Overview
This node, "GeoScraper Google Map Scraper," enables scraping of various types of data from Google Maps through a unified API. It supports multiple operations such as searching map results, searching places, retrieving details for a single place, and scraping reviews.
The Map Search operation specifically allows users to query Google Maps for locations or points of interest based on coordinates and search terms, with support for pagination and language preferences.
Common scenarios where this node is beneficial:
- Gathering location-based business or point-of-interest data for market research.
- Extracting hotel or restaurant listings in a specific area.
- Automating the collection of place information for travel or real estate applications.
- Integrating Google Maps search results into workflows without manual browsing.
Practical example:
- A user wants to find all hotels in a city at a certain zoom level and retrieve paginated results in English. They provide coordinates with zoom, a query like "hotels," and optionally a start index for pagination. The node returns structured search results that can be further processed or stored.
Properties
| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
Location Name or Coordinates (ll) |
Coordinates and zoom level in the format @latitude,longitude,zoomz. Example: @41.6948377,44.8015781,13z. Used to specify the geographic area for the search. |
Query (query) |
The search query string, e.g., "hotels in usa". Defines what to look for in the specified location. |
Pagination Index (start) |
Numeric index for paginating through search results. Defaults to 0 (first page). |
Language (hl) |
Language code for the response language, e.g., "en" for English. |
Use Cached (catched) |
Boolean flag indicating whether to use cached data if available (true or false). |
Output
The output is an array of JSON objects representing the scraped data from Google Maps according to the selected operation.
For Map Search, each item in the output array corresponds to a single search result entry returned by the API. The structure depends on the API response but typically includes details about places such as names, addresses, ratings, coordinates, and other metadata.
If no results are found, the node outputs a JSON object with a message indicating "No more results" and detail "No data found."
The node does not output binary data.
Dependencies
- Requires an external API token credential for the GeoScraper service (referred generically as an API key credential).
- Makes HTTP POST requests to the GeoScraper API endpoints:
https://api.geoscraper.net/google/map/resultsfor Map Search.
- Requires network access to the GeoScraper API.
- No additional environment variables or n8n configurations beyond providing the API token credential.
Troubleshooting
Common issues:
- Missing or invalid API token credential will cause authentication failures.
- Providing incorrect or malformed coordinates or queries may result in empty or error responses.
- Pagination index out of range might lead to "No more results" messages.
Error messages:
"You must provide a value for the selected ID type."ā occurs if required identifiers are missing for certain operations (not relevant for Map Search)."Unknown operation: <operation>"ā indicates an unsupported operation was requested.- HTTP 404 with
"No data found"detail ā means no results are available for the given parameters; handled gracefully by returning a message in output.
How to resolve:
- Ensure the API token credential is correctly set up and valid.
- Verify input parameters, especially coordinates and query strings.
- Use pagination carefully and check for "No more results" messages to stop requesting further pages.
- Enable "Continue On Fail" option in the node settings to handle errors without stopping workflow execution.
Links and References
- GeoScraper API Documentation (general reference for the API used)
- Google Maps Platform (for understanding place IDs and map concepts)
- n8n Documentation on Credentials and HTTP Request Node (for general API integration guidance)