Angular Google Maps Directive zoom too close after “place_changed” event

Question

I'm currently working on a store finder app for DHL which can be viewed at storefinder.hashfff.com/app/index.html

In this app I am using the angular-google-maps library which provides some neat features, although I think working with the Google Maps API straight up would have been a better option as Googles API documentation is more detailed, however, being new to Angular I thought it would help.

My searchbox is tied to an event listener called "place_changed", which fires after the Autocomplete is set which takes autocomplete as a parameter.

events: {
            place_changed: function(autocomplete) {

                var searchString = autocomplete.gm_accessors_.place.Sc.formattedPrediction;
                var searchCountry = searchString.split(',').pop().trim(); 
                var searchCity = searchString.split(',');
                var jsonQuery = "http://dhl.hashfff.com/api/dhl_store_finder_api.php/?country=" + searchCountry;

                // Filter search results by search term. City, Address or Country
                $.getJSON(jsonQuery , function(data) {
                    $scope.$apply(function() {
                        $scope.stores = _.filter(data, function(search) {
                            console.log(search.address2.toLowerCase().indexOf(searchCity[0].toLowerCase()));
                            return search.city.toLowerCase() == searchCity[0].toLowerCase() || search.address2.toLowerCase().indexOf(searchCity[0].toLowerCase()) > -1 || search.country.toLowerCase().indexOf(searchCity[0].toLowerCase()) > -1;
                        });
                        $('.cd-panel-search').addClass('is-visible');
                    });
                });



                place = autocomplete.getPlace();

                if (place.address_components) {
                    // For each place, get the icon, place name, and location.
                    newMarkers = [];
                    var bounds = new google.maps.LatLngBounds();

                    var marker = {
                      id:place.place_id,
                      place_id: place.place_id,
                      name: place.address_components[0].long_name,
                      latitude: place.geometry.location.lat(),
                      longitude: place.geometry.location.lng(),
                      options: {
                        visible:false
                      },
                      templateurl:'window.tpl.html',
                      templateparameter: place
                    };

                    newMarkers.push(marker);

                    bounds.extend(place.geometry.location);

                    $scope.map.bounds = {
                        northeast: {
                          latitude: bounds.getNorthEast().lat(),
                          longitude: bounds.getNorthEast().lng()
                        },
                        southwest: {
                          latitude: bounds.getSouthWest().lat(),
                          longitude: bounds.getSouthWest().lng()
                        }
                    }

                    _.each(newMarkers, function(marker) {
                        marker.closeClick = function() {
                          $scope.selected.options.visible = false;
                          marker.options.visble = false;
                          return $scope.$apply();
                        };
                        marker.onClicked = function() {
                          $scope.selected.options.visible = false;
                          $scope.selected = marker;
                          $scope.selected.options.visible = true;
                        };
                    });

                    $scope.map.markers = newMarkers;
                }
            }
        }

What happens is that after the autocomplete fires, it goes to the searched place but the zoom is set to maximum which is too close. I am aware that map.setZoom(5) is the usual answer but I do not have the map object available in this event listener.

I hope somebody has experience with the Google Maps Angular directive and could give me a hand. If you require any other code I'll be happy to update the query.

Answer 1

The creation of the bounds is useless, because when a LatLngBounds does have the same NE and SW(that's the case in your example, because you only have a single place/location), you may simply set the center of the map:

            $scope.map.center={
                          latitude: bounds.getNorthEast().lat(),
                          longitude: bounds.getNorthEast().lng()
                        };

The difference : the zoom of the map will not be modified(as it does when fitBounds will be used)

when you want to set a zoom use eg:

$scope.map.zoom=5;