Ruby on Rails - Restrict geocoder response to city and get the ID

Question

I have a Ruby on Rails project with the users table and I need to store the location_id from the user input.

• If user types Buckingham Palace then the location_id should be the london_id

• If user types Wall Street then the location_id should be the new_york_id

• If user types Statue of Liberty then the location_id should be the new_york_id

• If user types United States then the location_id should be nil

I am using geocoder gem, but I'm failing retrieving the city ID. For instance:

Geocoder.search("London").first.place_id # => ChIJdd4hrwug2EcRmSrV3Vo6llI
Geocoder.search("Buckingham Palace").first.place_id # => ChIJtV5bzSAFdkgRpwLZFPWrJgo

I need both to be ChIJdd4hrwug2EcRmSrV3Vo6llI (the London ID)

Answer 1

Here's my updated answer. It is integrated in Geocoder structure, and only needs one search if the query is a city name :

require 'geocoder'

module Geocoder
  # Returns the Google ID of the city containing the queried location. Returns nil if nothing found or if location contains multiple cities.
  def self.get_city_id(query, options={})
    results = search(query, options)
    unless results.empty?
      result = results.first
      city = result.city
      if city then
        if city == query then
          result.place_id
        else
          sleep(1)
          search(city,options).first.place_id
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

Geocoder::Configuration.timeout = 15

["London", "Buckingham Palace", "Wall Street", "Statue of Liberty Monument", "United States", "WEIRDqueryWithNoResult"].each{|query|
  puts query
  puts Geocoder.get_city_id(query).inspect
  sleep(1)
}

It outputs :

London
"ChIJdd4hrwug2EcRmSrV3Vo6llI"
Buckingham Palace
"ChIJdd4hrwug2EcRmSrV3Vo6llI"
Wall Street
"ChIJOwg_06VPwokRYv534QaPC8g"
Statue of Liberty Monument
"ChIJOwg_06VPwokRYv534QaPC8g"
United States
nil
WEIRDqueryWithNoResult
nil

For documentation purpose, here is my original answer:

require 'geocoder'


def get_city(search_term)
  Geocoder.search(search_term).first.city
end

def get_place_id(search_term)
  Geocoder.search(search_term).first.place_id
end

["London", "Buckingham Palace", "Wall Street", "Statue of Liberty Monument", "United States"].each{|term|
  puts (city=get_city(term)) && sleep(1) && get_place_id(city)
  sleep(1)
}