geocoding-api

Build Your Free GPS Routing API with Python Flask 🗺️

Build your free Distance Matrix API deployed on the cloud

Article

In this Article, we will create a free, easy-to-implement and customizable (and a bit slow :D) Distance Matrix API using Flask with a Selenium Bot deployed on Heroku

How does it work?

Before you read this section, please forget everything you know about how to put in production fast, efficient, and stable code that guarantees quick response with limited resources.

This will be simple, quick, and dirty, with no intention of being a scalable solution.

The performance will be way lower than if you directly query the official Google API — but here it’s free :)

Let us do it in three steps

1. Build a Selenium Bot that will query the distance from City A to City B on the Google Maps website.
2. Set up your Flask API that will receive the request and return a distance
3. Deploy your code on Heroku

Code

This repository code is ready to be deployed on Heroku:

1. Clone the GitHub repository to your local folder and create a local Python environment

2. Download libraries listed in requirements.txt

  pip3 install -r requirements.txt

3. Download Buildpacks on Heroku to use Selenium + ChromeDriver

Go to settings > Add Buildpack

Enter Two Links
https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-google-chrome
https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-chromedriver

4. Set up Environment Variables on Heroku

CHROMEDRIVER_PATH: /app/.chromedriver/bin/chromedriver
GOOGLE_CHROME_BIN: /app/.apt/usr/bin/google-chrome

5. Deploy your app on Heroku

Test your API

Test your API to calculate the distance

From: Paris, France
To: Marseille, France

Request link

http://xxx-xxx.herokuapp.com/distance/Paris,France/Marseille,France (replace xxx-xxx by your Heroku app name)

Response

{“distance”:”775 km”}

About me 🤓

Senior Supply Chain Engineer with international experience working on Logistics and Transportation operations. \ Have a look at my portfolio: Data Science for Supply Chain Portfolio \ For consulting or advising on analytics and sustainable supply chain transformation, feel free to contact me via Logigreen Consulting