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):

NameRequired option
Nominatimfree, by OpenStreetMap
GeoNamesfree{ username: '...' }
Herecommercial{ apiKey: '...' }
TomTomcommercial{ key: '...' }
KadasterNetherlands 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.


Source and download on GitHub