Big Idea

stufflol · 29 Aug 2012 at 18:44

Hello guys, I have a big idea that I want to put into action, I need to create a website which is not a problem , also the domain I require is available, The then I need help with is, I need the website I create to produce given search results based on a post code.

What is the best way to do this?

thanks

AHarvey · 29 Aug 2012 at 21:33

googlemaps api?

without knowing what exactly you need it's difficult to say the best way.

visibleman · 30 Aug 2012 at 09:41

PAF table and haversine would be the easiest option and give you reasonably accurate distance results.

Kyzou · 30 Aug 2012 at 10:01

Google Maps API is most likely to be the simplest to implement. This is assuming you are searching for a location by postcode..

visibleman · 30 Aug 2012 at 10:28

Kyzou said:
Google Maps API is most likely to be the simplest to implement. This is assuming you are searching for a location by postcode..

As part of their T&Cs, don't you have to display the API map though? Would make displaying results in a tabular form a PITA.

Edit - Yup, it looks like you do (https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/distancematrix/)

"Use of the service in an application that doesn't display a Google map is prohibited."

Also the issue of it costing if you're using it for a commercial application (http://47hats.com/2009/07/google-maps-the-10k-gotcha/).
OpenStreeMaps might be a better bet, as IIRC, it's free. But again, i'm not sure if you have to display some form of map as part of the T&C/ToU.

Ed · 30 Aug 2012 at 20:45

This isn't as easy as it seems, particularly when you're avoiding paying but check out www.easypeasy.com and play with their script. It's old but I've used it before (some time ago mind) to create a postcode lookup and ordered the results by distance by sorting multi-dimensional arrays.

Due to the age of the list you may have to sacrifice exact measurements and work on the outcodes only but it might do. It really depends on your needs and how accurate you need to be.