Geocoding & Map

garyg

I realized my prior post was not so clear. Here is what I am looking to accomplish:

Create a New BO called Property, with attributes for Address, City, State, Zip. I also have attributes for Latitude and Longitude. Let's assume at this point that I do not have the actual Lat and Long, but simply the address.
Need Help Here: Upon entering the basic property details in the fields above, I would like the system to geocode my address to find the latitude and longitude (using one of the geocoding sites or API's out there), and then return the Latitude and Longitude automatically into my Lat and Long attributes, without my having to copy/paste or type them in.
Once I have the Lat and Long in my BO instance, I can easily pass them to my map mashup that displays a map and 3D Bing map side by side directly within the form page for the Property BO (simply by inserting the following HTML into a blank row of my Property Main Form:
<iframe style="width:90%;height:450px;padding:0;border:solid 1px black" src="http://data.mashedworld.com/dualmaps/map.htm?x=<<CMBSLoan.Longitude>>&y=<<CMBSLoan.Latitude>>&z=16&gm=0&ve=4&gc=0&bz=0&bd=0&mw=0&mi=0&mg=1&mv=1&addr=<<PropertyFullAddress>>" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>)

BobK

I am not sure this will work for you, but have you looked at 'Requesting Service' within Aware?

The following post has some good information:

garyg

I appreciate that link to the "requesting service" functionality. I believe that would work with a SOAP service (wsdl) but many of the API's I am looking at are not returning data as a service that way, but return XML data. I can make a request by passing parameters thru a URL, but once I pass the parameters, I don't know how to "read" or receive the XML data.

For instance, I could pass my address data to the Google Geocoder service using this link, with my address attributes at the end:

http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=1600+Amphitheatre+Parkway,+Mountain+View,+CA&sensor=true_or_false

Then in return, I'd get the following XML:

<GeocodeResponse>
<status>OK</status>
<result>
<type>street_address</type>
<formatted_address>1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA</formatted_address>
<address_component>
<long_name>1600</long_name>
<short_name>1600</short_name>
<type>street_number</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>Amphitheatre Pkwy</long_name>
<short_name>Amphitheatre Pkwy</short_name>
<type>route</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>Mountain View</long_name>
<short_name>Mountain View</short_name>
<type>locality</type>
<type>political</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>San Jose</long_name>
<short_name>San Jose</short_name>
<type>administrative_area_level_3</type>
<type>political</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>Santa Clara</long_name>
<short_name>Santa Clara</short_name>
<type>administrative_area_level_2</type>
<type>political</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>California</long_name>
<short_name>CA</short_name>
<type>administrative_area_level_1</type>
<type>political</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>United States</long_name>
<short_name>US</short_name>
<type>country</type>
<type>political</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>94043</long_name>
<short_name>94043</short_name>
<type>postal_code</type>
</address_component>
<geometry>
<location>
<lat>37.4217550</lat>
<lng>-122.0846330</lng>
</location>
<location_type>ROOFTOP</location_type>
<viewport>
<southwest>
<lat>37.4188514</lat>
<lng>-122.0874526</lng>
</southwest>
<northeast>
<lat>37.4251466</lat>
<lng>-122.0811574</lng>
</northeast>
</viewport>
</geometry>
</result>
</GeocodeResponse>

That works fine. I just don't know how to actually grab the data from the XML that it returns and use it by putting into my attributes. I know this is probably easy for some programmer, but I can't figure out what to do. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

tford

I wonder if you could:

1) use URL_CONTENTS function to grab the XML

2) Export that XML to a file on the server

3) Import the XML back into a BO

garyg

Not sure how to go about it. I appreciate the idea however.

garyg

ALSO note, one needs to choose either "sensor = true" or "sensor = false" at the end of the web geocode request link...otherwise it doesn't work. Sensor = true is for mobile devices that have GPS. So for my purposes, I use sensor = false (see below).

http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=1600+Amphitheatre+Parkway,+Mountain+View,+CA&sensor=false

This above returns the XML data I was talking about.

garyg

And here is the link to the Google Geocoding Web Service Info:

http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/index.html

tford

Not sure how to go about it. I appreciate the idea however.

Do you have specific questions?

kenlyle

I just wanted to inject this thought - One of the cool things about having an industry-standard database behind your app is that you can use any of multiple tools to interact with that database.

There's good VBA code for the Google API:

'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : Geocode with Google Geocoding API v3
' Version : 1.01
' DateTime : 03/03/2011
' Author : Philben
' Purpose : converting addresses into geographic coordinates
' Parameter : No mandatory. string format or NULL
' Reference : http://code.google.com/intl/fr-FR/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/index.html
' Remark : Query limit of 2,500 geolocation requests per day
' : A good accuracy is different of a good geocoding !!!
' : Minimum delay between two queries : >= 200 ms
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Function Geocode(Optional ByVal vAddress As Variant = Null, _
Optional ByVal vTown As Variant = Null, _
Optional ByVal vPostCode As Variant = Null, _
Optional ByVal vRegion As Variant = Null, _
Optional ByVal sCountry As String = "UNITED STATES") As tGeocodeResult
On Error GoTo catch
Dim oXmlDoc As Object
Dim sUrl As String, sFormatAddress As String
If Not IsNull(vAddress) Then vAddress = Replace(vAddress, ",", " ")
sFormatAddress = (vAddress + ",") & _
(vTown + ",") & _
(vRegion + ",") & _
(vPostCode + ",") & _
sCountry
'To create the URL
sUrl = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=" & sFormatAddress & "&sensor=false"
''XMLDOM to get the XML response
Set oXmlDoc = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
With oXmlDoc
.Async = False
If .Load(sUrl) And Not .selectSingleNode("GeocodeResponse/status") Is Nothing Then
'Status code
Geocode.sStatus = .selectSingleNode("GeocodeResponse/status").Text
'If a result is returned
If Not .selectSingleNode("GeocodeResponse/result") Is Nothing Then
'formatted_address
Geocode.sRetAddress = .selectSingleNode("//formatted_address").Text
'Accuracy
Geocode.sAccuracy = .selectSingleNode("//location_type").Text
'Latitude and longitude
Geocode.dLatitude = Val(.selectSingleNode("//location/lat").Text)
Geocode.dLongitude = Val(.selectSingleNode("//location/lng").Text)
End If
End If
End With
Set oXmlDoc = Nothing
Exit Function
catch:
Set oXmlDoc = Nothing
Err.Raise Err.Number, , Err.Description
End Function

I've tested this successfully, and it worked for my application, but YMMV.

itdeptcorp

Did you consider this as an alternative?

Easiest approach is write a function which calls that Web Service provider;

Approach: Pass the input parameters (login/pass/keys/address) that the WebService requires the Returned responce is the Lat and Long of that Location

RULE

boname.address_location_latlong=FUNCTION_NAME(boname.login,boname.password,boname.keyid,boname.fulladdress)

The service would return the Lat and Long as 1 text string then all you would need to do is "separate them" if need-be into boname.address_latitude and boname.address_longitude with functions.

itdeptcorp

Sorry missed a piece;

Here is the WebService

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geolocation/usage-limits