How do you get the lat/long of an apex:mapMarker that has been geocoded in Visualforce?

Question

As of API 32.0, it's easy to create a map in Visualforce with <apex:map> and <apex:mapMarker> even takes string addresses as a position and will geocode the address automatically. You can see an example in the dev guide.

I'm using the map to show several addresses on a custom object:

<apex:map width="600px" height="400px" mapType="roadmap"
center="{!Account.BillingStreet},{!Account.BillingCity},{!Account.BillingState}">

    <apex:repeat value="{! MyObj__c.Addresses }" var="addr">
      <apex:mapMarker title="{! addr.Name }"
        position="{!addr.MailingStreet},{!addr.MailingCity},{!addr.MailingState}"
      />
    </apex:repeat>

 </apex:map>

This works all well and good, as the page geocodes the address and plops a marker on the map. However, we want to do some DISTANCE based SOQL queries with those locations. There are third-party APIs and plugins to geocode arbitrary addresses in Salesforce, but we'd rather stick with platform features. And indeed, the platform is capable of geocoding up to 10 arbitrary locations in a page request.

Is there ANY WAY to get the lat/long that resulted in this mapping that can be sent back to the server for storage? How can we cache this very useful data?

Answer 1

Winter '16 release notes - Automatically Get Geocode Information for Addresses

In Spring '16, we plan to add geocode information to all your accounts, contacts, and leads.

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I don't think there is currently any native geocoding currently available with that control.

By all accounts, the apex:map control is using a third party service via JavaScript to create the map and perform address to lat/long geocoding.

It would be a hack, but you could try and interact with the resulting JavaScript and DOM to extract the lat/log results. It would probably be fragile. Maybe do the geocoding directly with a third party service?

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There is the idea Spring 15 Maps Feature should populate lat and lon on the address fields., which includes details about the Salesforce Summer '15 Geocoding Pilot.

Got geocodes? In the Salesforce Summer '15 release, we are piloting a new geocoding capability where we add geocode information to your standard addresses in Salesforce.

Geocode information, which includes latitude and longitude for addresses, can be used to assign territories, segment markets, target specific areas, and analyze demographics. The pilot will focus on the first step - populating the latitude, longitude, and accuracy fields for standard addresses in accounts, contacts, and/or leads.

Follow this link to learn more! http://goo.gl/forms/qNRLdcTphw