Android; Geocoder, why do I get "the service is not available"?

Question

I want to use the Geocoder in an android application, I've got the following piece of code to sample it :

public class LocatorGeo extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);


        Geocoder geo = new Geocoder(getApplicationContext());

        List<Address> myAddrs = new ArrayList<Address>();

        try {
            myAddrs = geo.getFromLocationName("CO100AR", 1);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

I get the following stack trace :

09-01 15:52:38.809: WARN/System.err(334): java.io.IOException: Service not Available
09-01 15:52:38.819: WARN/System.err(334):     at android.location.Geocoder.getFromLocationName(Geocoder.java:159)
09-01 15:52:38.829: WARN/System.err(334):     at com.jameselsey.LocatorGeo.onCreate(LocatorGeo.java:25)
09-01 15:52:38.829: WARN/System.err(334):     at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)
09-01 15:52:38.839: WARN/System.err(334):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2627)
09-01 15:52:38.849: WARN/System.err(334):     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2679)
09-01 15:52:38.849: WARN/System.err(334):     at android.app.ActivityThread.access$2300(ActivityThread.java:125)
09-01 15:52:38.868: WARN/System.err(334):     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2033)
09-01 15:52:38.868: WARN/System.err(334):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
09-01 15:52:38.879: WARN/System.err(334):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
09-01 15:52:38.889: WARN/System.err(334):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4627)
09-01 15:52:38.899: WARN/System.err(334):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
09-01 15:52:38.909: WARN/System.err(334):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
09-01 15:52:38.919: WARN/System.err(334):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:868)
09-01 15:52:38.929: WARN/System.err(334):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:626)
09-01 15:52:38.929: WARN/System.err(334):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

Why is the service unavailable? I have the following in my manifest

   <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

The documentation states : The Geocoder class requires a backend service that is not included in the core android framework, how/where can I obtain such a service?

Seems I'm not the only one : http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=8816 — Jimmy, Sep 01 '10 at 16:12
For anyone out there. Has the same problem, seems using Geocoder on an emulator is futile. I just test it straight on the phone, also you can use [isPresent()](http://developer.android.com/reference/android/location/Geocoder.html#isPresent()) to check of there is a GeoCoder implementation. — gideon, Jun 02 '12 at 19:42

score 19 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 28 '10 at 16:58

19

It's a bug in the emulator for 2.2 http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=8816

answered Oct 28 '10 at 16:58

Ben English

3,900
2
22
32

So sad... Still getting this problem over a year later. – Nels Beckman Dec 08 '11 at 21:44
1

supposedly they've revamped the emulator in the 4.0 SDK for ICS. Have you tried using that yet? It's possible they've fixed it. – Ben English Dec 08 '11 at 22:02
is there any solution to this problem?? I tried the comment 21 in the above link solution but it didn't work for me... – Antrromet Dec 10 '11 at 09:57
Unfortunately, I got the latest SDK and it's September 2012 and I still get the problem on 2.2 – Joe Plante Sep 10 '12 at 21:21

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 06 '12 at 08:11

This is only solution for this problem....

public static JSONObject getLocationInfo(String address) {

        HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet("http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=" +address+"&ka&sensor=false");
        HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
        HttpResponse response;
        StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

        try {
            response = client.execute(httpGet);
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
            InputStream stream = entity.getContent();
            int b;
            while ((b = stream.read()) != -1) {
                stringBuilder.append((char) b);
            }
        } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
        } catch (IOException e) {
        }

        JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject();
        try {
            jsonObject = new JSONObject(stringBuilder.toString());
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        return jsonObject;
    }

    public static GeoPoint getGeoPoint(JSONObject jsonObject) {

        Double lon = new Double(0);
        Double lat = new Double(0);

        try {

            lon = ((JSONArray)jsonObject.get("results")).getJSONObject(0)
                .getJSONObject("geometry").getJSONObject("location")
                .getDouble("lng");

            lat = ((JSONArray)jsonObject.get("results")).getJSONObject(0)
                .getJSONObject("geometry").getJSONObject("location")
                .getDouble("lat");

        } catch (JSONException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        return new GeoPoint((int) (lat * 1E6), (int) (lon * 1E6));

    }


GeoPoint srcGeoPoint =getGeoPoint(getLocationInfo(fromAddress.replace("\n"," ").replace(" ", "%20")));
            GeoPoint destGeoPoint =getGeoPoint(getLocationInfo(CalDescription.toAddress.replace("\n"," ").replace(" ", "%20")));

unfortunately this solution doesn't work with mobile connection of some mobile operators: the request always returns **OVER_QUERY_LIMIT**. Those mobile operators use NAT overloading, assigning the same IP to many devices... — Umberto, Jul 04 '13 at 13:42
add api key not to get the error e.g: "http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=address&ka&sensor=false&key=YOUR_API_KEY" — Belvi Nosakhare, Aug 04 '15 at 09:44

Girish Bhutiya · Answer 3 · 2012-09-13T10:53:45.577

2

I also have faced this kind of issues like geo.getFromLocationName return null or this kind of exception so find alter net solution is i have used Google api to get lat/long and here is the link for reference.

edited Sep 13 '12 at 10:53

answered Jan 26 '12 at 13:17

Girish Bhutiya

3,111
5
31
50

Android; Geocoder, why do I get "the service is not available"?

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