Finding Location : Google Play Location Service or Android platform location APIs

Question

i am trying to get the users location for my new navigation app. i want to check the users location frequently and it has to be accurate . I use the following code from sample to get the location .

public class MainActivity extends Activity implements LocationListener {
private LocationManager locationManager;
private String provider;
private TextView a;
private TextView b;

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    a = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.a);
    b = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.b);

    locationManager = (LocationManager) getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);
    Criteria criteria = new Criteria();
    provider = locationManager.getBestProvider(criteria, false);
    Location location = locationManager.getLastKnownLocation(provider);

    if (location != null) {
        System.out.println("Provider " + provider + " has been selected.");
        onLocationChanged(location);
    } else {
        a.setText("Location not available");
        b.setText("Location not available");
    }
}

@Override
protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(provider,0, 1, this);
}

@Override
protected void onPause() {
    super.onPause();
    locationManager.removeUpdates(this);
}

@Override
public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
    Double lat =  location.getLatitude();
    Double lng =  location.getLongitude();
    a.setText(String.valueOf(lat));
    b.setText(String.valueOf(lng));
}

@Override
public void onStatusChanged(String provider, int status, Bundle extras) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub

}

@Override
public void onProviderEnabled(String provider) {
    Toast.makeText(this, "Enabled new provider " + provider,
            Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

}

@Override
public void onProviderDisabled(String provider) {
    Toast.makeText(this, "Disabled provider " + provider,
            Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
}

But location cordinates are not updating as i move,i get a constant value always ... is there any better way to get location ? According to to android docs i can use Google Play Location Service or Android platform location APIs for this . I checked the sample code for both and it implements the LocationListener interface to get the user location .So whats the actual difference between them?

Answer 1

Absolutely use the new google play location services. They work much better indoors than the old location manager. I have created a sample that uses the new google play location services and works in the background periodically. Check it out:

https://github.com/nickfox/GpsTracker/tree/master/phoneClients/android