The reverse geocoding only returns the nearest 10 results, so, in some cases, the country is not included.
example: https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=40.714224,-73.961452
(this should return all the way up to the USA, but it only goes to New York)
Even if I supply the result_type=country parameter, USA won't be in the results, instead, the result array is empty:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=40.714224,-73.961452&result_type=country
(note you'll need to add your google api key)
I did not find this behaviour documented, nor did I find any mention of it somewhere else.
Is this a limit that is enforced for free api keys or did I miss some documentation about this?
I believe this issue for reverse geocoding has already been reported in the public issue tracker:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/35829979
Please add your examples in the public issue and star it to receive updates from Google.
Hope it helps!
Related
We are currently trying the Google places autocomplete api, but it seems as though Google places autocomplete api also returns invalid (non existent) addresses in the search result.
We want to receive only valid / actual addresses when the user types in the address autocomplete, is there a way to do it?
I searched the api docs but couldn't find anything much helpful.
There is a google places validation api but it only validates after given a single address, but we want to show only valid/actual addresses on search autocomplete and also don't want to call validation api for each of the search result items.
Went through official doc and also experimented several stackoverflow answers but those didn't match our requirements.
SO ref-1
This is Working as Intended as of now
I tried reproducing the Autocomplete request using this:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json?input=332%20Kennedy%20drive,%20Torrington,%20CT&types=address&key=API_KEY
And the results returned has a long Place ID.
According to the Places API documentation:
"Place IDs uniquely identify a place in the Google Places database and on Google Maps."
The documentation also says that the API may return a different place ID in the response. These place ID types include:
Street addresses that do not exist in Google Maps as precise addresses, but are inferred from a range of addresses.
Segments of a long route, where the request also specifies a city or locality.
Intersections.
Places with an address component of type subpremise.
These IDs often take the form of a long string.
This explains why the API still returned a street address for the input =332 Kennedy drive, Torrington, CT using types=address. The use case of autocomplete is to help the users obtain the closest result even if they are requesting an ambiguous query. So the Autocomplete always tries to return the closest result to their input and types. In your case, it returned a street addresses that do not exist in Google Maps as precise addresses, but are inferred from a range of addresses.
There's a public bug on the issue tracker that is somehow related to this. On the comment #5, it says that:
Suggestions are sometimes created for addresses that may not exist, if there are chances that they do.
Retrieving details for such suggestions may result in the suggested address, if it actually exists or can be synthesized from existing data. Otherwise, the result may be a different address, one that actually exists.
Possible workaround
One thing you can do is to use the validation API.
But since you mentioned that you don't want to use it, I tried the Autocomplete request using this:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json?input=332%20Kennedy%20drive,%20Torrington,%20CT&types=establishment&key=API_KEY
I just changed the types=address to types=establishment and it seems to return legit addresses. I'm not sure if this would fit on your use case, so you can just comment down if it does not.
And if it does not, I found a similar public bug on the issue tracker which says that similar issues like these are currently being worked on by the Google engineers internally. So what I would advise you to do wait for on update from this public bug.
There's no definite timeline on how long this will be fixed, but you can star it to be notified whenever there's an update.
Hope this helps!
== UPDATE ==
I tried playing around with the types and got to a point where I tried putting an array of types from this table. I tried this:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json?input=332%20Kennedy%20drive,%20Torrington,%20CT&types=street_address|street_number|premise&key=API_KEY
and it did return some real addresses. I changed the types=address to types=street_address|street_number|premise. You could try it out yourself and play around with the types and see if it works for your use case.
for more information about types, here's a link to the documentation.
I am having troubles using the google directions api.
for example I want to retreive the distance between two cities, I send the following command :
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=8380 Belgium&destination=2030 Belgium&sensor=false&alternatives=true&key=<mykey>
it should return details about the route between postalcode 8380 (belgium) and postalcode 2030 (belgium).
But in the result I see that google had altered postalcode 2030 into 4730 !
That is a complete different location.
See also this
If i simply use the maps url like this
http://www.google.be/maps/dir/8380 Belgium/2030 Belgium
then it works as expected.
How can I force google to NOT change the postal code into something else but keep using the postal code i send ?
EDIT
I have been playing with it and it turns out that if I use B-2030 in stead of 2030 as postalcode, it works as expected.
If I use BE-2030 it gets me close but still 15 km to far.
But using a prefix like B- on all postalcodes is something I rather not do, maybe it will work wrong on some other postal codes, and we also have a lot of foreign addresses I dont want to keep a list of all country codes...
EDIT
I had put this question as a ticket with google, I received an answer that they are aware of this issue and the developers are looking for a fix.
I will update this post when I receive more news from them.
You are right this is a known issue with 4-digit postal codes that was reported in Google issue tracker for a bunch of countries:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/75985322
Hopefully Google will solve it soon.
In the meantime it looks like the only reliable workaround consists in resolving the postal codes to their places IDs via place autocomplete service and applying place IDs in directions requests.
E.g. execute the place autocomplete requests for your examples:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json?input=8380%20Belgium&types=(regions)&key=YOUR_API_KEY
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json?input=2030%20Belgium&types=(regions)&key=YOUR_API_KEY
These requests will return place ID ChIJo0saJPpVw0cRzkf6DZ5gRBo for '8380 Belgium' and place ID ChIJ4ejQlRcIxEcRnGOzGMCkbYc for '2030 Belgium'.
