Getting location coordinates from Address

1
votes

The user will be prompted enter his address in a textfield and in the backend I want to get the location coordinates of the address.

I’m using geocoding service from google but not any of their APIs. I read somewhere in their document that “use of the geocoder for any purpose other than obtaining locations that will be displayed using the google maps APIs is a violation of the Terms of Service”.

And this is how HTTP request I use

http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=ADDRESS_STRING&sensor=false

Can I do this? I’m confused because I'm not showing any map at all but I want to get the coordinates. Will this be violating their terms?

2
iosmapsgoogle-geocoder
If you are not needing the map feature, you might consider another geocoding provider. SmartyStreets provides geocoding along with address validation. Check out the API and you will see that Latitude and Longitude are provided in the address response. (Disclaimer: I work for SmartyStreets.) – SunSparc

2 Answers

1
votes

Unfortunately, yes, I think you'd be breaking Google's rules here. See also this answer.

You could still use iOS' built-in forward-geocoding engine. See here for the docs.

0
votes

Google Maps terms are very restrictive. However, it looks like they do allow showing results without Google Maps (Geocoding API Policies):

You can display Geocoding API results on a Google Map, or without a map. If you want to display Geocoding API results on a map, then these results must be displayed on a Google Map. It is prohibited to use Geocoding API data on a map that is not a Google map.

So you can't display Google Geocoding API results on "non-Google" maps.

Nevertheless, please remember that you still can't cache (only lat/long on the end-use device for 30 days) and store results.

Fortunately, there are many geocoding services that are based on open data. For example, we at Geoapify allow our customers to store and even redistribute data. Try our Geocoding API, and maybe you find that it's a worthy alternative to the geocoding service from Google.