I want to dynamically query Google Maps through the Google Directions API. As an example, this request calculates the route from Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA via two waypoints in Joplin, MO and Oklahoma City, OK:

http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=Chicago,IL&destination=Los+Angeles,CA&waypoints=Joplin,MO|Oklahoma+City,OK&sensor=false

It returns a result in the JSON format.

How can I do this in Python? I want to send such a request, receive the result and parse it.

I recommend using the awesome requests library:

import requests

url = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json'

params = dict(
    origin='Chicago,IL',
    destination='Los+Angeles,CA',
    waypoints='Joplin,MO|Oklahoma+City,OK',
    sensor='false'
)

resp = requests.get(url=url, params=params)
data = resp.json() # Check the JSON Response Content documentation below

JSON Response Content: https://requests.readthedocs.io/en/master/user/quickstart/#json-response-content

The requests Python module takes care of both retrieving JSON data and decoding it, due to its builtin JSON decoder. Here is an example taken from the module’s documentation:

>>> import requests
>>> r = requests.get('https://github.com/timeline.json')
>>> r.json()
[{u'repository': {u'open_issues': 0, u'url': 'https://github.com/...

So there is no use of having to use some separate module for decoding JSON.

requests has built-in .json() method

import requests
requests.get(url).json()

import urllib
import json

url = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=Chicago,IL&destination=Los+Angeles,CA&waypoints=Joplin,MO|Oklahoma+City,OK&sensor=false'
result = json.load(urllib.urlopen(url))

Use the requests library, pretty print the results so you can better locate the keys/values you want to extract, and then use nested for loops to parse the data. In the example I extract step by step driving directions.

import json, requests, pprint

url = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?'

params = dict(
    origin='Chicago,IL',
    destination='Los+Angeles,CA',
    waypoints='Joplin,MO|Oklahoma+City,OK',
    sensor='false'
)


data = requests.get(url=url, params=params)
binary = data.content
output = json.loads(binary)

# test to see if the request was valid
#print output['status']

# output all of the results
#pprint.pprint(output)

# step-by-step directions
for route in output['routes']:
        for leg in route['legs']:
            for step in leg['steps']:
                print step['html_instructions']

Try this:

import requests
import json

# Goole Maps API.
link = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=Chicago,IL&destination=Los+Angeles,CA&waypoints=Joplin,MO|Oklahoma+City,OK&sensor=false'

# Request data from link as 'str'
data = requests.get(link).text

# convert 'str' to Json
data = json.loads(data)

# Now you can access Json 
for i in data['routes'][0]['legs'][0]['steps']:
    lattitude = i['start_location']['lat']
    longitude = i['start_location']['lng']
    print('{}, {}'.format(lattitude, longitude))

Also for pretty Json on console:

 json.dumps(response.json(), indent=2)

possible to use dumps with indent. (Please import json)