Build Your Free GPS Routing API with Python Flask 🗺️

Build your free Distance Matrix API deployed on the cloud

Article

In this Article, we will create a free, easy-to-implement and customizable (and a bit slow :D) Distance Matrix API using Flask with a Selenium Bot deployed on Heroku

How does it work?

Before starting to read this part, please forget everything you know about how to put in production a fast, efficient and stable code ensuring quick response with limited resources. This will be simple, quick and dirty, with no intention to be a scalable solution. The performance will be way lower than if you directly query the official Google API — but here it’s free :)

Let us do it in three steps

1. Build a Selenium Bot that will query the distance from City A to City B in Google Maps Website
2. Set up your Flask API that will receive the request and return a distance
3. Deploy your code on Heroku

Code

This repository code is ready to be deployed on Heroku:

1. Copy Github repository in your local folder and create a local python environment

2. Download libraries listed in requirements.txt

  pip3 install -r requirements.txt

3. Download Buildpacks on Heroku to use Selenium + ChromeDriver

Go to settings > Add Buildpack

Enter Two Links
https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-google-chrome
https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-chromedriver

4. Set up Environment Variables on Heroku

CHROMEDRIVER_PATH: /app/.chromedriver/bin/chromedriver
GOOGLE_CHROME_BIN: /app/.apt/usr/bin/google-chrome

5. Deploy your app on Heroku

Test your API

Test your API to calculate the distance

From: Paris, France
To: Marseille, France

Request link

http://xxx-xxx.herokuapp.com/distance/Paris,France/Marseille,France (replace xxx-xxx by your Heroku app name)

Response

{“distance”:”775 km”}

About me 🤓

Senior Supply Chain Engineer with an international experience working on Logistics and Transportation operations.
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