Google maps Places API V3 autocomplete – select first option on enter-Collection of common programming errors

Here is an example of a real, non-hacky, solution. It doesn’t use any browser hacks etc, just methods from the public API provided by Google and documented here: Google Maps API

The only downside is that additional requests to Google are required if the user doesn’t select an item from the list. The upside is that the result will always be correct as the query is performed identically to the query inside the AutoComplete. Second upside is that by only using public API methods and not relying on the internal HTML structure of the AutoComplete widget, we can be sure that our product won’t break if Google makes changes.

var input = /** @type {HTMLInputElement} */(document.getElementById('searchTextField'));
var autocomplete = new google.maps.places.Autocomplete(input);  
// These are my options for the AutoComplete
autocomplete.setTypes(['(cities)']);
autocomplete.setComponentRestrictions({'country': 'es'});

google.maps.event.addListener(autocomplete, 'place_changed', function() {
    result = autocomplete.getPlace();
    if(typeof result.address_components == 'undefined') {
        // The user pressed enter in the input 
        // without selecting a result from the list
        // Let's get the list from the Google API so that
        // we can retrieve the details about the first result
        // and use it (just as if the user had actually selected it)
        autocompleteService = new google.maps.places.AutocompleteService();
        autocompleteService.getPlacePredictions(
            {
                'input': result.name,
                'offset': result.name.length,
                // I repeat the options for my AutoComplete here to get
                // the same results from this query as I got in the 
                // AutoComplete widget
                'componentRestrictions': {'country': 'es'},
                'types': ['(cities)']
            },
            function listentoresult(list, status) {
                if(list == null || list.length == 0) {
                    // There are no suggestions available.
                    // The user saw an empty list and hit enter.
                    console.log("No results");
                } else {
                    // Here's the first result that the user saw
                    // in the list. We can use it and it'll be just
                    // as if the user actually selected it
                    // themselves. But first we need to get its details
                    // to receive the result on the same format as we
                    // do in the AutoComplete.
                    placesService = new google.maps.places.PlacesService(document.getElementById('placesAttribution'));
                    placesService.getDetails(
                        {'reference': list[0].reference},
                        function detailsresult(detailsResult, placesServiceStatus) {
                            // Here's the first result in the AutoComplete with the exact
                            // same data format as you get from the AutoComplete.
                            console.log("We selected the first item from the list automatically because the user didn't select anything");
                            console.log(detailsResult);
                        }
                    );
                }
            }
        );
    } else {
        // The user selected a result from the list, we can 
        // proceed and use it right away
        console.log("User selected an item from the list");
        console.log(result);
    }
});