Parsing data from MapQuest reverse geocoding api in Python?

Question

My code:

from urllib import request
import json

lat = 31.33 ; long = -84.52

webpage = "http://www.mapquestapi.com/geocoding/v1/reverse?key=MY_KEY&callback=renderReverse&location={},{}".format(lat, long)

response = request.urlopen(webpage)
json_data = response.read().decode(response.info().get_param('charset') or 'utf-8')
data = json.loads(json_data)
print(data)

This gives me following error:

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

I am trying to read county and state from MapQuest reverse geocoding api. The response looks like this:

renderReverse({"info":{"statuscode":0,"copyright":{"text":"\u00A9 2015 MapQuest, Inc.","imageUrl":"http://api.mqcdn.com/res/mqlogo.gif","imageAltText":"\u00A9 2015 MapQuest, Inc."},"messages":[]},"options":{"maxResults":1,"thumbMaps":true,"ignoreLatLngInput":false},"results":[{"providedLocation":{"latLng":{"lat":32.841516,"lng":-83.660992}},"locations":[{"street":"562 Patterson St","adminArea6":"","adminArea6Type":"Neighborhood","adminArea5":"Macon","adminArea5Type":"City","adminArea4":"Bibb","adminArea4Type":"County","adminArea3":"GA","adminArea3Type":"State","adminArea1":"US","adminArea1Type":"Country","postalCode":"31204-3508","geocodeQualityCode":"P1AAA","geocodeQuality":"POINT","dragPoint":false,"sideOfStreet":"L","linkId":"0","unknownInput":"","type":"s","latLng":{"lat":32.84117,"lng":-83.660973},"displayLatLng":{"lat":32.84117,"lng":-83.660973},"mapUrl":"http://www.mapquestapi.com/staticmap/v4/getmap?key=MY_KEY&type=map&size=225,160&pois=purple-1,32.84117,-83.660973,0,0,|&center=32.84117,-83.660973&zoom=15&rand=-189494136"}]}]})

How do I convert this string to a dict from which I can query using a key? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

First, get rid of the callback parameter in your URL since that's what is causing the response to be wrapped in renderReverse()

webpage = "http://www.mapquestapi.com/geocoding/v1/reverse?key=MY_KEY&location={},{}".format(lat, long)

That will give you valid json which should work with the json.loads function you call. At this point you can interact with data like a dictionary, getting the county and state names by their keys. The way mapquests structures their json is pretty strange, so it looks like you may have to do some string matching to get the correct key name. In this case, 'adminArea4Type' is set to 'County' so you want to access the 'adminArea4' key to return the county name.

data['results'][0]['locations'][0]['adminArea4']