Anyone ever use Google Maps API? I'm not sure which API key I need.

[slugg]

I'm interested in using Google's Geocoding API for the sole purpose of "converting" a street address to 2D world coordinates used in mapping.

This is what will happen:
1. The content provider enters a street address.
2. A (latitude, longitude) coordinate is retrieved from Google Maps for that address.
3. The address is stored in an XML file on the web server.
4. The XML file is polled by mobile apps (iOS) and later used for displaying on a map on the device.

So which API key do I need? I'm more worried about the server side stuff on the web application side of things (PHP, if that matters). I don't want the Geocoding API calls to be done on the devices; this would bog down the device (too many requests) and most likely kill the daily limits allowed by the API license.

Any ideas?

Edit: for anyone else doing something similar, I did find a super useful tutorial for EXACTLY what I'm trying to do here, provided by Google. The only problem, however, is that it still doesn't mention where to sign up for the proper API key required for the solution...

 

[slugg]

Well, since I couldn't find a solution and I needed to get this done, I ended up just using the JavaScript API v3, which does not require an API key. The only downside is that it's supposed to be run client-side, which is okay for this specific application. I'd still like to be able to do things server side, for future reference...

 

[MrChad]

nm

 

[lozina]

I wrote client side code which required an api key for the javascript library. never heard of or used any server side library.

 

[slugg]

I wrote client side code which required an api key for the javascript library. never heard of or used any server side library.

Yea. Same here. The idea is that if we have a database table full of locations, we want to map those locations. Thankfully, for the specific app I'm writing, this isn't critical, so I can move on. But I'll leave this here just in case anyone else in Google land comes across this page and has a better idea.

 

[Hmongkeysauce]

This is how you would obtain an API from google:

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/tutorial

The geocode web service, however, doesn't allow you to send an api key as a parameter (at least I didn't see one in their examples).