Sample showing a request to Google's Places Webservice API to find addresses

google_places_api.go

package places

import (
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"io/ioutil"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"strings"
)

type PlaceRequest struct {
	apikey string
	format string
	Result string
}

func New() *PlaceRequest {
	return &PlaceRequest{
		format: "xml",
		apikey: "your api key",
	}
}

func (p *PlaceRequest) Format(format string) {
	switch format {
	case "xml", "XML", "json", "JSON":
		p.format = strings.ToLower(format)
	default:
		panic(errors.New(fmt.Sprintf("Invalid format: %s", format)))
	}
}

func (p *PlaceRequest) Search(place string) error {

	safePlace := url.QueryEscape(place)

	url := fmt.Sprintf("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/%s?input=%s&types=establishment&key=%s", p.format, safePlace, p.apikey)

	req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", url, nil)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	c := http.Client{}
	resp, err := c.Do(req)
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	data, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	p.Result = string(data)
	
	return nil
}