Rectangular radar search in Google Places API - google-maps-api-3

I'd like to fetch a set of results based on a rectangular "radar" search. This is possible in the Javascript version by passing a LatLngBounds, but in the non-Javascript version there is only the location and radius options.
How can i do this? Is it even possible?
Thanks

The API is as documented, when a feature isn't supported you may send a feature-request
The only option I see is to request the places by defining a radius that encompasses the desired area and filter the results on your own.

Related

How to get place information using Google Knowledge Graph using Latitude and Longitude ?

I want business description using google API or wikidata API.
As shown in above image I want to access description (which is highlighted in red circle.) and store it into application database.
What I tried till now, I used google place API to get the place information, using that I am able to get information like review,rating,opening hours. But I am not able to get that information which I have mention in above image. But I do not know how to get that information using Wikidata api or Google Knowledge Graph api.
Can any one suggest me that how can I use that API to get that information.
Any help would be highly appreciated !
Thanks,
I'd also be keen to know if this is possible. For example, with a bounding box. 4 coordinates, might it be possible for Google Knowledge or another API to give me a summing up of the place.
For example: bbox=4.721375,52.290843,5.070190,52.399905
Might return information and history on the city of Amsterdam. Like when you type into Google Search "Amsterdam".
Just a thought. I have previously accomplished this with a very manual combination of Overpass API (related to OSM) and Freebase.
I just found this: Find a place description in Freebase using latitude and longitude?
So, it can be done. And it is already documented.

Geofencing products in woocommerce

I am developing a small, local delivery website using Wordpress and Woocommerce. I am trying to implement a conditional field or part of code that geofences (may not be the correct term) products to their postcodes. For example people who type in a particular postcode radius are only able to view a selection of products available in their area. It seems I'm looking for a type of SauceyApp.com or Just-Eat.co.uk type search feature. I'm assuming this requires the use of some form of Google Maps plugin. I have been searching for weeks and can't even get insight on where to begin. I was wondering if anyone knew how I can go about this or even a vague idea on where to start?
Google Maps has a Places API where you can put in a location and radius and get an autocomplete for searching local places and lists of places to map by category. To get a users location you could use the Geolocation Api which is supported by most browsers (IE 9+) or a geolocation service. All that's required is an Api key from google, location, and radius. They you can send in options to filter the data. Information on these parameters is listed here in googles docs.
An example query would look like this:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?location=-33.8670522,151.1957362&rankby=distance&types=food&key=YOUR_API_KEY
There are several open source wrappers around this api to give you something to start with:
python-google-places
google-places-api-java
Ruby wrapper for Google Places

Google Tracks geofencing & visualisation API

I am developing a node.js application which (amongst other things) will recieve location information from remote users and allow them to interact with each other via the server.
I'm using the Google Tracks API because I like the idea of being able to track users when appropriate, set up geofencing to define my coverage areas and to visualise what's happening.
The Google tracks API documentation is reasonable, however I'm not sure how I would go about actually visualising the entities and geofencing I have setup on a map - this is not something that I can find covered elsewhere.
Ideally I would be able to simply embed a map into a webpage which could link with my Tracks API account and show all of the fencing and entities. Another nice feature would be the ability to 'draw' a geofence, is there anything out there which would allow this?
Thanks :-)
Tracks API does not currently offer any kind of server-side rendering for your Tracks data, so the best approach is to use the API to retrieve the crumbs (or just current location) and render them using polylines (or just markers) in the Google Maps API. You can similarly get all your geofences and render them using polygons.
Because this is done clientside, you'll probably want to limit your data to a reasonable number (depending on the browser/OS combination, something like O(thousands) of vertices).
All this assumes that your app meets the terms of service of the Maps API so check those out as well.

google maps api v3: avoid specified coordinates while computing a path in navigation

i would like to know if it's possible to make a navigation function that, before creating the path, check through an array of "indesiderate" points and, if the best way touch one of these, try to find an alternative path.
for example, if i have a busy street (from my database, not using traffic service), i took an array of point along all the street (at any switch of course), and i want to avoid these points (=this street)
i made this sort of list of points, but i cannot find a way to find alternatives in path computing
i saw in the gmaps api documentation that the avoid command alredy exist, but can be used only to avoid tolls or highway, but i cannot find a cord-avoid command
thanks
Not available at present. Vote (star) the enhancement request:
https://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=214

GTFS/NextBus/Google Maps - transit distance traveled

I am trying to get the distance traveled on a transit route -- particularly San Francisco MUNI, but the standards NextBus, GTFS, and Google Maps API appear to be universal. I'm comfortable using any of these APIs, I'm just not sure how to go about this problem.
The easy way - ask Google Maps (this using webservices, but there is also the javascript API):
http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=37.7954199,-122.397&destination=37.7873299,-122.44691&sensor=false&mode=transit&departure_time=1348109609&alternatives=true
this JSON includes distance traveled, but there are two issues:
Google does not allow you to use this data unless you're displaying a map, which I don't want to do
I would need to ensure that the distance returned is for the correct route/line, since it can/will give multiple routing options. This is probably doable but would require more logic.
EDIT: using alternatives=true (or provideRouteAlternatives: true using the javascript API) only returns a maximum of 3 routes, which here in SF often doesn't include the route I'm looking for (other transit agencies, multiple lines on the same route, etc). So this isn't such a great option.
NextBus:
example route config:
http://webservices.nextbus.com/service/publicXMLFeed?command=routeConfig&a=sf-muni&r=1
The coordinates for each stop are given, but connecting the dots on those is not the same as the route taken -- it will cut corners, etc, and I need this to be accurate. The actual route taken is given under <path>/<point>, but I don't see any obvious correlation between stop and path coordinates. Plus, NextBus says in their documentation (p.10 near the bottom) that you should NOT connect points between <path> segments, they're only meant for drawing on a map and can overlap.
GTFS:
The GTFS data also separates stop and "shape" coordinates (like NextBus paths). Unfortunately, the coordinates are slightly different for the same stops between NextBus and GTFS (rounding), though the stop ID/tags are the same. Also, the data files are in the megabytes, and I need to use this for a mobile app. I suppose I could put all the data in a database and query that, but that still leaves figuring out how to correlate the stops with the shape. The "shapes_distance_traveled" column in the shapes.txt file is especially promising. MUNI chooses to leave the optional "shapes_distance_traveled" field out of stop_times.txt, though.
Any advice would be appreciated, I understand this seems like an epic task to get a simple value. Maybe I'll just throw a map in to legitimately use the distance :)
Instead of using Google Maps, I would look into the un-encumbered licensing of OpenStreetMap. There are multiple
routing engines that can use OSM data. Personally, I would use routing in PostGIS or SQLite, but depending on your skillset you might choose another.
You've clearly done your research, (+1), and as you said, the easy way is to ask Google. If it is worth for you then you might want to look into purchasing a business licence to use the Google Maps API, and negotiate with them about the requirement of displaying a map. That's the only legal way I can think of with the Google API. Alternatively, you can try building you own routing engine with data from the TIGER data set, which is freely available from the US Census Bureau, but again, as you said, it may seem like an epic task. :-)

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