Geocoding an address

**Steve Workings** · 10-03-2011, 10:09 AM

I poked around a lot, and am not sure what to do / what to use to geocode an address.

Step 1: User registers to a site with their name and address.

Step 2: We use an Insert event to get the lat and lon that fills the sQL Location field --- but how to get that lat and lon?

Google has a geocoding API, but its licensing terms require you to display the Google map. Not necessary or desirable in so many situations. Further, the free version of Google's API is limited to 2,500 requests per day, 100,000 per day with Premier and there's a chance the customer I'm building for may outrun that (yeah, be nice to jump off that bridge when we get there).

I see there are HTML 5 geocoding and geolocation APIs but I'm not sure they fit the bill.

Any suggestions?

**Steve Workings** · 10-03-2011, 10:39 AM

Well, Martin Heller pointed out to me that A5 has a geocoding function. It's in the wiki and I should have known. A search on "geocoding" was all you need.

**chadbrown** · 10-03-2011, 11:29 AM

Google free api also means that you cannot use it on a site that you charge a fee. I have heard that the Premier is 10k per year per domain.

**The Mage** · 10-03-2011, 05:57 PM

10K is a little too high. It squeezes out the little guy, and probably quite a few medium size guys too.

There was an alternate listed though with open maps, Nominatim, and there was no limit with this one according to the wiki.

Another option is to keep track of how many requests are made in a day, and once you reach 2,500 switch to Nominatim. Or, just a thought, could you proxy it out so the requests could come from different sites? With 3 proxies and the original that could up the numbers to 10k per day. (As long as this isn't seen as fraud.)

**chadbrown** · 10-03-2011, 06:09 PM

Supposedly Bing maps from Microsoft is free.

**peteconway** · 10-03-2011, 10:17 PM

In most cases the end user will use the result of the developed map free, in some cases where organizations want to use the information in a closed environment, then that's a different matter and one for the client to come to grips with. 2,500 look ups to the API is very generous, - also keep in mind as your database grows - so does your own long/lat database that will become a self-serving resource for lookups in your own database. For example Street/Cty/Town - then look up your own database - then allow the client or user to drag the pin to the exact spot. - Works well.

**Clipper87** · 10-05-2011, 04:51 AM

Forget Nominatim, the results of geocoding are so bad thet they are not usable. It is no longer an option either in v11 to use that service.

**The Mage** · 10-05-2011, 02:21 PM

I know, at least at the beginning 2,500 shouldn't be an issue, but locations are a big part of it, and if I get a large number of users inputting data at the same time it could be possible, especially with a bulk input from excel files. But this is still going to be a rare event, so I am thinking that a little code could be used to count how many times in a day the function is run, and then if it hits 2,500, then it is simply put into a queue to be run the next day.

Edit--

I should mention that I am talking about the app I am developing.