Lookup does not work anymore

[adrium]

The lookup does not work amymore simce a few days. The following error occurs:

This page can't load Google Maps correctly.

See rendering in screenshot

Seconded, this has been an issue for a couple days. Does anyone know of similarly intuitive replacements?

[mddvul22]

The problem is that Google now requires a key to use the geocoding api that this app uses. And you need to supply a credit card and have a google cloud account to get a key. The card isn't charged if the account tied to the api doesn't have more than some set number of hits per month. But I seriously doubt the Daniel wishes to tie his credit card to an untold number of people using this app. The best bet seems to 1) create your own key and build the app for your own personal use, with the api url modified to include your key, or 2) build the app on your own, using another api that doesn't require a credit card, like Mapquest's, maybe.

I tried option 1 on Friday, signing up for a google account and getting a key. I built the app, using Android Studio, but unfortunately the app still isn't working for me. Haven't had a chance to dig deeper.

[mddvul22]

Wanted to post another update here. I tried again to get option 1, above working today, and succeeded. Here what I had to do: 1) create the google account required for getting a geocoding api key. Add this key value to the url string in AddressToGPS-master/app/src/main/assets/AddressToGPS/index.html. Then you need to build the apk and install it. I had done all of the above on Friday, and it still didn't work for me. But today, in addition to having previously allowed my key to use the Geocoding API, I needed to also allow it to use the Places API and the Maps Javascript API. (this is done through your cloud.google.com dashboard console.) Now, my own rebuilt copy of the AddresstoGPS app is again working.

[mddvul22]

One final problem that I should note: you can't restrict key access to your self-built AddressToGPS apk. The geocoding api doesn't allow that. Unfortunately, this API only allows key restrictions by IP! This is unfortunate and means that you would have to run your app from a known IP address to reduce the possibility of key theft. Unfortunately, I'm almost always needing this app when I'm traveling. :-(

Will need to seriously look into the Mapquest api, I'm afraid. That api key doesn't require it being tied to a credit card. So, if the key is stolen, it isn't as problematic.

[nchristensen]

With a brief search, here are the limitations of the free tiers of several APIs (not sure if all have geocoding and which might require a credit card):

Apple - https://developer.apple.com/maps/mapkitjs/
** 25,000 free service calls per day
Bing - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bingmaps/rest-services/
** 50,000 transactions per day https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/maps/product
ESRI - https://developers.arcgis.com/pricing/
** 1 million free transactions per month (~30,000 per day)
HERE - https://developer.here.com/plans
** Free tier limited to 5000 monthly active users
MapQuest - https://developer.mapquest.com/plans
** 15,000 transactions per month
TomTom - https://developer.tomtom.com/store/maps-api
** 2,500 free transactions per day

[matoro]

This is rather unfortunate. I think a good approach given the simplicity of this app is to require the user to provide their own API key. Microsoft looks like a good place to start: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bingmaps/rest-services/locations/find-a-location-by-query

[Jomme5]

Hi all.

I made a new app based on bingmaps. My first project in Android, but works well. I'm not willing to pay 25$ registration fee on Google play, and for now; it's not opensource(fdroid), so I will distribute it via this the link below. In a few days, I will put it on Amazon-apps-store. Please give me some feedback and, hopefully not, information according bugs.

https://github.com/Jomme5/AddressToGPSII/tree/master * scroll down to scroll down to or click release(s) *

[mddvul22]

@Jomme5 Thanks for moving on this. You are a step ahead of me. I was working on something that uses mapquest. How does the accuracy/completeness of Bing Maps compare to Google Maps and Mapquest? I have a web page built that uses the Mapquest API to get longitude/latitude coordinates, but I can't figure out how to get that integrated into an app. I'm not much of a developer and I've never done any Android development.

Also, wondering if it might be better to build apps without a key but have an interface where a user can supply their own key. This might be a better route for whatever API we settle upon? It is probably more likely to get into F-Droid that way, also.

[Poussinou]

Hi, F-Droid contributor here. We moved this app to the archive as you can see here, just to let you know ;)

[k3b]

as a replacement you can use https://github.com/gjedeer/Acastus which is based on openstreedmap adress data and available on fdroid

[mddvul22]

I've tried Acastus and wanted it to work. But unfortunately, it is woefully incomplete. It only knows about one address in my entire town.

[Jomme5]

For those who don't trust bare-naked apk downloads, you can get AddressToGPS II on Amazon.com.
cons: you have to have an Amazon-account and download/install their Appstore-app.
pro's: updates will happen automatically like in any other store-app.

Other functionality? Suggestions?

[k3b]

@mddvul22 :

It only knows about one address in my entire town.

Does Openstreet web page find the street?

• i.e. https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=brandenburger%20tor

Can you add your example data to gjedeer/Acastus#7 or add a new issue?

[nchristensen]

@Jomme5

Other functionality? Suggestions?

Just tried out the apk on Google Drive. It is looking fairly solid. In sometimes the results are hard to read when they are in front of the gray portion of the background image. It also might be useful to show the gps coordinates in case someone wants to copy and paste them.