Show User's Location aka. Blue Dot

For a full implementation of this, please see here.

In this tutorial we will show how you can show a blue dot on the map, representing the users location. The position will be served from a mocked positioning provider and displayed on a map in a view controller.

We will start by creating our implementation of a positioning provider.

Create a class MyPositionProvider that inherits from NSObject and implements MPPositionProvider.

class MyPositionProvider : NSObject, MPPositionProvider {

Add some member variables to MyPositionProvider.

• delegate: The delegate object

• running: A running state boolean flag

• latestPosition: The latest positioning result

INFO

The following properties are not included in this example since position is mocked but may be necessary depending upon your use case.

• preferAlwaysLocationPermission: A boolean that indicates whether this provider requires Apple Location Services to always be active

• locationServicesActive: A boolean that indicates whether Apple Location Services is currently active

• providerType: A provider type enum, convenient when working with multiple positioning providers in the same application

Create a method called updatePosition. This will be our "loop" constantly posting a new position to the delegate.

• Check if the provider has a running state

• Assign a new MPPositionResult to latestPosition

• Assign a new position point

• Optionally specify that heading is available and set a heading

• Notify the delegate by calling onPositionUpdate passing the new position as argument

• Schedule a new delayed call of this method

func updatePosition() {
    if running {
        latestPosition?.bearing = (latestPosition!.bearing + 10)
        latestPosition?.coordinate = generateRandomCoordinate()
        latestPosition?.bearing = Double.random(in: 0..<360)
        latestPosition?.accuracy = Double.random(in: 0..<10)
            
        if let delegate = self.delegate, let latestPosition = self.latestPosition {
                delegate.onPositionUpdate(position: latestPosition)
        }
        weak var _self = self
            DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 1) {
                _self?.updatePosition()
        }
    }
}

Implement the startPositioning method. We set the running boolean to true and call updatePos.

func startPositioning(_ arg: String?) {
    running = true
    updatePosition()
}

Implement the stopPositioning method. We set the running boolean to false.

func stopPositioning(_ arg: String?) {
    running = false
}

Create a view controller displaying a map that shows the user's "mocked" location​

Create a class ShowMyLocationController that inherits from UIViewController.

class ShowMyLocationController: UIViewController {

Inside viewDidLoad or any method of your app's lifecycle, generate and apply a random position, you may optionally also override the default icon for blue dot

 if let validPosition = await getRandomLocation()?.position {
    let provider = MyPositionProvider(mockAt: validPosition)

    MPMapsIndoors.shared.positionProvider = provider
    mapControl?.showUserPosition = true

    provider.startPositioning(nil)

    if let dr = MPMapsIndoors.shared.displayRuleFor(displayRuleType: .blueDot)
    {
        originalIcon = dr.icon
        // Optionally override the icon for the blue dot by supplying another image
        dr.icon = UIImage(named: "MyOwnPositionIcon")
    }
}

Inside viewDidLoad, we

• Tell mapControl to show the users location

• Assign your position provider MyPositionProvider to MapsIndoors.positionProvider and then finally,

• Start positioning

It is possible to change the default icon for the user position to include heading by using an image included in the MapsIndoors bundle:

if let assetPath = Bundle(identifier: "com.mapspeople.mapsindoors")?.bundlePath,
   let assetBundle = Bundle(path: assetPath + "/MapsIndoors.bundle") {
    let directionImage = UIImage(named: "Mylocation_direction", in: assetBundle, with: nil)
    dr.icon = directionImage
}