Errors When Calculating Distance Between Two Addresses - google-maps-api-3

Question

I have the following script which is being used in a spreadsheet to calculate the driving distance between two cities or a city and a zip code of another city. It is being run for approximately 25 locations simultaneously. To better explain, I have cell B3 in which I enter a new city every time. The script is then used in cells adjacent to my 25 plant locations to calculate the distance from each of my plants to the variable city.
It uses google sheets built in mapping api and works on 80% of the calculations but returns "TypeError: Can Not Read Property "legs" from undefined. (line 16). The plants that it fails on vary with every new city so its not like it is for certain locations. It is almost like the api times out before it completes some of them. I split it into two separate scripts with a varied name and that worked for a day but then 20% fail again.
To make things slightly more odd, I have another script that sorts the plants based on closest distance to the variable address. When you sort the plants, even the ones with errors go to their correct location based on distance. So it is like the distance script is obtaining the correct disance but displaying the error anyways.
Clear as mud? Would love any input I could get on how to correct the issue or an alternate mapping api that could solve my problems.
function distancecalcone(origin,destination) {
var directions = Maps.newDirectionFinder()
//Set the Method of Transporation. The available "modes" are WALKING, DRIVING, BICYCLING, TRANSIT.
.setMode(Maps.DirectionFinder.Mode.DRIVING)
//Set the Orgin
.setOrigin(origin)
//Set the Destination
.setDestination(destination)
//Retrieve the Distance
.getDirections();
return directions.routes[0].legs[0].distance.value/1609.34;
}

Answer 1

Have you tried using a try-catch block around directions.routes[0].legs[0].distance.value ?
try{
return directions.routes[0].legs[0].distance.value/1609.34;
}
catch (e){
console.log("error",e)
}
or you could try something like this
alert(directions);
alert(directions.routes[0]);
alert(directions.routes[0].legs[0]);
alert(directions.routes[0].legs[0].distance);
alert(directions.routes[0].legs[0].distance.value);
and so on...to find out which one comes up as undefined the first. That might help you to debug the issue.

Answer 2

Enable Direction Api
1)Go to "google cloud platform"
2)go to "Api and services"
3)search for "direction api" and enable it

Answer 3

The directions service is subject to a quota and a rate limit. Check the return status before parsing the result.
For lots of distances (or at least more than 10), look at the DistanceMatrix.

Answer 4

I'm able to run the script from the Script editor, but not from spreadsheet. The error is "unable to read property legs" when the function is called from spreadsheet. But the property is in place when called from Script editor and contain correct values.
You probably need to use WEB API and have API KEY:
Google Apps Script - How to get driving distance from Maps for two points in spreadsheet