Get Started

Thank you for using the HERE SDK for Flutter. The HERE SDK is tailored to bring the best and freshest assets from the HERE platform to your mobile applications. It supports a broad range of devices allowing you to reach millions of users worldwide. Further details can be found below:

• Minimum Requirements
• Supported Devices

Get Your Credentials

When using the HERE SDK, your application must be authenticated with a set of credentials.

For this, you need to acquire a set of credentials by registering yourself on developer.here.com - or ask your HERE representative.

The HERE SDK for Flutter requires two strings - one unique ID and a secret key - to operate. No other credentials or tokens are needed to use the HERE SDK. To obtain your personal access_key_id and access_key_secret, do the following:

1. Register or sign in at developer.here.com.
2. After creating your project, generate an app to obtain an access key ID and access key secret.

You can either choose an existing project or Select a plan for a new project. Then scroll down to the HERE SDK product family and click Create a Key. You can create two sets of keys. Below this button you can download the HERE SDK artifacts which consist of the Flutter plugin (the zipped HERE SDK plugin folder to include in your app(s)) and selected documentation files.

Try the Example Apps

The easiest way to get started, is to try one of the example projects that are available for the HERE SDK.

Choose an example of your choice, then set your credentials for the individual Android and iOS projects:

Inside the example app's folder, open /android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml and set your credentials (key / secret) to:

<meta-data android:name="com.here.sdk.access_key_id" android:value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID"/>
<meta-data android:name="com.here.sdk.access_key_secret" android:value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET"/>

Open /ios/Runner/Info.plist and set your credentials (key / secret) to:

<key>AccessKeyId</key>
<string>YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID</string>
<key>AccessKeySecret</key>
<string>YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET</string>

Now unzip the HERE SDK for Flutter plugin, rename the folder to 'here_sdk' and place it to the plugins folder inside the example app's directory.

Finally, make sure that a device is attached or that an emulator (Android) or simulator (iOS) is running. Execute flutter run from the directory of the example on your terminal - or run the app from within your IDE.

Feel free to experiment with the code of the examples. You can also follow the guide below to get a more detailed introduction on how to use the HERE SDK to build apps.

Create a New HERE SDK for Flutter Project

As a very first step-by-step example, we will develop a "Hello Map" Flutter application that shows - yes! - a map. If you want to integrate the HERE SDK into an existing application, you can skip this step. No specific SDK code is involved here.

If you are new to Flutter, please follow the guides on flutter.dev to help you get started with the first steps.

The example code for "hello_map" is available from here.

You don't need any advanced Flutter or Android or iOS experience to follow this step-by-step instruction.

For this guide, we have used Android Studio version 3.5 and Xcode version 11.3. In addition, we have used:

• Flutter 1.17.0-3.4.pre
• Dart version 2.8.1

To create a new HERE SDK for Flutter project:

First, create a new Flutter project, we have called it "hello_map". Make sure you can run your new Flutter project on an Android and iOS device of your choice to make sure that your Flutter SDK is configured correctly. If it does not work, please refer to the Flutter documentation.

If you don't want to support both platforms, you can skip the steps for either iOS or Android. Note that the HERE SDK for Flutter does not support web and desktop apps.

As soon as you have verified that everything is set up correctly, it's time to integrate the HERE SDK for Flutter.

Note that the HERE SDK is only available as a separate download. Artifactory support is not yet available.

Make sure you have unzipped the HERE SDK plugin.

Create a plugins folder inside your project and copy the plugin folder to hello_map/plugins/here_sdk.

Open the pubspec.yaml file of your Flutter project and add the path from above to the dependencies section. If you are not sure where to add this, it should look as follows:

dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter

  cupertino_icons: ^0.1.3

  # The following adds the HERE SDK for Flutter plugin folder to your application.
  here_sdk:
    path: plugins/here_sdk

Of course, if you want, you can rename the plugin folder and adjust the path.

If the path is specified correctly, you can execute flutter pub get from your terminal and the HERE SDK should appear in your project tree. For example, if you are using Android Studio, it will appear under External Libraries -> Flutter Plugins.

After you have executed flutter pub get (or clicked the respective Packages get button in Android Studio or any other IDE), a new Podfile is created for iOS. Open hello_map/ios/Podfile and set the platform to the minimum supported iOS version:

# Uncomment this line to define a global platform for your project
platform :ios, '12.0'

Then open hello_map/ios/Runner.xcworkspace and set the deployment target to the same iOS version (via Xcode: General -> Deployment Info -> Target). This step is needed if you want to build your app later on with flutter build ios from the terminal for release.

