Google Places API: Do NearbySearch requests only return places with a business_status of OPERATIONAL? - google-places-api

I'm looking to map COVID-related business closures, but it seems that the NearbySearch feature only returns places that have a "business_status" constant of "OPERATIONAL."
Is this correct? If not are there optional parameters I'm missing that might return all nearby businesses regardless of business_status?

Set "open_now" param to false, this will return all places and you can parse for non operational

Related

Defining right API endpoint REST/RPC

I am developing an API in a microservice for Invoice entity that takes in input a list of Purchase Order Item (i.e. PO Item) identifiers for ex. PO# + productIdentifier together can be used to identify a POItem uniquely. The response of the API is the invoiced quantity of each PO Item.
Input Model -
input GetInvoicedQuantityForPOItemsRequest {
poItemIdentifierList : POItemIdentifierList
}
Structures
list POItemIdentifierList {
member : POItemIdentifier
}
structure POItemIdentifier {
purchaseOrderNumber : String,
productIdentifier : Long
}
Invoiced Quantity of a POItem = SUM of Quantity of Invoice Items created from that PO Item.
Note : A single PO can be used to create multiple Invoices. An Invoice can be created from multiple POs.
I am quite new to REST and so far we have been using RPC endpoints in our legacy service. But now i am building a new service where i am defining endpoints in REST format (for ex. CreateInvoice has been changed to POST /invoice) and I need some suggestions from Stack Overflow community what would be the right approach for defining the REST endpoint of this API or should we keep it in RPC format itself.
RPC endpoint for this API in legacy system : POST /getInvoicedQuantityForPOItems
Our first attempt on REST for this is : POST /invoice/items/invoicedQuantityForPOItems. But this URI does not look like a Noun it is a Verb.
this URI does not look like a Noun it is a Verb.
REST doesn't care what spelling conventions you use for your resource identifiers.
Example: this URI works exactly the same way that every other URI on the web works, even though "it looks like a verb"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/post
The explanation is that, in HTTP, the semantics of the request are not determined by parsing the identifier, but instead by parsing the method token (GET, POST, PUT, etc).
So the machines just don't care about the spelling of the identifier (besides purely mechanical concerns, like making sure it satisfies the RFC 3986 production rules).
URI are identifiers of resources. Resources are generalizations of documents. Therefore, human beings are likely to be happier if your identifier looks like the name of a document, rather than the name of an action.
Where it gets tricky: HTTP is an application protocol whose application domain is the transfer of files over a network. The methods in HTTP are about retrieving documents and metadata (GET/HEAD) or are about modifying documents (PATCH/POST/PUT). The notion of a function, or a parameterized query, doesn't really exist in HTTP.
The usual compromise is to make the parameters part of the identifier for a document, then use a GET request to fetch the current representation of that document. On the server, you parse the identifier to obtain the arguments you need to generate the current representation of the document.
So the identifier for this might look something like
/invoicedQuantityForPOItems?purchaseOrder=12345&productIdentifiers=567,890
An application/x-www-form-urlencoded representation of key value pairs embedded in the query part of the URI is a common spelling convention on the web, primarily because that's how HTML forms work with GET actions. Other identifier conventions can certainly work, though you'll probably be happier in the long term if you stick to a convention that is easily described by a URI template.

Google Places API setFields AND getDetails

The google places api docs clearly state: "IMPORTANT: To avoid paying for data that you don't need, be sure to use Autocomplete.setFields() to specify only the place data that you will use." But then when I'm calling the getDetails() method (see in generic-y form below), I'm specifying my fields, which is what setFields() sets.
I THINK I'm basically setting them via the getDetails() method, but given the caution exercised in the docs, I also don't want to surprise anyone with extra costs besides what we need. I've tried to find a clear answer in the docs, but I haven't found one. I'm hoping someone here knows from experience or has better luck with the docs. Thanks!
const placesService = new google.maps.places.PlacesService(myField);
placesService.getDetails(
{
fields: ['address_components'],
placeId: result.place_id,
sessionToken: token,
},
details => this.updateMethod(details.address_components),
);
Autocomplete.setFields is used when implementing Places Autocomplete Widget which will constrain the succeeding Places Details request to specific fields only when a user selects a place from the suggestions. Check out the example here.
However, as for your given sample code, I can see that you are directly using Places Service to get the details of a place given a Place ID and not from the Autocomplete Widget suggestions. With this, you can just set the fields in the request parameter of the getDetails(request, callback) method which is what you have correctly done in your code. See this example.
Hope this helps!

