Natnael Alemseged
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polyline_tools – Google Maps Polyline Encoding & Decoding for Dart

Author & Maintainer

An open-source Dart package that provides a simple, reliable API for encoding and decoding Google Maps polylines, enabling easy conversion between encoded polyline strings and geographical coordinates in Flutter and Dart apps.

"Small, focused developer tools can significantly improve productivity and reliability when they remove repetitive, low-level logic."

Problem

Working with Google Maps polylines in Flutter and Dart applications often requires manual or error-prone implementations to encode and decode route data returned by mapping APIs, especially in navigation and ride-hailing use cases.

Solution

Built a lightweight, reusable Dart package that abstracts Google Maps polyline encoding and decoding into a simple, well-documented API, making it easy to transform route responses into drawable map polylines and vice versa.

Architecture

A lightweight, dependency-minimal Dart library implementing Google Maps polyline encoding and decoding algorithms with a simple public API suitable for Flutter and pure Dart environments.

Key Features

  • ✓Encode a list of LatLng points into a Google Maps encoded polyline string
  • ✓Decode Google Maps encoded polyline strings into coordinate lists
  • ✓Simple and lightweight Dart API
  • ✓Compatible with Flutter and pure Dart projects
  • ✓Designed for navigation and mapping use cases

Deep Dive

polyline_tools is an open-source Dart package designed to simplify working with Google Maps polylines.

The package provides utilities to encode a list of latitude/longitude points into a Google Maps encoded polyline string and to decode an encoded polyline string back into a list of geographical coordinates.

It is optimized for Flutter and Dart applications that rely on mapping and navigation features, such as ride-hailing, delivery, and location-based services.

I used this package extensively while building multiple ride-hailing applications to draw accurate route polylines on Google Maps based on responses returned by the Google Directions API.

The API is intentionally minimal and easy to integrate, allowing developers to focus on product logic instead of low-level polyline handling.

Tech Stack

DartFlutterGoogle Maps Polylines

Tags

#Open Source#Flutter#Dart#Maps#Navigation#Ride Hailing#Developer Tools

Project Metrics

Duration

Maintained

Team Size

1 person

Impact

Used across multiple ride-hailing applications to render route polylines from Google Maps API responses.

pub.dev Package

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