CLGeocodeCompletionHandler only has one placemark entry - iphone

The documentation for
- (void)geocodeAddressString:(NSString *)addressString completionHandler:(CLGeocodeCompletionHandler)completionHandler;
The documentation clearly states:
In the case of forward-geocoding requests, multiple placemark objects
may be returned if the provided information yielded multiple possible
locations.
states that it returns an array of placemarks. However, even if I search for objects I know for certain have multiple entries (Hollywood, washington, Denmark, main street, ect.) i always only get one entry.
Some people just shrug and say use the google API instead, but i fear for the request limit.
Is there some setting or hack to fix this, or is the CLGeocoder simply broken ?

I would definitely suggest using Google Geocoding API - it is simply superior. I also argue, that you should not fear the usage limit for Google Geocoding APIs requests.
If you are developing mobile application, I suggest implementing client-side geocoding - that means, that every device queries directly Google API. As it is directly stated in Google's own documentation
geocoding limits are per user session, there is no risk that your application will reach a global limit as your userbase grows.
More info in geocoding strategies docs and geocoding docs.

MKLocalSearch is the answer here:
let request = MKLocalSearch.Request()
request.naturalLanguageQuery = "addressToBeSearched"
request.region = MKCoordinateRegion(center: span: )
let localSearch = MKLocalSearch(request: request)
localSearch.start { response, error in
// returns (MKLocalSearch.Response?, Error?) -> Void
// which ultimately has an array of MKMapItem from which you can extract a placemark.
}
This returns the nearby and not only, points of interest, places, etc.
The only drawback I can think of is that you have to provide the current location in the initializer for MKCoordinateRegion and the span.

Related

Bing Maps throwing "Invalid Geocode" error on street intersection that it is able to get the Latitudes and Longitude from

I am currently working on a project that involves calculating Duration matrices from a collection of thousands of addresses using NEO4J and Bing Maps API. Since the data is sensitive, we're going to use the mock address (which actually produces the same issue I'm describing) '72ND & DODGE, OMAHA, NE 68132' to represent the format intersection addresses are being sent to Bing Maps API using their keys and basic url requests.
To preface this: the issue isn't with my code (which is also sensitive data), as all my code is doing is sending one url string of the above format plus the authorization key to Bing Maps and awaiting a response that contains the duration data of the trip. My issue is Bing Maps being seemingly unable to handle or work with intersections of streets to calculate distances/durations from other locations. When I throw these addresses into Bing/Google Maps in the web browser, they are able to be found and calculated in the exact same format as the above example.
I start off my program checking if an address exists/is valid by having it find the latitude and longitude of each address, so for the example '72ND & DODGE, OMAHA, NE 68132' it found: Lat: '41.259690' and Long: '-96.023770'. If it is unable to find the Lat/Long of an addresses, then it throws the 'Invalid Geocode' error, but in this initialization context it means the address does not exist, or is poorly formatted, which makes sense and is why I did this for the initialization phase.
However, if I go to use '72ND & DODGE, OMAHA, NE 68132' for any duration calculations between other addresses, it throws the 'Invalid Geocode' for '72ND & DODGE, OMAHA, NE 68132' over and over again with no explanation on why even though it passed the Lat/Long check. I'd also like to mention that this issue isn't consistent, as some intersections do not work while others do, but there is no consistency in knowing which ones will or will not work. Thus, I am ultimately wondering if Bing Maps is unable to calculate certain addresses no matter their formatting or whatnot.
Be sure to encode your query before putting it into the URL. Especially when you have & in your query since it would then break your query up, thinking you were asking just for 72ND and the rest of your query is query string parameter name. This is documented in the best practices section here.
In Java you can encode the query parameter like this:
String baseURL = "https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Locations?key={BingMapsKey}&query=";
// query string
String query = "72ND & DODGE, OMAHA, NE 68132";
// URL encode query string
String encodeStr = URLEncoder.encode(query, StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name());
// final url
String url = baseURL + encodeStr;
Here is an example of how your query URL should look:
https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Locations?key={BingMapsKey}&query= 72ND%20%26%20DODGE%2C%20OMAHA%2C%20NE%2068132

How to get a static map searching by city with an specific country

I'm trying to get a map img from Google Static Maps API,
If I do the following requests:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?size=1536x836&center=+Spain,+Andorra&zoom=8&markers=color:red%7Clabel:D%7C,+Andorra+Spain&key=badKey
center and label variations: +Andorra,+Spain , +Andorra,+ES, +Spain+Andorra, +Andorra+Spain
I get always Andorra La Vieja, country Andorra,
I expect to get Andorra, Spain,
The only way I could obtain Andorra Spain is specifying the state / province (Teruel).
Upon checking, this behavior is working as intended which can also be replicated in Geocoding API using the Geocoder tool which returns the country "Andorra" when geocoding the address "Andorra, Spain".
Since the address string "Andorra, Spain" is slightly ambiguous, and there are two addresses that contains "Andorra", the API was only able to return the country Andorra. To have better results, you need to be more specific with your query by also providing the admin levels "Teruel" or "Aragon" or a postal code, as you have also mentioned in your post. See full address result here.

