Places Search

Places search provider plugins need to extend the LocationProvider class:

class MyplaceSearchPlugin : LocationProvider(
    QueryPluginConfig()
)

In the super constructor call, pass a QueryPluginConfig object.

Plugin config

Search plugins have the following configuration properties:

• storageStrategy: Describes how the launcher should store a search result in its internal database. This is relevant when a user pins a search result to favorites, or when they assign a tag or custom label. In these situations, the launcher needs to be able to restore the search result from its database. There are two different strategies:
  • StorageStrategy.StoreCopy (default): The launcher stores all relevant information about this search result in its own internal database. The result can be restored without querying the plugin again. The launcher will try refresh the search result at its own discretion (e.g. when a user long-presses a restored search result to view its details). This strategy is the default and should be used whenever the plugin can't restore a search result immediately. It is best suited for online search plugins.
  • StorageStrategy.StoreReference: The launcher only stores the ID of the search result, and the plugin that created it. To restore a result, the plugin is queried again. This allows the plugin to update key fields (i.e. the label) immediately. However, plugins that use this strategy must guarantee, that they can restore a search result at any time, in a timely manner. In particular, the plugin must be able to restore a search result without any network requests. This strategy is best suited for on-device search plugins.

Search places

To implement place search, override

suspend fun search(query: LocationQuery, params: SearchParams): List<Location>

• query includes the query parameters:

  • query: The search term
  • userLatitude: The latitude of the user's current location
  • userLongitude: The longitude of the user's current location
  • radius: The search radius in meters

• params provides additional parameters for the search:

  • allowNetwork is a flag that indicates whether the user has enabled online search for this query. Plugins are generally advised to respect this request. This flag exists mainly for privacy reasons: the majority of searches target offline results (like apps, or contacts). Sending every single search request to external servers is overkill and can be a privacy issue. (Besides, it's not very nice to overload servers with unnecessary requests.) To reduce the amount of data that is sent to external servers, users can control, whether a search should include online results or not.
  • lang is the current language of the launcher. This can differ from the system language, as the user can set a different language per app. This value should be used for any localization in the search results.

search returns a list of Locations. The list can be empty if no results were found.

The Location object

A Location has the following properties:

• id: A unique and stable identifier for this location. This is used to track usage stats so if two places are identical, they must have the same ID, and if they are different, they need to have different IDs.
• label: The name that is shown to the user
• latitude: The latitude of the location
• longitude: The longitude of the location
• icon: An enum value of LocationIcon that determines the icon that is shown for this location
• category: A human readable category of the location. For example, "Restaurant", "Hotel", or "Museum". This should be localized with the params.lang parameter.
• address: The address of the location
• websiteUrl: The URL of the location's website
• phoneNumber: The phone number of the location
• emailAddress: The email address of the location
• openingSchedule: Either
  • OpeningSchedule.TwentyFourSeven if the location is open at all times
  • OpeningSchedule.Hours(openingHours: List<OpeningHours>) if the location has specific opening hours, with each OpeningHours object containing:
    • dayOfWeek: The day of the week, as DayOfWeek enum value. If a location is open past midnight, dayOfWeek should refer to the day when the opening hours start.
    • startTime: The time the location opens, as a LocalTime object
    • duration: The duration the location is open, as a Duration object
• departures: If the place is a public transport station, this field contains the next departures from this station. This is a list of Departure objects, each containing:
  • time: The scheduled departure time as ZonedDateTime
  • delay: The delay as Duration. If the departure is on time, this must be Duration.ZERO. If no real-time data is available, this should be null.
  • line: The line name (e.g. "S1", "U2", or "73")
  • lastStop: The destination of the line
  • type: The type of the line, as LineType enum value
  • lineColor: The color of the line, as a Color
  • userRating: A user rating of this location, on a scale from 0 to 1. This is multiplied by 5 and shown as a star rating bar in the launcher.
  • userRatingCount: The number of user ratings that were used to calculate the userRating
  • fixMeUrl: A URL where users can report incorrect data for this location.
  • attribution: Attribution that should be shown alongside the search result (read the data provider's terms of service to find out if this is required).

Refresh a place

If you have set config.storageStrategy to StorageStrategy.StoreCopy, the launcher will periodically try to refresh the stored copy. This happens for example when a user long-presses a place to view its details. To update the place, you can override

suspend fun refresh(item: Location, params: RefreshParams): Location?

The stored place will be replaced with the return value of this method. If the place is no longer available, it should return null. In this case, the launcher will remove it from its database. If the place is temporarily unavailable, an exception should be thrown.

• item is the version that the launcher has currently stored

• params provides additional parameters:

  • lang is the current language of the launcher. This can differ from the system language, as the user can set a different language per app. This value should be used to localize the result.
  • lastUpdated the timestamp (in milliseconds) when item was last updated. This should be used to determine if the item needs to be refreshed again. If you decide not to refresh the item, you should return the original item parameter.

The default implementation returns item without any changes.

Get a place

If you have set config.storageStrategy to StorageStrategy.StoreReference, you must override

suspend fun get(id: String, params: GetParams): Location?

This method is used to lookup a place by its id. If the place is no longer available, it should return null. In this case, the launcher will remove it from its database.

• id is the ID of the place that is being requested

• params provides additional parameters:

  • lang is the current language of the launcher. This can differ from the system language, as the user can set a different language per app. This value should be used to localize the result.

Plugin state

Some plugins need to be configured before they can be used. For example, users might need to connect an account, or provide an API key.

If your plugin has such requirements, you can override

suspend fun getPluginState(): PluginState

This method can either return PluginState.Ready, or PluginState.SetupRequired.

• PluginState.Ready can have a status text to describe what the plugin does in its current configuration. For example "Search {username}'s files on {service}". This overrides the plugin's description.
• PluginState.SetupRequired needs to have a setupActivity Intent that starts the setup. You can also provide a message to describe what kind of setup needs to be performed. For example "Sign in with {service} to search files on {service}"

IMPORTANT

This method is only meant to provide hints to the launcher's user interface. You should not rely on it as a safeguard for your other plugin methods. There is still a chance that your other plugin methods are called regardless of the return value of this method. Make sure to check your requirements in the other plugin methods as well.

Examples

• Foursquare plugin
• HERE plugin