Runtime Error Cannot read property 'environment' of null - Ionic Google Maps

Question

I'm setting up my Ionic app and I've followed the Google Maps API documentation precisely. However, I have not been able to escape this error I keep getting when I try to run the Maps API:

And then this is my full code from the HomePage. I have made sure to put in a div in the home.html with the id="map_canvas" as well as set the height to 100% in the scss file for it. From what I've seen, the error seems to not like the Environment part, but I have made sure my API key is correct and I've run the correlating cordova commands to set up the google maps plug in. I just cannot see what could be causing this error.

import {
  GoogleMaps,
  GoogleMap,
  GoogleMapsEvent,
  GoogleMapOptions,
  Marker,
  Environment
} from '@ionic-native/google-maps';
import { Component } from "@angular/core/";

@Component({
  selector: 'page-home',
  templateUrl: 'home.html'
})
export class HomePage {
  map: GoogleMap;
  constructor() { }

  ionViewDidLoad() {
    this.loadMap();
  }

  loadMap() {

    // This code is necessary for browser
    Environment.setEnv({
      'API_KEY_FOR_BROWSER_RELEASE': 'I_ENTERED_MY_UNRESTRICTED_API_KEY_HERE',
      'API_KEY_FOR_BROWSER_DEBUG': ''
    });

    let mapOptions: GoogleMapOptions = {
      camera: {
        target: {
          lat: 43.0741904,
          lng: -89.3809802
        },
        zoom: 18,
        tilt: 30
      }
    };

    this.map = GoogleMaps.create('map_canvas', mapOptions);

    let marker: Marker = this.map.addMarkerSync({
      title: 'Ionic',
      icon: 'blue',
      animation: 'DROP',
      position: {
        lat: 43.0741904,
        lng: -89.3809802
      }
    });
    marker.on(GoogleMapsEvent.MARKER_CLICK).subscribe(() => {
      alert('clicked');
    });
  }
}

Answer 1

You need to build it for whatever platform that you want to use (ex. browser, android, ios) using

ionic cordova build browser -l

and then this will create the environment for it and thus it will be running. It does not simply work using ionic serve