Bug 167494

Summary: The Google Maps GPS Edit Screen shows satellite images only for a limited time in the GPS Sync tool
Product: [Applications] digikam Reporter: dukat <dukat>
Component: Geolocation-GoogleMapsAssignee: Digikam Developers <digikam-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: normal CC: biggerben, caulier.gilles, mike, mkuem, netz, philippe.roubach
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Ubuntu   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In: 2.5.0
Sentry Crash Report:

Description dukat 2008-07-26 21:54:56 UTC
Version:           0.1.5 (using KDE 3.5.9)
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages
OS:                Linux

I use the GPS Sync Kipi plugin from within Digikam (0.9.3) to geolocate my Photos with the help of the Google Maps Edit Window.

This works perfectly for a limited time only. After I have geolocated some images, The Satellite Maps won't display anymore in the Edit Window. Instead, I only get the Message that "there is no map data for this zoom level, and try zooming out for a wider look". As there was info for this zoom level, it seems that there is a connection problem with the Map server. When I try again the next day, everything works again for some time.

After searching the web I assume that my IP got blacklisted, according to this thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-Troubleshooting/browse_thread/thread/c61d18b41828b7cd

"If you see: [...] b) A sorry message from Google, your IP address has been temporarily
blocked. This should only affect satellite view. The problem is caused
by usage of programs which are not produced by Google to access
satellite imagery. This can include a few websites that don't use the
official Maps API (eg, flashearth.com did this until very recently).
It is never caused by using Google Maps too much, despite what you may
read elsewhere on the internet."

Maybe the kipiplugin doesn't use official Maps API?
Comment 1 Matthias Kümmerer 2009-02-16 23:16:56 UTC
I can confirm this bug on digikam 0.10.0 rc2 with kipiplugins 2.0 rc2 in KDE 4.2, Kubuntu 08.10: I geotag images using the gpssync plugin (directly via edit coordinates, without the geolocator). After some time, no new tiles are loaded, instead I get always "no images at this zoomlevel". Some time later, everything works again. Usually it takes max. 10 minutes or editing 20 images for this bug to appear and at least some hours before it works again.
Comment 2 Matthias Kümmerer 2009-02-18 02:17:10 UTC
I did some further investigations:
- After the bug appears on my notebook, I get no tiles on my other machine, too, even without opening digikam there before. Thus in fact the ip seems to be blocked, as my machines are behind a router.
- Only satellite view and hybrid view are not shown. The map view is still working.
Comment 3 Matthias Kümmerer 2009-02-21 17:16:38 UTC
Ok, now I can say that this problem happens, if you open the "Edit coordinates" dialog to often in a very short time. So, when geotagging, I often proceed to the next picture after about 4 seconds. That appears to be what Google does not like, probably it thinks, I'm a bot when I do this. When I wait for 20 seconds after I open the next dialog, I can tag a lot of pictures without problems (besides time...)
Comment 4 Michael G. Hansen 2010-01-06 20:55:51 UTC
*** Bug 221563 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 Michael G. Hansen 2010-01-06 21:01:01 UTC
I updated the script on the server to use the V3 API (only the coordinates
editor!). Please test it and let us know. Please also let us know which country
you are from, maybe this is different regionally.

Michael
Comment 6 biggerben 2010-01-06 21:07:02 UTC
I'm not sure I understand you. Do I need to upgrade kipi-plugins to test this?

If not, I should be able to test it in 24 hours, when I become unblocked :)

Thanks for fixing this bug!
Comment 7 Michael G. Hansen 2010-01-06 22:08:43 UTC
Well, the Coordinates Editor consists of two parts: One is the kipi-plugin running on your computer, the other is a website hosted at digikam3rdparty.free.fr. Due to restrictions in the Google Maps V2 API, the HTML code showing the map had to be loaded from a certain URL. I have now updated the HTML code hosted on digikam3rdparty.free.fr, thus you should see the changes immediately without any changes on your side. Test whether your IP is still blocked, maybe it is different with the V3 API.

If your IP is still blocked, can you switch IPs manually by resetting your internet connection?

One change is that now the coordinates are not updated all the time while you move a marker, but only when you drop it and move the mouse a little afterwards (this saves geonames.org a lot of bandwidth). In the next version of the plugin, we can update the coordinates as soon as you drop the marker, but that requires changes in the code inside the kipi-plugin that you install.

Michael
Comment 8 Michael G. Hansen 2010-01-23 20:49:48 UTC
*** Bug 217989 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 Jan Essert 2010-01-26 12:08:54 UTC
Just a question I did not want to open a new bug for:

Would it not be more consistent with the rest of digikam/kipi (and google maps API independent) to use OpenStreetMap instead?

I do not mean to demean your work, just asking. Since OpenStreetMap views are already implemented in digikam, perhaps it is not a large change?

On the other hand, we would lose the satellite view this bug is about completely...
Comment 10 Michael G. Hansen 2010-01-26 12:29:48 UTC
(In reply to comment #9)
> Would it not be more consistent with the rest of digikam/kipi (and google maps
> API independent) to use OpenStreetMap instead?

We are already working on this ;-)
http://websvn.kde.org/branches/extragear/graphics/digikam/worldmapwidget2/

Michael
Comment 11 Philippe ROUBACH 2010-01-26 13:08:06 UTC
(In reply to comment #10)
> (In reply to comment #9)
> > Would it not be more consistent with the rest of digikam/kipi (and google maps
> > API independent) to use OpenStreetMap instead?
> 
> We are already working on this ;-)
> http://websvn.kde.org/branches/extragear/graphics/digikam/worldmapwidget2/
> 
> Michael

yes but keep the ability to use google

openstreetmap is wonderful (i am a member, i use to complete OSM) but OSM is not complete for many areas in France. For example several years for a little town as Arcachon where i took photos.
and remember marble+OSM => blured map view

google satellite view is required to geolocalize acurately
Comment 12 Michael G. Hansen 2010-01-26 14:19:29 UTC
(In reply to comment #11)
> yes but keep the ability to use google

Don't worry, Philippe, I share your points of view ;-) The widget in work is a hybrid which will work with both Marble directly and Google Maps via KHTML (and possibly OpenStreetMap via KHMTL, but no promises yet).

Michael
Comment 13 Johannes Wienke 2010-01-26 14:40:32 UTC
Openstreetmaps is already supported by marble?
Comment 14 Philippe ROUBACH 2010-01-26 16:12:52 UTC
(In reply to comment #13)
> Openstreetmaps is already supported by marble?

yes

but the view is a bit blured
they works to find a kind of workaround about blur pb
Comment 15 caulier.gilles 2011-12-22 13:19:37 UTC
Dukat,

This file still valid using kipi-plugins 2.4 ?

Gilles Caulier
Comment 16 Philippe ROUBACH 2011-12-22 13:30:50 UTC
this pb (to be seen as a virus by google maps and then blacklisted) is solved a long time ago in the digikam map server by decreasing the frequency of the requests to the google map server if i understand well