Why do I get always ZERO_RESULTS using post method (google-maps-api) in java with httpClient?

Question

I'm using the following post method:

"myApiKey" stands for my google api key

public static void post(){
    try {
        Content resp = Request.Post("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json").bodyForm(Form.form().add("key",  "myApiKey").add("address",  "Sidney").build()).execute().returnContent();
        String response = resp.toString();
        System.out.println(response);
    } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

In the method above, I have used fluent API(fluent API in the second grey box) The response is the following:

{
   "results" : [],
   "status" : "ZERO_RESULTS"
}

@v.ladyev, I have already solved the problem of places containing spaces on my own with such preprocessing:

public static String preprocessLocation(String location){
    String[] locationSplitted = location.split("\\s*,\\s*");
    StringBuilder query = new StringBuilder();
    for(int j = 0; j < locationSplitted.length; j++){
        if(j != 0){
            query.append("+");
        }
        String[] parts = locationSplitted[j].split(" ");
        for(int i = 0; i < parts.length; i++){
            query.append(parts[i]);
            if((i + 1) < parts.length){
                query.append("+");
            }
        }
        if((j + 1) < locationSplitted.length){
            query.append(",");
        }
    }
    return query.toString();
}

FOR THE ONES WHO WOULD LIKE TO APPEND OTHERS PARAMETERS or HEADERS (for instance, the key and the Accept-Language):

private static String post(String place){
        try {
            List<NameValuePair> parameters = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
            parameters.add(new BasicNameValuePair("address",place));
            parameters.add(new BasicNameValuePair("key", PUT_HERE_YOUR_KEY));
            URIBuilder builder = new URIBuilder("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json").setParameters(parameters);
            Content response = Request.Post(builder.build()).addHeader("Accept-Language", "en").execute().returnContent();
            return response.toString();
        } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (URISyntaxException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return null;
    }

Answer 1

Try this, bodyForm() is not adding your parameters and I could not found any kind of documentation.

public static void post(){
        try {
            StringBuilder http = new StringBuilder();
            http.append("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json");
            http.append("?");
            http.append("key=myAppKey");
            http.append("&");
            http.append("address=Sidney");
            Request maps = Request.Post(http.toString());
            System.out.println(maps.toString());
            Response mapsResponse = maps.execute();
            Content resp = mapsResponse.returnContent();
            String response = resp.toString();
            System.out.println(response);
        } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

Answer 2

I did some investigations.

Looks like, It is impossible to use a POST request with parameters in the request body with Geocoding API (but it is need for Geolocation API, for an example). Geocoding API waits parameters in the URL. So for empty URL's parameters it returns an empty response.

Post requests have a very useful feature — an encoding of request parameters can be specified. With GET requests we have opposite situation — it is need to encode request's parameters. Only alphanumeric characters don't need to be encoded — refer Common pitfalls of URLs.

Based on this, @MiguelResendiz example will not always work. Consider the same, but simplified method — it is not need an API key for tests, and using Request.Post is the same as using Request.Get in this situation

private static void post(String address) throws Exception {
    StringBuilder http = new StringBuilder();
    http.append("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json");
    http.append("?");
    http.append("address=" + address);
    Content resp = Request.Post(http.toString()).execute().returnContent();
    System.out.println(resp);
}

It works for post("Sidney").

But when we do post("Red Light District") we have an exception, because of the address has spaces

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal character in query at index 61

To do encoding we can use URIBuilder from Apache HTTP Client. And to perform a valid get request

String url = "https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json";
String address = "Red Light District";
URIBuilder builder = new URIBuilder(url).setParameter("address", address);

Content response = Request.Get(builder.build()).execute().returnContent();

System.out.println(response);

It works pretty well.