RE: [backstage] Postcoder
At 15:54 + 21/11/06, Kim Plowright wrote: Interesting fact about Postcoder: It has the concept of 'imaginary places' in the data model, so that, frinstance, Ambridge or Albert Square can have a postcode. (one day, I'll show you the data model for fictional vs real life people, which *doesn't break* when Andrew Marr plays himself in Doctor Who...) And then there are Mailsort Codes, for real letters and packets. Gordo -- Think Feynman/ http://pobox.com/~gordo/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]/// - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
re: [backstage] Postcoder
[I sent this yesterday, but not from the address subscribed to the list :( ] On 17/11/06, Dave Cross wrote: Quoting Peter Bowyer On 16/11/06, Dave Cross wrote: SNIP Or, failing that, what other tools do people use to convert postcodes to lat/long? It seems to me that the Google Maps GeoCoder object doesn't understand UK postcodes. www.nearby.org.uk does brazillions of coordinate conversions and has REST and SOAP APIs at http://www.nearby.org.uk/api/convert-help.php Oooh. That looks very useful. Thanks. Who needs the BBC :) The problem is that I (as in nearby.org.uk ) am unable to offer full resolution postcodes, only offering sector postcodes, which aren't very accurate. This is unfortuantly due to Postcodes being under Crown Copyright (oversimplified) and Commercially Licenced, in the current environment its unlikely Google, the BBC or otherwise will be able to offer a 'free' service*. However I believe the Royal Mail are being forced to review the licensing situation, IIRC by 2009, so there might be light at the end of the tunnel... * except maybe under strict 'non-commercial' use similar to the Met-Office feeds. Somehow MS-Virtual Earth are able to offer Postcodes - but within their mapping product only, not a general Geocoder. -- Barry - www.nearby.org.uk - www.geograph.org.uk -
Re: [backstage] Postcoder
Barry Hunter wrote: [I sent this yesterday, but not from the address subscribed to the list :( ] On 17/11/06, Dave Cross wrote: Quoting Peter Bowyer On 16/11/06, Dave Cross wrote: SNIP Or, failing that, what other tools do people use to convert postcodes to lat/long? It seems to me that the Google Maps GeoCoder object doesn't understand UK postcodes. www.nearby.org.uk does brazillions of coordinate conversions and has REST and SOAP APIs at http://www.nearby.org.uk/api/convert-help.php Oooh. That looks very useful. Thanks. Who needs the BBC :) The problem is that I (as in nearby.org.uk ) am unable to offer full resolution postcodes, only offering sector postcodes, which aren't very accurate. Yeah, but I already had full postcodes that I wanted to convert to lat/long. And your service did the job nicely. Thanks for providing it. Dave... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: Re: [backstage] Postcoder
I was going to jot down a few links, and some of the problems (ie. the
Royal Mail) but Simon just posted a run down, which at least saved my
typing fingers.
http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2006/11/17/postcode
A few useful links on there.
G
On 17/11/06, Gavin Montague [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Purely as a thought-experiment (cough), a wee ruby script that you
might be able to adapt.
#!/usr/local/bin/ruby
#
# Example
# ./pofinder G38DN
# 55.866061 -4.273608
#
require 'rubygems'
require 'mechanize'
agent = WWW::Mechanize.new
postcode = ARGV[0]
begin
gmap_url = http://maps.google.com/maps?q=+postcode.gsub(' ', +)
gmap = agent.get(gmap_url).root.to_s;
rescue
puts Cannot derive coordinates for that postcode
end
if matches = /lat:\s*(-?[0-9\.]+),\s*lng:\s*(-?[0-9\.]+)/.match(gmap)
latitude = matches[1]
longitude = matches[2]
printf(%s %s\n, latitude, longitude)
end
On 16 Nov 2006, at 23:00, Dave Cross wrote:
I've got a couple of hundred full UK postcodes that I want to
convert to lat/long values. And I thought to myself 1/ Postcoder
would be the perfect tool to do that with and 2/ when I was working
on Postcoder earlier this year there was lots of talk about
releasing the API as part
of Backstage. But there were licensing problems.
