding features to the map component.
• map-features/custom-markers - The map-features branch contains the code for adding custom Markers features to the map component.
• map-features/custom-overlay - The map-features branch contains the code for adding Overlay features to the map component.
• map-features/geolocation - The map-features branch contains the code for adding features to the map component.
• map-features/location-search - The map-features branch contains the code for adding features to the map component.
• map-features/distance - The map-features branch contains the code for adding features to the map component.

Prerequisites

This guide assumes that you have a basic understanding of React, JavaScript, Next.js and Tailwind CSS. This project uses Node.js v16.17.0 You should also have a Google account and a Google Cloud Platform account to create a Google Maps API key.

Getting Started

The guide will cover the following steps to get started with the project:

1. Setting up the project using Next.js, Typescript and Tailwind CSS
2. Creating a global context and Google Maps API context
3. Creating UI components for the application and making them responsive
4. Creating the map component
5. Adding features to the map component
6. Adding advanced features such as distance, geolocation, creating custom markers, and creating custom overlays like Airbnb