Requesting this URL works like a charm if you paste it directly into
any browser:

http://maps.google.com/maps/api/staticmap?size=472x282&key=ABQIAAAA8g...color:0xFFFFFF00|enc:iiieH_}|n@x]auL%60zAuaLhrCy{J~cEceI%60mFe%60GrkGcpDh~G mxAndHz@x}G|{AtjGrrDxkFjaGvbEvdIfqCzyJhyAr~Kp]jqLq]hqLiyAr~KgqCzyJwbEvdIykF jaGujGtrDy}G|{AodHz@i~GmxAskGcpDamFe%60G_dEeeIirCw{JazAuaLy]auL

If I embed this request in my site (currently in dev) then the image
is not loaded. The headers show the following:

GET /maps/api/staticmap?size=472x282&key=ABQIAAAA8gcAojrDoO3Kyzf-
NSLmzRS5dLr-h5FE7lwZd-
XjtTyht2KiVBQ_zzQYAGjDSjelCbTGxleMobqiBg&sensor=false&language=de&maptype=r oadmap&format=png&path=fillcolor:
0xAA000033|color:0xFFFFFF00|enc:u}%60dH_}|n@lA}a@fFk%60@vJk]
vNaY~QsSlTgM|UiFnV?|UhFnThM|QrSvN%60YvJj]fFj%60@lAza@mAza@gFj%60@wJj]wN
%60Y}QrSoThM}UfFoV@}UiFmTgM_RsSwNaYwJm]gFk%60@mA{a@ HTTP/1.1
Host: maps.google.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:
1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3
Accept: image/png,image/*;q=0.8,*/*;q=0.5
Accept-Language: de,en-us;q=0.7,en;q=0.3
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 300
Connection: keep-alive
Referer: http://locdev.cabchap.com:3000/de-DE/asks?query=Freiburg&scope=2&comm...

HTTP/1.x 403 Forbidden
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Encoding: gzip
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:20:32 GMT
Server: staticmap
Cache-Control: private, x-gzip-ok=""
Content-Length: 119
X-XSS-Protection: 0

There it is, 403 Forbidden! I don't have any proxy in between we are
connected via DSL to the intertubes. I know that the API gives 60x
errors, but I don't know what or who may cause this - especially
because it works if you cut&paste the same URL into your browser of
choice and get the following reply headers easily:

HTTP/1.x 403 Forbidden
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Encoding: gzip
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:20:32 GMT
Server: staticmap
Cache-Control: private, x-gzip-ok=""
Content-Length: 119
X-XSS-Protection: 0

Any pointers welcome!

P.S. If this is not enough I may be able to release my current dev
mess to the dev public, but only after serious cleanup ;-) Thanks!

On Oct 27, 3:03 pm, Tom <qkl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Feeble excuse number 3:
http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API/web/why-including-a-li...

Be smart! Post a link.
--
Marcelo - http://maps.forum.nu
--

Beh ;-)

Ok, here we go:

http://dev.cabchap.com/en-DE/asks?query=Hamburg&scope=25&commit=Find+...

If I load it in Safari or Firefox I am getting an image placeholder,
if I righ-click on the image and open it in a new tab or download it,
everything works as advertised. I am stumped.

In Firefox I get: "This web site needs a different Google Maps API
key. A new key can be generated at http://code.google.com/apis/maps/."
if I take a look at the image separately. I double checked the key and
even generated a new one to http://cabchap.com, so dev.cabchap.com is
covered as well, to no avail.

On Oct 27, 3:47 pm, Marcelo <marcelo...@hotmail.com> wrote:

On Oct 28, 8:37 am, Tom <qkl...@gmail.com> wrote:

If I click the link you provided I get a map with a marker and a
circle. That means that everything should be working fine: your key
matches your domain for one thing. I'm not sure why you're specifying
20 identical markers though, but that doesn't affect the map working
or not.

If you open the image in a new tab there is no Referer data against
which the key can be checked.

It's odd. I'd expect a 403 error to indicate that you had been blocked
for some reason (perhaps hammering Google's servers during testing)
but if that were IP-based I'd expect you not to get the image at all.
Unless that check is tied in with the Referer check: if there's a
referer to check, check that and the IP address and return either a
200 OK, 610 Bad Key or 403 Forbidden.

Reverse-engineering server-side status-generation isn't easy; perhaps
Pamela will chime in. You are posting from an ordinary ISP connection,
it seems: is your testing also public or is it hidden behind a
firewall? That could trigger an IP address violation if there are too
many requests or it's been too protracted for a normal test phase.

Andrew

The error I see on that page is very different to what you describe.

I get a long page with:
-----------------------------------------------------
 NoMethodError in AsksController#index

You have a nil object when you didn't expect it!
You might have expected an instance of ActiveRecord::Base.
The error occurred while evaluating nil.[]

...
-----------------------------------------------------

I Cannot see any API code in all that.

--
Marcelo - http://maps.forum.nu
--

On Oct 28, 9:37 am, Tom <qkl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Good evening, just to let you know, the problem seems to have
completely vanished. I guess it had to do with running the dev machine
on a dedicated port, but thats just a wild guess. At least, as you and
others have confirmed, it has not been a problem form other machines.
So, thanks for the confusion ;-)

On Oct 28, 10:59 am, Marcelo <marcelo...@hotmail.com> wrote: