Google maps (or similar) - any way to import list?

caff · 16 May 2007 at 17:21

Hi,

For my company I want to import a list of UK addresses (postcodes ideally) into something like Google Maps and produce a national picture of where our customers are located.

Are there any online map websites that allow you to import a list of places to create map pins?

Thanks

HTMLHugo · 16 May 2007 at 19:09

what number of pins are you looking at placing ?

i did something similar using a txt file of postcodes which i fed into a publicly availlable web service which provided me with lattitude / longitude which i then placed into mappoint - im sure google will do it aswell

it was taking a fair amount of time to do because of the amount of data i was passing into it. (i tried upto 10k records this way)

oneilldo · 16 May 2007 at 21:19

if you buy google maps pro you can do this, think it is about $400 per year.

psyr33n · 16 May 2007 at 21:49

HTMLHugo said:
i did something similar using a txt file of postcodes which i fed into a publicly availlable web service which provided me with lattitude / longitude which i then placed into mappoint - im sure google will do it aswell

Generally speaking, Google can't geocode vague addresses (such as ISO 3166 country codes) but the Yahoo Maps API does a brilliant job of this. I'm kind of in the same boat as you, though:

I wrote a tutoral on creating something similar the other day (unfinished and not online, however). If you tell me what format the postcodes are in, I'll supply you with a good amount of the code. It involves geocoding the postcode into longitude and latitude (try it yourself; load this in your browser [just a random postcode]: http://local.yahooapis.com/MapsService/V1/geocode?appid=YahooDemo&location=SM2 1PB ) using the Yahoo Maps API, and then with these you can either pin the locations using the Google Maps API, or stay native with Yahoo. The script I wrote was in PHP, have you got that installed on your server?

HTMLHugo · 16 May 2007 at 22:07

we still need to know the numbers involved i think.

if you have a lot of customer a solution like Dundas Maps which will allow you to show colour coordinated post code areas / districts might be able to show a lot more helpful information then whacking lots of pushpins into mappoint / google anyway even with the grouping assistance.

really depends on what sort of solution you are aiming to finish with.

pinkaardvark · 16 May 2007 at 22:18

I've done this sort of thing with MS Mappoint 2006, it has loads of features for demographics as well as the standard map/routing stuff.

If you're happy to send me the data I can knock something up for you.

monkeysmith · 16 May 2007 at 22:37

You should be able to do this using google maps api.

I did a map for a website using their address for the pinpoint:

http://www.tilhamfarm.com/aspbite/categories/index.asp?intCatID=20

Should be able to do this with more pins:
http://www.google.com/apis/maps/

caff · 17 May 2007 at 14:50

Thanks for the replies all

I have around 500 customers - I'll need the pins to contain the names of the customers and the address would be nice too.

Postcodes are full format e.g. BH13 6BS

pinkaardvark · 17 May 2007 at 22:12

caff said:
Thanks for the replies all

I have around 500 customers - I'll need the pins to contain the names of the customers and the address would be nice too.

Postcodes are full format e.g. BH13 6BS

I can run that through mappoint for you, I would need the addresses, customer names and postcodes in a csv or an xls spreadsheet, with each field as a seperate column

ie

Big bobs Burgers, 1, High street, Luton, LU 34N

davetherave2 · 18 May 2007 at 17:03

I have done a similar thing with MS's VE. I have some code that will generate the pushpins for me based from longitude and latitudes. I then insert the addresses and any further details into the information boxes all by the same code.

There's some really helpful tutorials on the VE website to get you started.

pop over there and see what you think:

http://dev.live.com/virtualearth/