MKReverseGeocoder server returned error: 503

Question

Currently i am developing an iPhone application where i have to show user's current city and location for which i am using Mapkit Framework.When i build the application it works fine and show me the exact city details .But right now when i try to build the application again application shows following error message in my log

/SourceCache/ProtocolBuffer_Sim/ProtocolBuffer-26/Runtime/PBRequester.m:523 server returned error: 503

reverseGeocoder: didFailWithError:Error Domain=PBRequesterErrorDomain Code=6001 "Operation could not be completed. (PBRequesterErrorDomain error 6001.)"

Is any body facing the same issue and how can i resolve it?

Answer 1

I am pretty sure this is happening because you are in testing, and using the reverse geocoder too much and Google's servers know that. So, it has basically blocked you for a while. Try again later and see if it works.

You need to make sure that you are not calling the geocoder more than once every 60 seconds.

Answer 2

I find out!
Well, now we'll have to use CLGeocoder, but if you want still to use MKReverseGeocoder, you MUST not call [geocoder start] twice, even if the geocode object is a fresh new one! For example, DON'T do this:

- (void)locationManager:(CLLocationManager *)manager didUpdateToLocation:(CLLocation *)newLocation fromLocation:(CLLocation *)oldLocation 
{
        MKReverseGeocoder *geoCoder = [[[MKReverseGeocoder alloc] initWithCoordinate:newLocation.coordinate] autorelease];
        geoCoder.delegate = self;
        [geoCoder start];
}

Or you'll get an arror: the location manager update position function is being called as soon as a new position is detected. As the accuracy is getting better and better, a new fresh new posistion is being sent to "didUpdateToLocation".
But creating a new object MKReverseGeocoder each time a position is found is a bad idea! So, you've got a few solutions:
- Put a boolean that is true when geocoder is started. Then in didFindPlacemark (geocoder's), you should stop the geocoder with [geocoder cancel] and set your boolean to false.
- Make geocoder variable not local and manange a [geocoder cancel] + realease and create a new one and[geocoder start] each time didUpdateToLocation is beeing called.
- Any other way to avoid [geocoder start] to be called twice

I used the first solution and never get the 503 error anymore.

Answer 3

For me, MKReverseGeocoder was failing with 503 far too many times. It would also fail the first time it was requested, well after 60 seconds had passed. As a result, I decided to give up using it and instead decided to access Google's API directly using NSURLRequest via a service I created that also parses the result as a JSON String using the SBJSON Framework (very useful).

From my service, I call the following URL as follows:

NSString *urlStr = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=%f,%f&sensor=true", coordinate.latitude, coordinate.longitude];

where coordinate is a CLLocationCoordinate2D.

I realise this is a long way around the problem, but since converting to this system I have had no issues!

Answer 4

It can happen at random, depending on the server's status.