Update 23 July:

Well, this is getting a bit more interesting. The API call from Google is returning a status of "ZERO RESULTS". So my question now is a bit more fun - and wanders off into the area of hashes/arrays, which I'm not all that good at.

The API returns a status in its XML response that looks like this:

The XML returned by this request is shown below.

<GeocodeResponse>
 <status>OK</status>
 <result>
  <type>street_address</type>
  <formatted_address>1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, 
+USA</formatted_address>
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The API call Geocode queries $location to Google Maps geocoding API and returns hash reference returned back from API server.

how can I read the hash reference for the status? My intent would be to write the necessary IF statements to handle the program flow from there but I am not certain how to grab the status out of the returned information.

Suggestions?

Brothers and Sisters,

I'm pretty sure I have made a rookie mistake somewhere but the obvious is eluding me. I have a script which is not throwing any errors and should be. (Sounds like a nice problem to have!) The script scrapes job listings from the web and outputs a geocode for them. (The idea is to plot them on a world map so we just need the lat/long). Anyway, some of the job postings are not completely well formed and Google sometimes throws an error - zero results. I tried to trap that and planned to put in a dialog but now my error routine is skipping the offending locations.

If you try the script, you'll see that jobs #6 and #7 are not processed. I'm trying to trap those so I can get a realistic geocoding, but my error routine is just skipping it.

What have I done wrong?

 ****** START ****** START ****** START ****** START ****** START ****
+** START
 job no.: 1 Senior Implementation Specialist ==> Prof Svcs Boulogne-Bi
+llancourt, , France 48.8396952 2.2399123 
 job no.: 2 Marketing Manager  ==> Marketing Vienna, Wien, Austria 48.
+2081743 16.3738189 
 job no.: 3 Solutions Architect - Consulting Architecture ==> Prof Svc
+s Boulogne-Billancourt, , France 48.8396952 2.2399123 
 job no.: 4 Lead Generation Specialist ==> Marketing Oceanport, New Je
+rsey, United States 40.3181663 -74.0151382 
 job no.: 5 Facilities Supervisor ==> IT Oceanport, New Jersey, United
+ States 40.3181663 -74.0151382 
 job no.: 8 Director, Channel Sales ==> Partners PO Box 502224, , Unit
+ed Arab Emirates 23.424076 53.847818
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My script is here and the offending logic is where the eval block begins... at least, I think that's where the problem is.

This is the input that I was expecting my code to trap Google's complaint:

306926-636    Enterprise Account Manager    Remote, , Turkey    7/5/20
+14
306927-636    Solutions Architect - Consulting Architecture    Remote,
+ , Israel    7/5/2014
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Snippet:

# having assigned the job title to a category, now try to lookup the
    # lat and long of the job position so we can plot in on a map.

    # turns out the Google API has a limit of 10 geocodes per second s
+o we
    # need a loop to throttle the request rate.  otherwise google thro
+ws an error
    # and I am not sure how to trap it.

    if ($loop <  10) {

        $geocoder = Geo::Coder::Google->new(apiver => 3);
        eval{
           $latlong = $geocoder->geocode(location => $location);
            if ($1){
                print "!!! !!! !!! --- Couldn't get location : $locati
+on --- !!! !!! !!!\n";
            }else{
        
                $map_coords = $latlong->{geometry}{location}{lat} . " 
+" . $latlong->{geometry}{location}{lng};
        
        print ( " job no.\: $job_count $job_title \=\=\> $department $
+location $map_coords \n" );
        $loop++;
            }
        }
    }
    
    else {
        print ( " job no.\: $job_count $job_title \=\=\> $department $
+location $map_coords \n" );
        $loop = 0;
        sleep 1;
    }
    # count up the jobs by category
    # if the category already exists in the hash table then increment 
+it
        if (exists $categories{$department} ) {
         $categories{$department}++;
      }
    # otherwise add it and initialize the counter to '1'.
        else {
         $categories{$department} = 1;
      }

    
    # count up the jobs by city
    # if the location already exists in the hash table then increment 
+it
        if (exists $offices{$map_coords} ) {
            $offices{$map_coords}++;
      }

    # otherwise add it and initialize the counter to '1'.
        else {
            $offices{$map_coords} = 1;
            $cities{$map_coords} = $location;
      }

    
    # need to loop through the offices hash and scale out the size of 
+the dot
    print ($out_fh "$map_coords \"\" color=red symbolsize=", "$offices
+{$map_coords}", "\n");
print ($out_fh "$map_coords \"\" color=red symbolsize=", "$offices{$ma
+p_coords}" * "2", "\n \n");
}
p %categories;
p %offices;
p %cities;

close ($out_fh);
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