Helper module to get latitude, longitude of addresses using Google Maps API.

geocode.py

import re
import requests

def _clean_degrees(value):
    return re.sub('[^-\.0-9]', '', value)

def get_coordinates(address):
    """Expects a string of address and returns tuple
    (latitude, longitude)

    Uses Google's APIs (not intended for this use) for geocoding
    addresses. Don't abuse their generosity :)"""
    endpoint = 'http://maps.google.com?q=%s&output=js' % address
    r = requests.get(endpoint)
    if r.status_code is not 200:
        raise Exception('Server returned status code: %s' % r.status_code)

    data = r.text
    if '<error>' in data:
        raise Exception('Unable to geocode: %s' % address)
    else:
        # find the bit where map's center is supposed to point
        x = data.find('{center')+9
        y = data.find('}', x)
        center = data[x:y]
        # remove cruft
        center = center.replace('lat:', '')
        center = center.replace('lng:', '')
        # we have just the latitude and longitude left now
        lat, lng = center.split(',')
        return (_clean_degrees(lat), _clean_degrees(lng))