So I just thought I'd ask if those licensing problems were any
nearer to being solved and whether the Postcoder API was any closer
to being made public.
Or, failing that, what other tools do people use to convert
postcodes to lat/long? It seems to me that the Google Maps GeoCoder
object doesn't understand UK postcodes.
Cheers,
Dave...
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Re: [backstage] Postcoder
On 16/11/06, Dave Cross [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've got a couple of hundred full UK postcodes that I want to convert to lat/long values. And I thought to myself 1/ Postcoder would be the perfect tool to do that with and 2/ when I was working on Postcoder earlier this year there was lots of talk about releasing the API as part of Backstage. But there were licensing problems. So I just thought I'd ask if those licensing problems were any nearer to being solved and whether the Postcoder API was any closer to being made public. Or, failing that, what other tools do people use to convert postcodes to lat/long? It seems to me that the Google Maps GeoCoder object doesn't understand UK postcodes. www.nearby.org.uk does brazillions of coordinate conversions and has REST and SOAP APIs at http://www.nearby.org.uk/api/convert-help.php Peter -- Peter Bowyer Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Postcoder
Quoting Peter Bowyer [EMAIL PROTECTED]: On 16/11/06, Dave Cross [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've got a couple of hundred full UK postcodes that I want to convert to lat/long values. And I thought to myself 1/ Postcoder would be the perfect tool to do that with and 2/ when I was working on Postcoder earlier this year there was lots of talk about releasing the API as part of Backstage. But there were licensing problems. So I just thought I'd ask if those licensing problems were any nearer to being solved and whether the Postcoder API was any closer to being made public. Or, failing that, what other tools do people use to convert postcodes to lat/long? It seems to me that the Google Maps GeoCoder object doesn't understand UK postcodes. www.nearby.org.uk does brazillions of coordinate conversions and has REST and SOAP APIs at http://www.nearby.org.uk/api/convert-help.php Oooh. That looks very useful. Thanks. Who needs the BBC :) Dave... -- site: http://dave.org.uk/ blog: http://blog.dave.org.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Postcoder
It is possible to make the conversion through Google, but I doubt
it's really within the rules.
Purely as a thought-experiment (cough), a wee ruby script that you
might be able to use.
#!/usr/local/bin/ruby
#
# Example
# ./pofinder G38DN
# 55.866061 -4.273608
#
require 'rubygems'
require 'mechanize'
agent = WWW::Mechanize.new
postcode = ARGV[0]
begin
gmap_url = http://maps.google.com/maps?q=+postcode.gsub(' ', +)
gmap = agent.get(gmap_url).root.to_s;
rescue
puts Cannot derive coordinates for that postcode
end
if matches = /lat:\s*(-?[0-9\.]+),\s*lng:\s*(-?[0-9\.]+)/.match(gmap)
latitude = matches[1]
longitude = matches[2]
printf(%s %s\n, latitude, longitude)
end
On 16 Nov 2006, at 23:00, Dave Cross wrote:
I've got a couple of hundred full UK postcodes that I want to
convert to lat/long values. And I thought to myself 1/ Postcoder
would be the perfect tool to do that with and 2/ when I was working
on Postcoder earlier this year there was lots of talk about
releasing the API as part
of Backstage. But there were licensing problems.
So I just thought I'd ask if those licensing problems were any
nearer to being solved and whether the Postcoder API was any closer
to being made public.
Or, failing that, what other tools do people use to convert
postcodes to lat/long? It seems to me that the Google Maps GeoCoder
object doesn't understand UK postcodes.
Cheers,
Dave...
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please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/
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Re: [backstage] Postcoder
Purely as a thought-experiment (cough), a wee ruby script that you
might be able to adapt.