Reverse Geocode Location: more accuracy than range

I want to get a more accurate address (from coordinates) than the address range from the function
geoCoder.reverseGeocodeLocation(location, completionHandler: {} )
In the google maps API guide (https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/intro#Results) they specify that I can change location_type in order to get a more accurate address. How do I specify these parameters? This is my code:
let geoCoder = CLGeocoder()
let location = CLLocation(latitude: center.latitude, longitude: center.longitude)
geoCoder.reverseGeocodeLocation(location, completionHandler: { (placemarks, error) -> Void in ...
})
If you want to use the Google Maps API, as you linked, you need to be forming an HTTP request to the API (with an API Key you've acquired from Google). The reverseGeocodeLocation uses Apple's Map API, and is definitely not going to be able to accept Google's location_type parameter. The core HTTP request you're going to want to make is therefore of the form:
let url:String = "https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=\(center.latitude),\(center.longitude)&location_type=\(DESIRED_LOCATION_TYPE)&key=\(YOUR_API_KEY)"
From the link you specified, the DESIRED_LOCATION_TYPE can be one of:
"ROOFTOP" restricts the results to addresses for which we have
location information accurate down to street address precision.
"RANGE_INTERPOLATED" restricts the results to those that reflect an
approximation (usually on a road) interpolated between two precise
points (such as intersections). An interpolated range generally
indicates that rooftop geocodes are unavailable for a street address.
"GEOMETRIC_CENTER" restricts the results to geometric centers of a
location such as a polyline (for example, a street) or polygon
(region).
"APPROXIMATE" restricts the results to those that are
characterized as approximate.

Mapquest route matrix response

Hi I am using mapquest api to show the distance from source to destination in app
Problem:
I am sending below request to mapquest to get the distance
{ "locations":[ "40.2336,-111.6475", "33.621227,-111.917229","30.688181,76.706238"],
"options":{ "allToAll":true, "unit":"k", "doReverseGeocode":false,"manyToOne":true } }
Now in this case distance can be calculated from first lat long to second lat long as both are US based address but distance cannot be calculated between first and third location as third one is Indian location .
Now the response I am getting is
{"route":{"routeError":{"message":"","errorCode":0}},"info":{"copyright":
{"text":"© 2015 MapQuest, Inc.","imageUrl":"http://api.mqcdn.com/res/mqlogo.gif",
"imageAltText":"© 2015 MapQuest, Inc."},"statuscode":400,
"messages":["We are unable to route with the given locations."]}}
Which I suppose is wrong as distance between first two places should be returned .
Please suggest what can be done for this ?
Currently the matrix fails if any of the legs fails. Making this return any successful legs is on the team's backlog.
The reason for the error is that your locations are invalid. I ran it with the exact POST body you had, and got error 402. Looking at the MapQuest Directions API Status Codes, this is an invalid location. This makes sense, considering the coordinates include two in the US and one in India. This, AFAIK, is only a driving API, hence why overseas locations are invalid.
Another point unrelated to the main problem: your request is semantically invalid. You specify both allToAll and manyToOne as true, which is invalid. The API will ignore your manyToOne as a result, so make sure you are requesting exactly what you want.

How to get multiple adrresses from GoogleGeocoding API?

I want to retrieve all the address locations (latitude,longitude,format address) for a single 'search address' request (a little vague such as "Tata Consultancy Services") in MapKit.
I searched on the net and came across GoogleMapsAPI WebServices .
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/
But problem with response is that, it returns only a 'single object' in 'results array' response for a address search.
As an example if you search "Tata Consultancy Services" you get only one location whose formatted address is "TCS Rajshree Business Park, Tadiwala Rd, Sangamvadi, Pune, Maharashtra, India".My question is how can i get details of other locations as we all know that this is not the only office of TCS.
I would like to quote two documentation links related to your problem.
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/#GeocodingRequests
"Generally, only one entry in the "results" array is returned for address lookups, though the geocoder may return several results when address queries are ambiguous".
So you may found one or more result. but as you are requesting it from iPhone and sensor is by default true. you receive nearest matching result for your query.
The solution is "Viewport Biasing".Please find its details at below link under heading name "Viewport Biasing":-
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/#Viewports
Another options you can try on:
try setting sensor as false.
try region biasing as described on the same page cited above.
try some other word like "hotel near placename" and check the
response result