Now, adjust the minimum supported Android SDK version and open /hello_map/android/app/build.gradle to change the minSdkVersion to:

minSdkVersion 21

Finally, it's time to set the credentials for authenticating the HERE SDK.

Open /hello_map/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml and add the following meta-data tags nested under the application tag:

<application
    android:name="io.flutter.app.FlutterApplication"
    android:label="hellomap"
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher">

<meta-data android:name="com.here.sdk.access_key_id" android:value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID"/>
<meta-data android:name="com.here.sdk.access_key_secret" android:value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET"/>
...

Do the same for iOS, then open /hello_map/ios/Runner/Info.plist and add:

<key>HERECredentials</key>
  <dict>
      <key>AccessKeyId</key>
      <string>YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID</string>
      <key>AccessKeySecret</key>
      <string>YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET</string>
  </dict>

<key>io.flutter.embedded_views_preview</key>
<true/>

Make sure to set your own credentials (key / secret).

Note that we also added the key io.flutter.embedded_views_preview, since the HERE SDK map is natively rendered as UiKitView.

Now, all preparation work is done and you can start using the HERE SDK.

Let's start coding.

Below you can see how to show a HERE map view. Remove all the code from your main.dart file and replace it with the following:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:here_sdk/core.dart';
import 'package:here_sdk/mapview.dart';

void main() {
  SdkContext.init(IsolateOrigin.main);
  runApp(MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'HERE SDK for Flutter - Hello Map!',
      home: HereMap(onMapCreated: _onMapCreated),
    );
  }

  void _onMapCreated(HereMapController hereMapController) {
    hereMapController.mapScene.loadSceneForMapScheme(MapScheme.normalDay,
        (MapError error) {
      if (error != null) {
        print('Map scene not loaded. MapError: ${error.toString()}');
        return;
      }

      const double distanceToEarthInMeters = 8000;
      hereMapController.camera.lookAtPointWithDistance(
          GeoCoordinates(52.530932, 13.384915), distanceToEarthInMeters);
    });
  }
}

The HERE SDK requires initialization of its native libraries via SdkContext, which should happen before your app is started. Therefore, we updated the main() function of the Flutter project.

Since the HereMap is already implemented as a stateful widget, you can set it directly as the home for your app. The private _onMapCreated callback notifies us when the HereMapController instance is created. The HereMapController allows you to interact with the map.

Before you can see any vector tiles on the map, we must load a map scheme. Here we load MapScheme.normalDay. As an exercise, try out other available map schemes.

The view onto the map can be defined via the camera object. In the example above we show a location in Berlin, Germany.

Now, it's time to build and run the app. Attach a device or start an emulator or simulator and execute flutter run from the app's directory - or run the app from within your IDE. If all goes well, you should see a HERE map covering the screen.

Note that all HERE SDK classes that contain a release() method will not be garbage collected if the instance is no longer referenced or set to null. Therefore, in case you need to clean up the memory, it is recommended to call release() on all instances that are no longer needed for the rest of the lifetime of an app.

Handle Android Permissions

The HERE SDK for Flutter automatically merges all required permissions to the AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

There are no HERE SDK specific requirements on how to handle permissions.

You can use a convenience class, to keep you away from the boiler plate code. Since Flutter does not take care of Android permission handling, you need to integrate this into the generated native Android project like shown here.

Permissions such as INTERNET and ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE are immediately granted upon installation by the system - they are always needed, as the HERE SDK needs to have a working internet connection. The other more sensible permissions must be explicitly granted by the user. The external storage permissions will help to optimize cached map data. Be aware that a user can deny any permission after installation via the device's app settings. Therefore it is recommended to add permission handling to notify the user upon app launch.

HERE Logo Watermark

When using the HERE SDK, it is required that the HERE logo is always visible on the map view. By default, the HERE logo is located at the bottom right corner of the map. However, you can easily customize its location to meet your app design by calling setWatermarkPosition() on your map view instance. It is recommended to change the default placement, only when it is required due to overlapping UI elements.

What's Next?

This is quick start guide is just a starting point. Take a look at our example apps on GitHub and browse through the API Reference to discover a lot more exciting features. With the next releases we plan more tutorials and example apps. Stay tuned and thank you for using the HERE SDK for Flutter!

Need Help?

If you need help with this or any other HERE product, select one of the options below.

• If you have a HERE representative, contact them when you have questions/issues.
• If you manage your applications and accounts through developer.here.com, log into your account and check the pages on the SLA report or API Health.
• If you have more questions, please check stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/here-api.
• If you have questions about billing or your account, Contact Us.
• If you have purchased your plan/product from a HERE reseller, contact your reseller.