Comments on: Google Maps API part 1: Accurate Geocoding for UK Postcodes

By: mark c

mark c — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:43:59 +0000

thanks Larry
update : I used this method so I could force a look up of latitude and longitude and get accurate markers – a year ago the marker would only be accurate to first part of postcode e.g AB2 6.. (ignoring the last two letters) but it ’seems’ the API is now accurate to the full postcode
(I cant find any confirmation that this is the case though)

By: larry

larry — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:05:50 +0000

I only use the Ajax calls for the form submission part, just for pre-validation.

but I’ll still check into these API updates and reconfigure if necessary.

btw. I’m always around for small freelance projects…

By: mark c

mark c — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:14:13 +0000

hi – with a bit of hacking I have it working all I need – it’s a back end function for a cms so I only need the look up when an address is added and it can manage without any ajax

many thanks for making your script public!

are you a freelance developer? (php/mysql/js etc) I often have too much work to do myself… let me know if you’re interested, I’m in south west London

By: larry

larry — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:01:37 +0000

This could be the case of a change in API keys…

Looks like Google now want you to use jsapi which with my code will give you an issue. When you signup for the ajax api you get a different API key, the js one rather than the one I use here. So I need to update the link I guess and the tutorial (already!)

You actually need the UDS api which I fear may be out dated and replaced in the meantime, can you post up the error you get? it should be a javascript error that states a function cant be loaded etc.. that’ll confirm its a difference in API’s.

In the mean time when I get chance I’ll try and rework the example starting with the info at:

http://code.google.com/apis/ajax/documentation/

By: mark c

mark c — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:37:51 +0000

hi – I’ve been trying to get this to work but no joy so far

a page where you had it working would be good, then us dumbos could take that to bits to figure out what is the difference – oh but I guess Google might decide you were doing too many queries

cant see what I’m doing wrong..

FYI: google added a ’sensor’ variable in map query string
and your form input type should be ‘text’ not ‘textfield’ !

By: Google Maps API part 2: Retrieving Postcodes from your database | Lucky Larry

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:14:34 +0000

[...] all we need to retrieve our results which should already be stored with a geocoded result using the previous tutorial here. remember that in order for this to work you need an API key from google – again check the [...]

By: larry

larry — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:14:23 +0000

Hi Rabbul, I’m over in Canada right now, but I’ll write something up for you after I get back this weekend, hows that?

By: larry

larry — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:13:30 +0000

Cheers Rhys, I got bummed out by the lack of geocoding for UK postcodes – even doing 10 Downing Street can provide ‘interesting’ results… glad I’m not the only one who figured out this solution.

By: rabbul Hasan

rabbul Hasan — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:17:57 +0000

Hello
your code is working nicely. But can you help me to get postcode from a database?

Thanks

By: Rhys

Rhys — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:13:23 +0000

I’ve just completed doing something similar, but before trying again thought I’d see if I can improve my methods, and arrived here via google. I basically did the same, apart from that I don’t search and cache on the fly – I wrote similar code to trawl through a database of postcodes in advance.

It’s so annoying you can’t just get the postcode data straight from the geocoder service. Also, it can be really buggy on UK addresses: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1115901/picking-the-most-accurate-geocode

Really nice site by the way. Really like the way photos are displayed on the homepage.