Leaflet-search
Search Control for Leaflet
Leaflet-search is a Search Control for the Leaflet open source JavaScript map library. It makes use of one of several geocoding services.
A demo of Leaflet-search is here.
Here is Leaflet-search's GitHub page.
Installing
Install Leaflet-search with npm:
npm i @sjaakp/leaflet-search
You can also manually install Leaflet-search by downloading the source in ZIP-format.
Apart from Leaflet itself, Leaflet-search has no dependencies. There is no need to load jQuery or other libraries (though it won't hurt).
Usage
A minimum HTML page with a Leaflet-search would look something like this:
<html>
<head>
<link href="//unpkg.com/leaflet/dist/leaflet.css" rel="stylesheet">
</head>
<body>
<div id="m"></div>
<script src="//unpkg.com/leaflet/dist/leaflet.js"></script>
<script src="leaflet-search.js"></script>
<script>
var map = L.map("m" /* , { ... map options ... } */);
map.setGeocoder('Nominatim' /* , { ... Geocoder options ... } */);
map.addControl(L.control.search({ ... Search options ...}));
</script>
</body>
</html>
The assets for Leaflet are loaded, as well as those for Leaflet-search (a single
js-file). A Leaflet Map is initialized. The Leaflet map now has a new method:
-
setGeocoder(<string> name, <Object> options?)Set the geocoder with options. Return:this.
CDN
Leaflet-search is available on the unpkg Content Delivery Network, so you
don't have to host the leaflet-search.js file on your own server. In this case,
the Leaflet-search can be loaded like this:
<script src="//unpkg.com/@sjaakp/leaflet-search/dist/leaflet-search.js"></script>
L.Control.Search
Leaflet-search defines a new Leaflet Control:
L.Control.Search. It places a button on the map, which expands to a text input field that
accepts free-form addresses.
L.Control.Search inherits the position
property from L.Control. Following the Leaflet-habit, a new L.Control.Search can be created
by L.control.search(<options>), so adding Leaflet-search to a Map boils down to:
map.addControl(L.control.search({ position: 'bottomright' });
Geocoder
Leaflet-search retrieves its information from a geocoding service. The service is initialized by:
map.setGeocoder('<geocoder name>', { <geocoder options> });
Generally, options will be empty, apart from the API Key some providers expect, and which often can be obtained free of charge. Other options may be added.
Currently, Leaflet-search supports the following providers (there may be more in the future):
| Name | Required option | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominatim | free, by OpenStreetMap | |
| GeoNames | free | { username: '...' } |
| Here | commercial | { apiKey: '...' } |
| TomTom | commercial | { key: '...' } |
| Kadaster | Netherlands only |
Notice that some providers may stipulate that you should use their service only on map tiles of the same provider.
If you don't explicitly set a geocoder, Leaflet-search uses Nominatim.