Calculate distance between 2 zipcodes using google maps API using Asp.Net MVC C#

Question

Today I needed create some functionality to calculate the distance between zipcodes and it was not easy to me. Fortunately I found a good way and I believe it can be helpful to someone else.

Answer 1

The goal was create a delivery fee based on the distance between the store and the customer.

I did try some ways and the best is also the simplest one.

First, I needed create a viewModel based on the json response of google.

The json structure returned by the request has this format:

{
     "destination_addresses" : [ "Centro, Juiz de Fora - MG, 36013-210, Brasil" ],
     "origin_addresses" : [ "Passos, Juiz de Fora - MG, 36026-460, Brasil" ],
     "rows" : [
          {
            "elements" : [
                 {
                   "distance" : 
                        {
                          "text" : "3,1 km",
                          "value" : 3149
                        },
                   "duration" : 
                        {
                          "text" : "11 minutos",
                          "value" : 645
                        },
                   "status" : "OK"
                 }
             ]
         }
     ],
     "status" : "OK"
}

The viewModel's properties should be the equivalent of json return properties.

In this way, my viewModel looks like this:

//Class for "distance" and "duration" which has the "text" and "value" properties.
public class CepElementNode
{
    public string text { get; set; }

    public string value { get; set; }
}

//Class for "distance", "duration" and "status" nodes of "elements" node 
public class CepDataElement
{
    public CepElementNode distance { get; set; }

    public CepElementNode duration { get; set; }

    public string status { get; set; }
}

//Class for "elements" node
public class CepDataRow
{
    public List<CepDataElement> elements { get; set; }
}

//Class which wrap the json response
public class RequestCepViewModel
{
    public List<string> destination_addresses { get; set; }

    public List<string> origin_addresses { get; set; }

    public List<CepDataRow> rows { get; set; }

    public string status { get; set; }
}

Note that array elements as "destination_addresses", "origin_addresses" and "rows" should be a List in C#. This way we can deserialize the json response in a RequestCepViewModel instance.

Finally, in my Action I have this code:

var url = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json?origins=36026460&destinations=36013210&mode=driving&language=en-EN&sensor=false";
WebRequest webRequest = WebRequest.Create(url);
WebResponse response = webRequest.GetResponse();
Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream();
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(responseStream);

var jsonResponseString = reader.ReadToEnd();

var viewModel = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<RequestCepViewModel>(jsonResponseString);

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Hope it helps someone.

Regards