topic Re: Bug in how the reverseGeocode endpoint handles 'location', or is documentation wrong? in ArcGIS REST APIs and Services Questions

Bug in how the reverseGeocode endpoint handles 'location', or is documentation wrong?

Trippetoe — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 19:35:31 GMT

Hi. The documentation for the ArcGIS REST API reverseGeocode operation says that the `location` parameter can take one of three forms:

location=103.8767227,1.3330736
location={x: 103.876722, y: 1.3330736}
location={ "x": 11563503, "y": 148410, "spatialReference": { "wkid": 3857 } }

In my testing, only the first option works. Option 2 and 3 return 'Error occurred while processing request' with no error message and a description 'http.400'

For my testing, i'm using the URL from the Examples within the documentation page, and switching out the various options for `location` and dropping the 'token' parameter. Like this:

https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/reverseGeocode?f=pjson&featureTypes=&location=-117.205525,34.038232

https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/reverseGeocode?f=pjson&featureTypes=&location={x:103.876722,y:1.3330736}

https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/reverseGeocode?f=pjson&featureTypes=&location={ "x": 11563503, "y": 148410, "spatialReference": { "wkid": 3857 } }

Only the top one is successful. Is the documentation off, or is there a bug in the reverseGeocode endpoint?

Thank you.

Re: Bug in how the reverseGeocode endpoint handles 'location', or is documentation wrong?

RClavero — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 14:02:34 GMT

Hello @Trippetoe,

Did you review if the syntax of your 2nd and 3rd requests match exactly the Esri documentation examples? I seem to see some minor space differences. I'm not sure if those might make a difference, but I would check since you get a 400 error message.

Re: Bug in how the reverseGeocode endpoint handles 'location', or is documentation wrong?

Trippetoe — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 18:27:22 GMT

Hi @RClavero . Thanks for taking a look at my question.

I reviewed the requests, and I feel pretty good about the syntax. I reran the second one with an exact copy / paste. The browser did its URL encoding with a final URL of https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/reverseGeocode?location={x:%20103.876722,%20y:%201.3330736}. I got the same response http.400 'Error occurred while processing result

Re: Bug in how the reverseGeocode endpoint handles 'location', or is documentation wrong?

RClavero — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 20:18:15 GMT

Hello @Trippetoe, I don't think I will be able to help you further.

Still, after a quick research, I found three 'somehow relevant' old Esri Community posts that you might want to look at: 1, 2, and 3. And I also see that the ArcGIS Geocoding Service was updated in September; maybe there was some undocumented change?

I would be curious to know the solution. Good luck!

Re: Bug in how the reverseGeocode endpoint handles 'location', or is documentation wrong?

Trippetoe — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 16:18:25 GMT

Thanks @RClavero . The three links you provided were helpful. They sent me down the path of getting to know online URL encoders a bit more than i had known them before. Eventually, i stumbled on an encoded URL that seemed to do the trick (for example, this is the third link in my original post fully encoded):

https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/reverseGeocode?f=pjson&featureTypes=&location=%7B%20%22x%22%3A%2011563503%2C%20%22y%22%3A%20148410%2C%20%22spatialReference%22%3A%20%7B%20%22wkid%22%3A%203857%20%7D%20%7D

That request got me a valid response from the service. I'm gonna call that a win, and move on.

Thanks again for your help

Re: Bug in how the reverseGeocode endpoint handles 'location', or is documentation wrong?

RClavero — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 21:21:01 GMT

I'm glad I could be of some assistance, @Trippetoe. Thank you for sharing those additional details, too.