yes! Location and flag param will be part of your GET param.

Read more on authorization model here http://developer.yahoo.com/boss/geo/docs/oauth_model_geo.html

You have to generate oauth_timestamp and oauth_nonce and oauth_signature on your side, see if clock on server is properly set.

just append these values to your request param and things should work fine.

Before with the free service we used

http://where.yahooapis.com/geocode?location="some location"&flags=J now with BOSS placefinder what needs to change?

Hi I was using the free placefinder before for store lookup by postal code and now that that is being deprecated and a paid version needs to be used I am looking to the Boss implementation. My issue is I created a project and got the appid, consumer key and secret and entered the payment info however when I now try to access the api I get an invalid signature error. Not sure if I am missing something or have an in correct call. The http get I am sending is as follows: (I am Xing out the important info partially for security purposes)

http://yboss.yahooapis.com/geo/placefinder?appid=evnXXXXX&oauth_version=1.0&oauth_nonce=ef3a091928d5491624c0ac54d697124422705091&oauth_timestamp=1360257380&oauth_consumer_key=dj0yJmk9VFRQMFA1UEE3YnVzJmQ9WVdrOVpYWnVOMjlsXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&oauth_signature=1b32e8f27ff52004844efXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1

Do I add the location and flag to this URL, or do I need to get a token? if yes steps please so I do not forget a piece of this procedure.

Can you advise as to what I am doing wrong and possibly provide in this posts steps I need to follow, I read the documentation but it seems that in some cases some info may or may not pertain to my use so I am a little stuck.

Thanks,

Is there any better information on the hourly rate limiting on the Placefinder API. My application works perfectly but after about 1000 lookups I get a 503 error, 'Rate limit exceeded'The official documents mention nothing of this (http://developer.yahoo.com/search/rate.html).

My application actually has a 1200 millisecond delay between each request to try to stop the problem but this makes no difference.Since I'm paying per lookup it's very frustrating to be blocked for 24 hours while I try to find the limit. I also cannot understand how the prices lists the cost per 1000 lookups for over 35,000 lookups per day, how can anyone possibly reach those limits?

Hi XstreamINsanity,

Can you give us the query you have used? Additionally, you can also use geo.placefinder table in YQL.

We are also facing the same problem anybody help would be appreciated.

ThanksJessica

Is there a https support for PlaceFinder api? or any alternate way to access PlaceFinder api in secure environment?

Same problem for me with GeoPlanet. It replies" ERROR 418: unused " when my server tries to open the page.If I test from another server (different IP), no problem. Is there a kind of blacklist ?

Same problem for me with GeoPlanet. It replies" ERROR 418: unused " when my server tries to open the page.

If I test from another server (different IP), no problem. Is there a kind of blacklist ?

I have URL

http://where.yahooapis.com/geocode?q=War*&appid=XXXXXX&flags=JT&count=10&locale=en_US

Location, q parameter has * at the end of string

Placefinder service returns {"@lang":"en-US","ResultSet":{"@version":"2.0","@lang":"en-US","Error":"6000","ErrorMessage":"internal error","Locale":"en-US","Found":"0","Quality":"0"}}

Error 6000.

Search with asterix worked before, but now does not now.

Hi, I am using Yahoo Placefinder for retrieving geo coordinates from an address. Is there a log available where I can see what requests that were made? I expect to have less than 50 calls to this API per day but I cannot find information as to where to view that information.

I've recently encountered some issues with the Place Finder API returning a HTTP 418 errors.

After doing some research, I assume this has something to do with with the switch to YQL table on Nov. 17. However, the service still works if I access it from using file_get_contents() : http://where.yahooapis.com/geocode?location=California&appid== MY App ID -- &flags=J

It just works inconsistently, throwing the error occasionally. So, do I have to transition to YQL?

BTW, I was not the one to set up the appID so I don't have any info about our usage data, but I would imagine we would be very unlikely to cross 500 requests in a day.

The flowing request does not include any street detail information regardless if I include the "S" flag or not.

http://where.yahooapis.com/geocode?location=1216 e phillips pl, Littleton 80122&flags=S

Any help would be appreciated.

