title: How to include google maps api in node?
body: <p>I want to access the google maps api though node because google's best security practices say the api key should be kept hidden.</p>
  
  <p>However, all of the api usage examples use</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;script async defer
  src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_API_KEY&amp;callback=initMap"&gt;
  &lt;/script&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>so to access the google api like so</p>
  
  <pre><code>var directionsService = new google.maps.DirectionsService();
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to make calls similar to the one above but through node. How do I include the google maps api in my node project? I know there is a npm googlemaps package which wraps the google maps api but it isn't as flexible as the original google maps api. How do I include an external src file in node?</p>