Uses Google's API to return longitude and latitude for an address location

gistfile1.txt

require "json"
require "rest-client"

class Location

  def self.lookup(location)
    safe_location = URI.encode(location)
    lookup = self.get_request(safe_location)
    begin
      first_result = lookup["results"][0]["geometry"]["location"]
    rescue => e  
      first_result = nil
    end
    first_result
  end

  private

  def self.get_request(path)
    begin
      response = RestClient.get self.api_path(path)
    rescue => e
      response = e.response
    end
    JSON.parse(response)
  end

  def self.post_request(path, params)
    begin
      response = RestClient.post(
        self.api_path(path),
        params,
        :content_type => :json,
        :accept => :json
        )
    rescue => e
      response = e.response
    end
    JSON.parse(response)
  end

  def self.api_path(path)
    "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=#{path}"
  end

end