Question

Photo of Michael Garrison

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Adding Google location services API key to RoCK

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My apologies if it's been asked, but we've got a non-profit grant through Google for free access to their paid Google Maps API (including geocoding, etc) to allow use on non-publically-accessible pages (like RoCK!). I don't know if their API is something that RoCK knows how to use instead of roughly equivalent services like Bing, but I don't see a place to put my Google key, nor any way to add a fifth service. Should there be a way, or is that something which would need a plugin or further development down the road?

Thanks

  • Photo of Frank Grand

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    Hey Michael,

    I found this in the Rock Admin Hero Guide (http://www.rockrms.com/Rock/BookContent/9/) ....sounds like Google isn't going to be supported at this time....

    What About Google?

    Rock is more than code. We've also put in a lot of effort to make technology simple and approachable for people of all backgrounds. One facet of this is ensuring that we bring the highest level of integrity possible to our use of data and software licenses. We’ve even gone to the length of working with a top software attorney to review our licensing, especially when licenses are unclear. His review of Google's free geocoding service determined that it was not a fit for Rock. This was based on Google's limitation that their data could only be used in conjunction with their maps. While we do use their excellent mapping technology for Rock, we also use the geocoding data internal to the application to determine distances between points and which points are within geofences. Because of this, his recommendation was that we would not be within Google license requirements. His determination was that we meet all of Bing’s definitions in their license as it stands today. While the language of software licenses always lends itself to some grayness, we have struggled to understand and stay within the boundaries as much as we can.

    • Michael Garrison

      Michael Garrison

      Thanks for spotting that. I might point out that the "Administrator's To-Do list" still prompts for a free Google Maps API key, and recommends that we might consider applying for such a free grant. If there's no way to support it, that should probably be removed to avoid such confusion.

      • Jim Michael

        Jim Michael

        Don't confuse Google Maps with Geocoding. Rock does use Google Maps for displaying geographical data, which is why the To-do list wants you to add a Google API key (which is done under General Settings > Global Attributes. What Rock does not do is allow Google to be used for geocoding, per the research they did in the paragraph from the Admin guide. As for your specific use case where YOU are allowed to use Google geocoding... only the devs could comment on how/if it's possible.

        • Michael Garrison

          Michael Garrison

          Good clarification, thanks. I don't think that Rock makes a clear distinction on where it uses the two, or at least I didn't pick up on it. So the original question remains- you're not permitted, according to the Google Maps TOS, to use the normal "free" key on a non-publically-accessible site. That's a big part of the reason I applied for the Google Maps grant (the same thing that Rock mentions that we might consider). But that type of API access doesn't use a "key" like the free API keys do, but instead a Client ID in the URL of all the requests. And it doesn't appear that Rock has been programmed to accept a Client ID and format the URLs in that case.