Find Place requests Returns Only One Result

I'm using the Google Places API endpoint "findplacefromtext" and tried a search similar to the example.
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/findplacefromtext/json?input=mongolian%20grill&inputtype=textquery&fields=photos,formatted_address,name,opening_hours,rating&locationbias=circle:2000#47.6918452,-122.2226413&key=YOUR_API_KEY
However, when you use this it only ever returns one result. There is a cafe near me that's called "Cream" but when you pass that as the "input" parameter it returns shops that have a category of "Ice Cream". I thought it should only search the name of the business.... If I can't find the place by name does it search the category type as a fall back? When I execute the same search in Google Maps it returns the same data but I get multiple results and I can see the place I am trying to retrieve 3rd on the search result list.
Is it possible to make it return more than one result? The documentation doesn't mention anything about this.
I believe what you need is the Text Search request. The Find Place request is meant for exact addresses.
The Google Places API Text Search Service is a web service that
returns information about a set of places based on a string — for
example "pizza in New York" or "shoe stores near Ottawa" or "123 Main
Street". The service responds with a list of places matching the text
string and any location bias that has been set.
The service is especially useful for making ambiguous address queries
in an automated system, and non-address components of the string may
match businesses as well as addresses. Examples of ambiguous address
queries are incomplete addresses, poorly formatted addresses, or a
request that includes non-address components such as business names.
Taken from https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/search#TextSearchRequests

Google Places Autocomplete 'address' types also allows street only addresses

This question here basically asks the same question:
Restrict Google Places Autocomplete to return addresses only
But doesn't get the right answer.
If we look at the official documentation examples they have an option to selected address type. However, on it, we can see that it will allow us to selected just streets:
Is there a way to make Places Autocomplete select real addresses only?
Since this question is quite old, the search result is now somehow different but the fact that address type returns street addresses remains the same.
And to clarify things here, the API is working as intended when it returns street addresses.
types=address seems to be quite vague and what you need to do is to be more specific if you don't want street address to be included.
Here's a table for reference on the different types of restrictions for autocomplete from the Place Types Documentation.
Table 3: Type collections supported in Place Autocomplete requests
The supported types are:
geocode instructs the Place Autocomplete service to return only geocoding results, rather than business results. Generally, you use this request to disambiguate results where the location specified may be indeterminate.
address instructs the Place Autocomplete service to return only geocoding results with a precise address. Generally, you use this request when you know the user will be looking for a fully specified address.
establishment instructs the Place Autocomplete service to return only business results.
(regions) type collection instructs the Places service to return any result matching the following types:
locality
sublocality
postal_code
country
administrative_area_level_1
administrative_area_level_2
(cities) type collection instructs the Places service to return results that match locality or administrative_area_level_3.
To further prove this, I tried using the official documentation example for testing.
I tried searching real street address with both types=address and types=geocode and they return street addresses as expected.
With address type:
With geocode type:
Then I tried the types=establishment and it did not return any street addresses.
With establishment type:
You can use any other types value apart from types=establishment like the (cities) and (regions). As long as you are specific in your restrictions, things will be working fine. You can just put some toggle on your app to change restrictions just like on the official docs example so that your end user could freely choose the restrictions. But it still depends on your use case.
Hope this helps.

RegionCode in YouTube API v3

I can't seem to find any information on the implications of using/not using regionCode in the YouTube v3 API, for example the search/list resource.
In the specific, if the regionCode is not specified in the call to the API, will all the videos matching the criteria be returned?
If a video is allowed only in certain regions, not specifying the regionCode in the search request, will the API return it? Or only the unrestricted videos will be returned?
Where can I find some clarification on the topic?
If you do not specify the Region Code then the API automatically determines the region based on your location. So, for example, if I queried the API on my laptop in New Zealand, then the region code would be NZ.
The API outputs the region code. In JSON it is under the tag regionCode.
Generally Region Code is not required. You will get a good matching results output without it.
The regionCode parameter instructs the API to return search results for the specified country. The parameter value is an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code. (string)

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