Google Geo coding API returns Zero_results while using clientID and Signature

0
votes

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=Bahnhofstra%C3%9Fe+12,+37603+Holzminden,+Germany(&)key=myAPIKey

The above URL which returned Google geo-codes 2 days before, today it returned Zero_reuslts status. I tried for different address it was the same case. So I fixed them by adding (&) between key and Address.

I tried same method with premium account, it returns error as "Unable to authenticate the request. Provided 'signature' is not valid for the provided client ID, or the provided 'client' is not valid.."

But if I use the old method URL encoding as draffted below, it gives Zero_results as status.

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=Bahnhofstra%C3%9Fe+12,+37603+Holzminden,+Germanyclient=gme-myClientIDsignature=myCryptKey

I am facing the problem from today, could someone help me to resolve this issue.

2
google-maps-api-3google-geocoding-api
You are missing the & in your URL: https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=Bahnhofstra%C3%9Fe+12,+37603+Holzminden,+Germany&client=gme-myClientID&signature=myCryptKey – geocodezip
Did you understand the question perfectly?. I have tried with & but it gives me an error as stated above. Since I was allowed to post only 2 URLs, I didnt post that other URL version. I would welcome some good suggestions. – Jeeva_P
At least I can tell you that I am facing the same problem since yesterday. My code using the Geocoding-API worked perfectly and I didn't change anything. Any I am also seeing "Zero results"-errors since yesterday. – Keyser Soze

2 Answers

0
votes

Change your call and use the Places API instead of the Geocoding API:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/textsearch/json?key=YOUR_API_KEY&query=Bahnhofstraße+12,+37603+Holzminden,+Germany

I was able to solve the problem this way because I was facing the same problem with ZERO RESULTS errors since yesterday. Seems like Google has changed something in the Geocoding API.

0
votes

There are 2 issues mixed up here.

  1. ZERO_RESULTS are due to the new forward geocoder in the Geocoder API no longer returning poor result for incomplete or ambiguous requests. The same would happen for badly formatted requests, e.g.:

http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Bahnhofstra%C3%9Fe+12,+37603+Holzminden,+Germanykey=YOUR_API_KEY

returns ZERO_RESULTS because it's missing the & character between Germany and key. That's easy to fix:

http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Bahnhofstra%C3%9Fe+12,+37603+Holzminden,+Germany&key=YOUR_API_KEY

  1. Once that's fixed, your client id and signature are actually being checked, and if you get the Unable to authenticate the request error it means your request is malformed. See Digital signatures for details on how to correctly sign your requests, and here's a tool that does it well, so you can check your signatures against those generated by it:

https://m4b-url-signer.appspot.com