#!/usr/local/bin/ruby
#
# Example
# ./pofinder G38DN
# 55.866061 -4.273608
#
require 'rubygems'
require 'mechanize'
agent = WWW::Mechanize.new
postcode = ARGV[0]
begin
gmap_url = http://maps.google.com/maps?q=+postcode.gsub(' ', +)
gmap = agent.get(gmap_url).root.to_s;
rescue
puts Cannot derive coordinates for that postcode
end
if matches = /lat:\s*(-?[0-9\.]+),\s*lng:\s*(-?[0-9\.]+)/.match(gmap)
latitude = matches[1]
longitude = matches[2]
printf(%s %s\n, latitude, longitude)
end
On 16 Nov 2006, at 23:00, Dave Cross wrote:
I've got a couple of hundred full UK postcodes that I want to
convert to lat/long values. And I thought to myself 1/ Postcoder
would be the perfect tool to do that with and 2/ when I was working
on Postcoder earlier this year there was lots of talk about
releasing the API as part
of Backstage. But there were licensing problems.
So I just thought I'd ask if those licensing problems were any
nearer to being solved and whether the Postcoder API was any closer
to being made public.
Or, failing that, what other tools do people use to convert
postcodes to lat/long? It seems to me that the Google Maps GeoCoder
object doesn't understand UK postcodes.
Cheers,
Dave...
-
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please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/
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[backstage] Postcoder
I've got a couple of hundred full UK postcodes that I want to convert to lat/long values. And I thought to myself 1/ Postcoder would be the perfect tool to do that with and 2/ when I was working on Postcoder earlier this year there was lots of talk about releasing the API as part of Backstage. But there were licensing problems. So I just thought I'd ask if those licensing problems were any nearer to being solved and whether the Postcoder API was any closer to being made public. Or, failing that, what other tools do people use to convert postcodes to lat/long? It seems to me that the Google Maps GeoCoder object doesn't understand UK postcodes. Cheers, Dave... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Postcoder
best I can do ,... http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?GridConvert?name=529811,189466type=OSGrid On 16/11/06, Dave Cross [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've got a couple of hundred full UK postcodes that I want to convert to lat/long values. And I thought to myself 1/ Postcoder would be the perfect tool to do that with and 2/ when I was working on Postcoder earlier this year there was lots of talk about releasing the API as part of Backstage. But there were licensing problems. So I just thought I'd ask if those licensing problems were any nearer to being solved and whether the Postcoder API was any closer to being made public. Or, failing that, what other tools do people use to convert postcodes to lat/long? It seems to me that the Google Maps GeoCoder object doesn't understand UK postcodes. Cheers, Dave... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Postcoder
use the google ajax search api, http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/, you can search for post codes and it returns a town name and some lat/lng values - not sure how accurate/precise it is On 16/11/06, Tom Loosemore [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: best I can do ,... http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?GridConvert?name=529811,189466type=OSGrid On 16/11/06, Dave Cross [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've got a couple of hundred full UK postcodes that I want to convert to lat/long values. And I thought to myself 1/ Postcoder would be the perfect tool to do that with and 2/ when I was working on Postcoder earlier this year there was lots of talk about releasing the API as part of Backstage. But there were licensing problems. So I just thought I'd ask if those licensing problems were any nearer to being solved and whether the Postcoder API was any closer to being made public. Or, failing that, what other tools do people use to convert postcodes to lat/long? It seems to me that the Google Maps GeoCoder object doesn't understand UK postcodes. Cheers, Dave... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- -- Michael Pritchard Web :: http://www.blueghost.co.uk GMail:: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --
[backstage] Postcoder.
Feeds APIs Postcoder Ap I Postcoder API To follow soon http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/data/PostcoderApI?v=18kb * Ap I? What is that? Gordo -- Think Feynman/ http://pobox.com/~gordo/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]/// - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Postcoder.
At 10:23 +0100 19/9/06, Barry Hunter wrote: Feeds APIs Postcoder Ap I Postcoder API To follow soon http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/data/PostcoderApI?v=18kbhttp://backstage.bbc.co.uk/data/PostcoderApI?v=18kb * Ap I? What is that? Kinda dreary, but I would think its just an over eager script that attempts to rationalise the capitalization in a title, but made a hash of it in the process. Yup; FlicKR does that TOO. Gordo (Web 0.086 and counting) -- Think Feynman/ http://pobox.com/~gordo/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]/// - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
