SoLoMo 📍

Social Local Mobile - The easiest way to get user location in Expo/React Native apps.

Expo's built-in Location.getCurrentPositionAsync can be slow, unpredictable, and requires repetitive permission handling. SoLoMo provides a simple React context that handles permissions, caching, and real-time updates automatically, giving you the most up-to-date location whenever you need it - with type safety!

📦 Installation

npm install solomo expo-location

🚀 Quick Start

1. Wrap your app with LocationProvider

import { LocationProvider } from 'solomo';

export default function App() {
  return (
    <LocationProvider>
      <YourApp />
    </LocationProvider>
  );
}

2. Use location in any component

import { useLocation } from 'solomo';

function MyComponent() {
  const { location, hasPermission, requestPermission } = useLocation();

  if (!hasPermission) {
    return <Button onPress={requestPermission} title="Enable Location" />;
  }

  return (
    <Text>
      You are at: {location?.coords.latitude}, {location?.coords.longitude}
    </Text>
  );
}

🎯 Usage Examples

Get current location once

import { useCurrentLocation } from 'solomo';

function GetLocationButton() {
  const { fetchLocation } = useCurrentLocation();

  const handlePress = async () => {
    const result = await fetchLocation();
    if (result.granted && result.location) {
      console.log('Current location:', result.location.coords);
    }
  };

  return <Button onPress={handlePress} title="Get My Location" />;
}

Watch location changes

import { useLocationWatcher } from 'solomo';

function LocationTracker() {
  const { location, isWatching } = useLocationWatcher(true); // Auto-start watching

  return (
    <View>
      <Text>Watching: {isWatching ? 'Yes' : 'No'}</Text>
      {location && (
        <Text>
          Lat: {location.coords.latitude.toFixed(6)}
          Lng: {location.coords.longitude.toFixed(6)}
        </Text>
      )}
    </View>
  );
}

Custom configuration

import { LocationProvider } from 'solomo';
import * as Location from 'expo-location';

function App() {
  return (
    <LocationProvider
      config={{
        autoWatch: false,                    // Don't continuously track location
        fetchInitial: true,                  // Get location once on mount
        accuracy: Location.Accuracy.Highest, // Use highest accuracy
        maxCacheAge: 2 * 60 * 60 * 1000,     // Cache for 2 hours
      }}
    >
      <YourApp />
    </LocationProvider>
  );
}

🎯 Features

• ✅ Zero configuration - Works out of the box
• ✅ Smart caching - Avoid unnecessary GPS calls
• ✅ Flexible tracking modes - On-demand or real-time location updates
• ✅ Battery efficient - Configure tracking behavior to minimize battery drain
• ✅ Type Safety - Full TypeScript support
• ✅ Background/Foreground handling - Automatically manages app state changes

🛠 API Reference

LocationProvider Props

Prop	Type	Default	Description
config.autoWatch	boolean	false	Automatically start watching location on mount. When false, location is only fetched on-demand.
config.fetchInitial	boolean	true	Fetch location once on mount (if permission granted). Useful for caching an initial position.
config.accuracy	Location.Accuracy	Balanced	GPS accuracy level.
config.maxCacheAge	number	300000	Cache duration in milliseconds (default: 5 minutes).

useLocation Hook

const {
  location,          // Current location object
  error,             // Location error if any
  hasPermission,     // Permission status
  isWatching,        // Whether actively watching location
  requestPermission, // Function to request permission
  getCurrentLocation,// Function to get location once
  startWatching,     // Function to start watching
  stopWatching,      // Function to stop watching
} = useLocation();

useCurrentLocation Hook

const {
  fetchLocation, // Function to fetch current location
  error          // Any error from last fetch
} = useCurrentLocation(options?);

useLocationWatcher Hook

const {
  location,      // Current location
  isWatching,    // Whether currently watching
  error,         // Any location error
  startWatching, // Manually start watching
  stopWatching   // Manually stop watching
} = useLocationWatcher(
    autoStart?,  // Whether to automatically start watching when component mounts
    options?     // Override provider config for this watcher
);

🔒 Permissions

SoLoMo handles location permissions automatically. The library will:

1. Check for existing permissions on mount
2. Request permissions when needed (e.g., when calling getCurrentLocation())
3. Provide permission status through the hasPermission property

You can also manually request permissions using requestPermission().

Background Behavior

When your app goes to the background:

• If watching was automatically started (via autoWatch: true), it will resume when app returns to foreground
• If watching was manually started (via startWatching()), it will also resume when app returns to foreground
• If watching was manually stopped (via stopWatching()), it will NOT resume

📝 License

MIT © Gabriele Scotto di Vettimo

🤝 Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome! Check out the GitHub repository.