So, now you can execute directions request with these place IDs and get expected results
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=place_id%3AChIJo0saJPpVw0cRzkf6DZ5gRBo&destination=place_id%3AChIJ4ejQlRcIxEcRnGOzGMCkbYc&mode=driving&alternatives=true&key=YOUR_API_KEY
Here is the same request in directions calculator:
https://directionsdebug.firebaseapp.com/?origin=place_id%3AChIJo0saJPpVw0cRzkf6DZ5gRBo&destination=place_id%3AChIJ4ejQlRcIxEcRnGOzGMCkbYc&mode=driving&alternatives=true
I hope this workaround might be helpful.
I am trying to geocode user entered data using the Google maps API, and got an error for the Australian postal code "2010"
maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?components=country:AU|postal_code:2010
However, if I search in Google maps, I get a result. Am I doing something wrong in my request?
Your request is completely OK, but unfortunately, Google experience issues with searching 4-digit postal codes. This bug has already been reported in Google issue tracker and you can see it here:
4-digit postal codes are hard to geocode (AT, AU, BE, DK, NZ, SI)
I would suggest starring the bug to add your vote and subscribe to further notifications from Google.
Also you can see that suggested workaround by Google is using place autocomplete request with types (region) and country components filter.
So, in your case you can run the following query
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json?input=2010&types=(regions)&components=country%3AAU&key=YOUR_API_KEY
It will return a place ID for postal code 2010: ChIJ3QyubXuuEmsREIe6P2t9ARw
And you can use geocoding with place ID to get required information
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?place_id=ChIJ3QyubXuuEmsREIe6P2t9ARw&key=YOUR_API_KEY
I hope this helps!
I experienced a similar issue periodically, when geocoding US zip-codes. Appending the country name after the zip-code seemed to fix the problem. So, instead of 60162 use 60162 USA.
When a URL is opened in the browser based on its IP context, it identifies the country and automatically deduces the query format for a zip code is 99.999-99.
The format above is for Brazil, but there are different standards for each country such as USA and Portugal.
One solution when calling an API via CURL, either by code or by terminal, include the "&components = country: US" parameter, changing the "US" country code to what you want to filter.
The Google API returns ZERO_RESULTS for safety, because a search would be too slow and could do a global search worldwide and not just the country. For performance and speed reasons, Google creates this automatic ID for help, but unfortunately is not provided to developers about this process.
Good luck!
I need a reliable method to get the city, state and country place_id from latitude and longitude.
I'm trying by using Google Maps geocode, but the problem is that some coordinates don't return the administrative_level_1 (state) or the country.
Take this GET request for instance:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=-25.4364413,-49.2839333&result_type=country&key=YOUR_API_KEY
It returns:
{
"results": [],
"status": "ZERO_RESULTS"
}
Did you know a way to get this results?
This is a bug and it was reported in Google issue tracker in November 2016. Please have a look at bug report and feel free to star it to add your vote.
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/35829979
I've already added a link to this question in the bug. You can also check workarounds suggested by users in bug comments.
For example, there is following suggestion
I found a workaround:
if I do not get a country back, I will do a second reverse geocoding with the coordinates of the highest result I got.
Most of the times these coordinates will be in an area, where I can get the country.
This is not ideal, but it works for the cases I found.
I believe you might also be interested in the feature request 'Add place_id in each address_components':
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/35827596
Feel free to star it as well.
i have a lat/long location data and i need to get current Google Place where i'm at now.
For example, if i'm in a shop(cafe, gym, etc..), i need to get info about THAT particular shop(cafe, gym, etc..).Or at least the closest one.
So, i'm doing it this way:
First i fetch place basic info(placeid,name, etc.) via Google Places API Nearby Search request:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?location=40.7597351,-73.9836576&radius=16.66&key=...
Then i find the closest one(which is apparently where i am) and perform Place Details request with it's placeid
So, everything works fine, except for some places like the one located at 40.7597351,-73.983657 (New York Guitar lab shop) which i can see on google map, but can't get in my response. Even places that are further from my location than this, are being found fine.
I've already tried to use rankBy=distance and then checking if the result is in required radius manually, still no use. Actually, maybe this approach is right, but as told in the docs, it's required to use types parameter with rankBy=distance. So, i set types=establishment since i actually need everything except addresses and locality tokens returned. I think that the problem is some places i need, are neither counted as establishments nor as localities, but i don't know the optimal way to exclude
all types specified at (https://developers.google.com/places/documentation/supported_types) Table 2 from my response. Is there a way to get only places which types are in Table 1 (except for specifying them ALL in my types param, haha)
So, could you please help me with how can i do this?
Thanks:)
P.S. here is very similar but unaswered question
Google Places API Displaying Inaccurate Result
It seems that there's explanation here (https://developers.google.com/places/faq#why_are_some_places_never_returned_even_though_they_have_google_pages). Looks like some places are just not yet verified by Google.
And yes, the establishment is the generic category for all non-localities. So you can be sure that if you set type=establishment then you'll have as much places as you will, if you'll specify all types from Table 2. Good Luck!