How to add Google Map script in a Vue project - without plugins

[v2.1, Code updated June 2021]

Why on earth everyone is using plugins just to add Map script and to call its APIs/methods! VueJS is Javascript, Map APIs available in Javascript, yet... can't you just use it?!

The only important thing is - for Vue CLI project, the time when you use the google.maps object, transpiler will show an error; you have to add the window scope explicitly like new window.google.maps...().

Let's dive into the detail. We will use a function to attach the Map script programmatically (you can add the Map <script> tag directly in html, but that have caveat; check footnote). If you need Map APIs on multiple views then make this function/method global by placing it in vue.mixin or index.html etc. Otherwise you can use it in your desired component making it a method. Here I'm going to use it as a global function:

// Add google map script if not exist; if already exist, return true
window.checkAndAttachMapScript = function (callback) {
   let scriptId = "map-api-script";
   let mapAlreadyAttached = !!document.getElementById(scriptId);

   if (mapAlreadyAttached) {
      if (window.google) // Script attached but may not finished loading; so check for 'google' object.
         callback();
   }
   else {
      window.mapApiInitialized = callback;

      let script = document.createElement('script');
      script.id = scriptId;
      script.src = 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=_YOUR_KEY_HERE_&libraries=places,geometry&callback=mapApiInitialized';
      document.body.appendChild(script);
   }

   return mapAlreadyAttached;
}

Now in your callback, do whatever you wanted to do with Map. Here I will initialize Place Autocomplete:

<!-- Vue single-file component -->
<template>
   <div>
      <input
         type="text"
         ref="search"
         v-model="location"
      />
   </div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
   data: () => ({
      location: null
   }),
   mounted() {
      window.checkAndAttachMapScript(this.initLocationSearch);
   },
   methods: {
      initLocationSearch() {
         let autocomplete = new window.google.maps.places.Autocomplete(this.$refs.search);
         autocomplete.addListener("place_changed", function() {
            let place = autocomplete.getPlace();
            if (place && place.address_components) {
               console.log(place.address_components);
            }
         });
      }
   }
};
</script>

Finally, here's what we have:

The End

Footnote

Attaching script programmatically will have more control. If a visitor directly landed on a page of your application where Map API is not need, then the script will not be loaded. If you add it directly in index.html, it will be loaded whether used or not. Eventually unnecessarily consumes bandwidth and CPU+battery on mobile devices.

Reference:

List of libraries for libraries= querystring: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/libraries

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How to add Google Map script in a Vue project - without plugins

Tareq Newaz Shahriar

Footnote

Reference:

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