JSONDecodeError when requesting directions in gpx format

[kuznetsov-a]

Here's what I did

 [-0.0743414, 51.5015841],
 [-0.05273140000000039, 51.46430039999999],
 [-0.0531279, 51.4637547],
 [0.0320358, 51.3579627],
 [0.030053528946478628, 51.3510888399767],
 [0.0373899, 51.3508184],
 [0.05585272964791204, 51.33450105290082],
 [0.0528395, 51.3311335],
 [0.1014503, 51.246361],
 [0.14227140698558516, 51.18576100547525],
 [0.1458905, 51.1853518],
 [0.1459325, 51.1858536]]

gpx = directions.directions(clnt, coordinates_lon_lat, profile ='cycling-regular', 
                    format = 'gpx',preference = 'recommended' )

The same request is processed without any errors with format='json' or format='geojson' and the correct route is returned

dry_run output:

https://api.openrouteservice.org/v2/directions/driving-car/json?
Headers:
{
  "headers": {
    "User-Agent": "ORSClientPython.v2.3.0",
    "Content-type": "application/json",
    "Authorization": "5b3ce3597851110001cf62484bacb83d2107475198ea22650a25b872"
  },
  "timeout": 60,
  "json": {
    "coordinates": [
      [
        8.34234,
        48.23424
      ],
      [
        8.34423,
        48.26424
      ]
    ]
  }
}```
---
#### Here's what I got
<!-- we :heart: json outputs -->
```---------------------------------------------------------------------------
JSONDecodeError                           Traceback (most recent call last)
~/miniconda3/envs/ox/lib/python3.8/site-packages/openrouteservice/client.py in _get_body(response)
    228         try:
--> 229             body = response.json()
    230         except json.JSONDecodeError:

~/miniconda3/envs/ox/lib/python3.8/site-packages/requests/models.py in json(self, **kwargs)
    897                     pass
--> 898         return complexjson.loads(self.text, **kwargs)
    899 

~/miniconda3/envs/ox/lib/python3.8/json/__init__.py in loads(s, cls, object_hook, parse_float, parse_int, parse_constant, object_pairs_hook, **kw)
    356             parse_constant is None and object_pairs_hook is None and not kw):
--> 357         return _default_decoder.decode(s)
    358     if cls is None:

~/miniconda3/envs/ox/lib/python3.8/json/decoder.py in decode(self, s, _w)
    336         """
--> 337         obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
    338         end = _w(s, end).end()

~/miniconda3/envs/ox/lib/python3.8/json/decoder.py in raw_decode(self, s, idx)
    354         except StopIteration as err:
--> 355             raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
    356         return obj, end

JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

HTTPError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-129-0570940137d3> in <module>
----> 1 gpx = directions.directions(clnt, coordinates_lon_lat, profile ='cycling-regular', 
      2                     format = 'gpx',preference = 'recommended' )

~/miniconda3/envs/ox/lib/python3.8/site-packages/openrouteservice/directions.py in directions(client, coordinates, profile, format_out, format, preference, units, language, geometry, geometry_simplify, instructions, instructions_format, alternative_routes, roundabout_exits, attributes, maneuvers, radiuses, bearings, skip_segments, continue_straight, elevation, extra_info, suppress_warnings, optimized, optimize_waypoints, options, validate, dry_run)
    279         params['options'] = options
    280 
--> 281     return client.request("/v2/directions/" + profile + '/' + format, {}, post_json=params, dry_run=dry_run)
    282 
    283 

~/miniconda3/envs/ox/lib/python3.8/site-packages/openrouteservice/client.py in request(self, url, get_params, first_request_time, retry_counter, requests_kwargs, post_json, dry_run)
    202 
    203         try:
--> 204             result = self._get_body(response)
    205 
    206             return result

~/miniconda3/envs/ox/lib/python3.8/site-packages/openrouteservice/client.py in _get_body(response)
    229             body = response.json()
    230         except json.JSONDecodeError:
--> 231             raise exceptions.HTTPError(response.status_code)
    232 
    233         # error = body.get('error')

HTTPError: HTTP Error: 200

---

Here's what I was expecting

Same directions in GPX format

The same request generated as Python snippet from ORS API playground works correctly:

body = {"coordinates":[[-0.0858923,51.5050313],[-0.0743414,51.5015841],[-0.05273140000000039,51.46430039999999],[-0.0531279,51.4637547],[0.0320358,51.3579627],[0.030053528946478628,51.3510888399767],[0.0373899,51.3508184],[0.05585272964791204,51.33450105290082],[0.0528395,51.3311335],[0.1014503,51.246361],[0.14227140698558516,51.18576100547525],[0.1458905,51.1853518],[0.1459325,51.1858536]],"preference":"recommended"}

headers = {
    'Accept': 'application/json, application/geo+json, application/gpx+xml, img/png; charset=utf-8',
    'Authorization': '5b3ce3597851110001cf62484bacb83d2107475198ea22650a25b872',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8'
}
call = requests.post('https://api.openrouteservice.org/v2/directions/cycling-regular/gpx', json=body, headers=headers)

print(call.status_code, call.reason)
print(call.text)

---

Here's what I think could be improved

API response in GPX format should be correctly parsed or delivered as is

[nilsnolde]

Raw requests will work (as in the playground). However, ors-py offers some level of abstraction and I'm fairly sure this won't be implemented any time soon (if ever), sorry. It's actually the first time this was raised in > 2 years, so (luckily) not a lot of people have a use case for GPX in Python.

Of course happy to review a PR if you wanna add it upstream. The gpxpy package could be an option, seems to be well maintained I wouldn't like the maintenance of GPX parsing in this repo.

[nilsnolde]

I just realized that the doc string for directions.directions mentions gpx. If you're not interested in a PR, I'll change that and throw an appropriate error when it's tried.

[kuznetsov-a]

Understood, if gpx is actually not supported, it should not be available as a format option

[nilsnolde]

Or it could just return the gpx response as plain text, so you can parse it in the client. I also maintain the routing-py package where we actually parse the JSON response, forgot for a moment that ors-py only gives the loaded JSON back anyways without parsing. So it could do the same for GPX, that's true. Would that be enough?

[kuznetsov-a]

Plain text response would be great, thanks. My use case for gpx is to save the route to a file that I can load into a navigation program. It would be great to be able to do it without resorting to raw api calls