The easiest way to store flutter maps for offline usage

🧪 Although mantained and currently being worked on, the package is very young and under development

Features

Mapplet has been designed with simplicity in mind. The code has been provided with the strict necessary to allow developers to store maps for offline usage using the packet flutter_map.

Also, it includes a useful layer for flutter_map that allows to easily display the user's current location automatically.

Definitions

Region

A region is an area identified by its LatLngBounds

Depot

Identifies a storage that can contain an arbitrary number of Regions. Tiles inside a depot are dynamically shared among regions in order to prevent redownload and save space. Any number of depots can be created during the setup

Main features

  • Store and delete regions by id: each Depot can contain many regions
  • Save space: Mapplet detects already stored tiles shared among regions inside each Depot and prevent redownload automatically
  • Parallel fetch: region tiles are fetched with multiple workers and written in batches on the internal database. This allows for transaction-like operations with clean abort and commit.
  • Extremely fast learning curve: Mapplet exposes only the strictly necessary to the developer. With a single point of configuration, integrating the package in projects is very easy.
  • A simple and ready to use layer for flutter_map that allows to easily display the user's current location automatically.

Getting started

Initialize the packet

The packet is initialized by calling a single function and passing the configuration of each single depot. In order to make the package very simple and functional, the DepotConfiguration is the single element used for configuring the behaviour of each Depot in Mapplet.

await Mapplet.initiate([
        DepotConfiguration(
            id: String,
            minZoom: double,
            maxZoom: double,
            directory: String,
            urlTemplate: String
        ),
        ...
    ]);

Each configuration specified here will result in a single Depot being created under the hood.

❗Version ^1.1.0

  • DepotConfiguration requires the directory field. It is recommended to use the package path_provider to request a directory location that adapts to different platforms using getApplicationDocumentsDirectory().

Usage

Store a region

To store a region, firstly create the LatLngBounds that describes the region to be stored. Mapplet exposes some useful methods to handle regions:

var center = LatLng(46, 12);
// Create a [LatLngBounds] specifying its center and the distance in kilometers from center.
// The result is a square region with half side equal to the specified distance
var bounds = LatLngBoundsExtensions.fromDelta(center, 10);

Then retrieve the instance of the Depot and run the fetch operation

var depot = await Mapplet.depot("my_depot");

var depositOp = await depot.depositRegion("region_id", bounds);
// Listen for abort events
depositOp.onAbort.listen((_) async {
    // Do something O.o
});
// Listen for commit event called when the region is commited to the database
depositOp.onCommit.listen((commitFuture) async {
    // Do something
});
// Start the fetching operation
var stream = depositOp.fetch();
// Wait for progress reports
await for (final progress in stream) {
    // Handle progress
    // Or, whenever you want, abort the operation
    await depositOp.abort();
}

Delete a region

Yes, simple as this.

var depot = await Mapplet.depot("my_depot");
await depot.dropRegion("region_id");

Use the TileProvider

Again, two lines of code. Mapplet has a single tile providers associated with each Depot.

  • Tries to get the tiles from the storage
  • Otherwise, fetches it from the web
  • Automatically updates stored tiles based on the evict period defined in the DepotConfiguration
var depot = await Mapplet.depot("my_depot");
var tileProvider = depot.getTileProvider();

Additional information

There are some useful methods in the extensions module of Mapplet. They are automatically imported with the root import.

Extensions subjects:

  • LatLngBounds
  • int
  • LatLng
  • List<LatLng>

Current location layer

Mapplet includes also a useful layer to automatically display the user's current location in the map.

To access it, simply add the LocationWatcherLayer to flutter_map:

LocationWatcherLayer(
    positionStream: _positionStream.stream,
    style: LocationWatcherLayerStyle(
        showAccuracyCircle: false,
        directionRadius: 64,
        directionAngle: 80,
        showDirection: widget.showDirectionSector,
        markerSize: const Size.square(20),
        directionColor: Colors.red,
        locationMarker: DecoratedBox(
        decoration: BoxDecoration(
            color: Colors.white,
            shape: BoxShape.circle,
        ),
        child: Padding(
            padding: const EdgeInsets.all(2),
            child: DecoratedBox(
            decoration: BoxDecoration(
                color: Colors.red,
                shape: BoxShape.circle,
            ),
            ),
        ),
        ),
    ),
)

Libraries

mapplet