Postcode/address/maps

S

sandman978

New Member
Hi
with my review at work only a couple of months down the line i need some extra brownie points ;)

i currently work developing a business system and some 'desirable' features for the software would be:

Postcode lookup: i was thinking that i could write a program to interegate an address databse based using wither postscodes to find the address or the address to find a postocde for new customers.

Map: to create a program to either create or caluclate a map in another program or at least distances for vehicle records.

I am not sure other than writing my bit in progress what else i need. any one with ecisting experience or ideas if they could help that would be amazing.

my idea for the maps was to link progress to autoroute or mappoint?

Based in UK BTW

thanks

Paul
 
Hi Sandman.

With reference to the postcode program, i looked into this myself about a year ago. The best option I came up with was to use some sort of post-coding software and integrating it with my application. The program I settled on was called Quick Address from QAS, there is another main one called post-finder (I think). These programs use a paf file from the royal mail, which has quarterly updates. Both programs can be supplied in two versions, either API or GUI interface. The API allows you to completely integrate the program into your application via API calls that update the database directly, this is the most complex method but provides the most control. The GUI version comes with it’s own interface and will ghost over your application to input the data. This is done by telling the program when to tab, return, enter text, etc. The GUI interface can still be integrated to launch from within your application and is the simplest way to go.

We started down the API road but due to changes in our application did not continue with the integration. If you decide to give it a try I’m sure I can send you the code I created to integrate QAS with my progress application to get you started.

As far as the maps go, I think you are on the right road. I created a link from within my application that went to www.streetmap.co.uk directly to the required location. You may be able to do something similar, you may even be able to link to www.rac.co.uk which has it’s own AutoRoute, might save some money if you don’t have an AutoRoute program.

Hope you fond this useful

Regards

Richhsp
 
I also can recommend you ViaMichelin.com as map & autoroute provider. Of course you need to look into legacy stuff, because I don't know if it's allowed to query their site frequently...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top