Google maps API policy change affecting the functionality of CarbonFootprint's API
Problem
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As we know that our back end operations depends on google maps distance matrix API to calculate distance between 2 locations.
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But due to changes in the google policy, google maps API no longer provides free monthly access to the API (Only one API call per day and for more requests you have to pay monthly fees) because of which some functions aren't working as expected and are giving an error while being run.
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This in turn is affecting the CarbonFootprint API which doesn't provides results for routes such as
/v1/train
and/v1/vehicle
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Also as discussed in the issue #121 (closed), the pipeline is also not passing because tests of these particular routes fail.
Solution
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What I suggest is we should move to a similar service as Google maps which provides distance matrix API and also some free API calls for development purposes, and Mapquest is the best alternative that we can try.
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They provide 15,000 free API calls per month, which is adequate for development and testing purposes.
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I would like to refactor the code, so as to use mapquest API to calculate distance required in the particular functions.
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This will further lead to proper working of the pipeline after a long time which is necessary.