Census geocoding API

[Jim_Cooper_hmsa]

I am attempting to create a SAS PROC HTTP query of the Census geocoding API for batch geocoding.  I have been able to get the test API for a single address, but not the batch file processing example.

* Geocode Single Address;
proc http
url='https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/geographies/address?street=1600+Pennsylvania+Ave&city=Wash...'
in=address
out=geocode;
run;

filename address '//queens.org/FILESHARES/csfs10/CORE01/Core/Geocode/PatientAddresses.csv';
filename geocode '//queens.org/FILESHARES/csfs10/CORE01/Core/Geocode/PatientGeocode.json';

* Batch geocode up to 10,000 addresses in CSV file format;
proc http
url='https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/geographies/addressbatch'
in=address
out=geocode;
run;

[ballardw]

What does the LOG show for the batch attempt?

Did you try a "batch" with just one address before attempting 10,000?

[Jim_Cooper_hmsa]

The only response in the log for the PROC HTTP was
NOTE: 500 Internal Server Error

I continue to experiment with the parameters

[Jim_Cooper_hmsa]

The revised log using the DEBUG Level=1 option. I am using the Census geocode API website to construct the code;

https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/Geocoding_Services_API.html
73 proc http
74 url="https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/geographies/addressbatch"
75 in=address
76 out=geocode;
77 debug level=1;
78 run;
> POST /geocoder/geographies/addressbatch HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: SAS/9
> Host: geocoding.geo.census.gov
> Accept: */*
> Connection: Keep-Alive
> Content-Length: 4617
> Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
>
< HTTP/1.1 500
< Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2024 20:06:07 GMT
< Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8
< Connection: keep-alive
< Content-Language: en-US
< Vary: Origin
< Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000
< Set-Cookie:
TS0193e6a1=01283c52a4a4057dae8e2db5c21fd7f5424ca51b75d0807321cf40a8e8c4a6c6ef6d05efdcc30bf3cba57546af422e11772eae5e31; Path=/;
Domain=.geocoding.geo.census.gov; Secure; HttpOnly;
< Transfer-Encoding: chunked
<
NOTE: 500 Internal Server Error
NOTE: PROCEDURE HTTP used (Total process time):
real time 0.21 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

[Jim_Cooper_hmsa]

I emailed the Census Geocoding Support Service and received this response:

Hi Jim,

The batch request needs to be sent as multipart/form-data. We aren't sure how to do this in SAS, but hopefully there are examples or documentation you can refer to on how to format the request as multipart/form-data.

------------

The example batch file provided on the website is a comma delimited (.csv) file with no header or trailer records.  I'm reviewing the multipart/form-data posts as a possible solution.

[mkeintz]

@Jim_Cooper_hmsa 

If you end up finding the solution independent of responses to your SAS community topic, I for one would appreciate seeing the solution.  No harm in marking one's own response as a solution.