Calling a JSON API

# Calling a JSON API
#
# In this assignment you will write a Python program somewhat similar to
#
# http://www.py4e.com/code3/geojson.py.
#
# The program will prompt for a location, contact a web service
# and retrieve JSON for the web service and parse that data,
# and retrieve the first place_id from the JSON.
# A place ID is a textual identifier that uniquely identifies a place as within Google Maps.
#
# API End Points
#
# To complete this assignment, you should use this API endpoint that has a static subset of the Google Data:
#
# http://py4e-data.dr-chuck.net/json?
#
# This API uses the same parameter (address) as the Google API.
# This API also has no rate limit so you can test as often as you like.
# If you visit the URL with no parameters, you get "No address..." response.
# To call the API, you need to include a key= parameter
# and provide the address that you are requesting as the address= parameter
# that is properly URL encoded using the urllib.parse.urlencode() function
# as shown in http://www.py4e.com/code3/geojson.py
#
# Make sure to check that your code is using the API endpoint is as shown above.
# You will get different results from the geojson and json endpoints
# so make sure you are using the same end point as this autograder is using.
#
# Test Data / Sample Execution
#
# You can test to see if your program is working with a location of "South Federal University"
# which will have a place_id of "ChIJy0Uc1Zmym4gR3fmAYmWNuac".
#
# $ python3 solution.py
# Enter location: South Federal University
# Retrieving http://...
# Retrieved 2433 characters
# Place id ChIJy0Uc1Zmym4gR3fmAYmWNuac
# Turn In
#
# Please run your program to find the place_id for this location:
#
# California State University San Bernardino
#
# Make sure to enter the name and case exactly as above
# and enter the place_id and your Python code below.
#
# Hint: The first seven characters of the place_id are "ChIJ18h ..."
#
# Make sure to retreive the data from the URL specified above
# and not the normal Google API. Your program should work with the Google API -
# but the place_id may not match for this assignment.

import urllib.request, urllib.error, urllib.parse
import json
import ssl

ctx = ssl.create_default_context()
ctx.check_hostname = False
ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_NONE

api_key = False                   # If you have a Google Places API key, enter it here
                                  # api_key = 'AIzaSy___IDByT70'
                                  # https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/intro

if api_key is False:
    api_key = 42
    serviceurl = 'http://py4e-data.dr-chuck.net/json?'
else:
    serviceurl = 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?'

while True:
    address = input('Enter address: ')
    if len(address) < 1 :
        break
    parms = dict()
    parms['address'] = address
    if api_key is not False:
        parms['key'] = api_key
    url = serviceurl+urllib.parse.urlencode(parms)
    print('url is :', url)
    print('1 ===========================================================================')

    html = urllib.request.urlopen(url, context = ctx)
    data = html.read().decode()
    #print(data)
    print('Retrieved', len(data), 'characters')
    print('2 ============================================================================')

    try:
        js = json.loads(data)
    except:
        js = None

    if not js or 'status' not in js or js['status'] != 'OK':
        print('=========Failure to Retrieve================')
        print(data)
        continue
    print('3 ==================================================================================')
    print(json.dumps(js, indent=4))
    print('4 ===================================================================================')

    place_id= js['results'][0]['place_id']
    print(len(place_id))
    print(place_id)