I have been using placefinder for 2-3 years, splendid service. But just recently it stops functioning in the afternoon about 4pm, we are located at gmt 1, with error http 418? Then it opens up again after 7 next morning. I wonder why. I see that you promote transition to BOSS for a similar service. But is this the reason why it closes down every afternoon? After all it still functions in the day.

Any help on the subject will be appreciated.

I was using the BOSS Geo API,I figured that it was the domain which was causing issues,I created another project with a the project type client/desktop instead of web-based,and it is working since

If you use web-based then I think you need to make sure you are making requests from the same domain specified on the project

I get this error :

Request Rate Limited

First Request works then I getRate Limit Exceeded , any help, how do I set limitsor why does that appear

I was using the sample code give in the site

Hi, my current call to API Yahoo PlaceFinder is this:

http://where.yahooapis.com/geocode?q=barcelona, spain&appid=aaaaaa01&locale=en_USorhttp://where.yahooapis.com/geocode?q=-23.509455,-46.637821&appid=aaaaaa01&gflags=R

but, I now got this info: "Consumer Key" and "Consumer Secret"

I tried this but it did not work:

http://yboss.yahooapis.com/geo/placefinder?q=barcelona, spain&appid=aaaaaa02&locale=en_US&consumerKey=xxxx&consumerSecret=yyyy

with before request I get this response:

Please provide valid credentials. OAuth oauth_problem="unable_to_determine_oauth_type", realm="yahooapis.com"

how to create my new URL? Thanks.

*Robyn .. sorry :/

Thanks Duzins :)

Saud,

The BOSS team hangs out here: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ysearchboss/

They should be able to help.

Robyn

Hi,

I'm doing data analysis on tens of millions of records, but I need all of them to be geocoded first and the only way to do this is to geocode 200k-300k records a day to finish the process within a reasonable time.

I have signed up for BOSS PlaceFinder and got my appid and seen the pricing and all of that, but my servers kept being limited to 50k a day.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!Saud.

Hi PaulSorry to hear that you are having issues. A 503 error occurs when your key was rate limited. There are a few reasons that can happen which are detailed from the BOSS Geo docs

http://developer.yahoo.com/boss/search/boss_api_guide/BOSSv2_APDX.html

Also, I recommend asking Placefinder related questions on the BOSS Y! group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ysearchboss/) since the team follows it much more closely.

Let us know if anything else. thanksRahul

No, but... I still feel the need for an answer as to what caused it.

I have other alternatives for the software I'm developing, and those alternatives are free. Yahoo's results tend to be more precise, but if the service I use stops working, my software doesn't work and that's unacceptable.

I need some assurance of reliability so I know it won't occur again, or I need to switch. To give me such assurance, you'll need to identify the cause. Respectfully, "We don't know what happened but it seems fine now" isn't enough.

I've only used it for a week or so... that's not a good record. And this occurred after only about 5 successful queries.

Paul,

I apologize for the time delay in answering. Are you still having this issue?

Robyn

Now that I've typed the topic title, I don't know what else to type. Since last night I've been getting error 503, Service Unavailable from Boss Placefinder, and I have no idea why.

Is the Boss placefinder having issues?

for coordinates in Istanbul, the placefinder returns the district as the city name (e.g. "Besiktas") and the City as the County name.

Example:
for41.0031689227,28.973982748 the result is

Hi,

im calling the WS like this

http://where.yahooapis.com/geocode?appid={appID}&locale=DE_de&flags=RQ&csz={city}

For (german) cities like:

Altdorf
Moosbach
Neumarkt

In Germany there are over 10 cities (foreach)with the same name (Altdorf, Moosbach)
And there are 2 cities in germany with the name Neumarkt and some more in Austria and other countries.

Am i doing something wrong?

The change was not intentional, and we have reverted it back. The current Placefinder service is shutting down on November 17th but we will continue to support our YQL table for non-commercial applications that are limited to 2000 queries per day per developer. We recommend you transition your code to the YQL table if you are in this category.

No problem, I was just curious. Thanks for all your help!