Question

Want cache google geocodes

Asked by: ncw

I want return latitude and longitude geocodes from Google Maps api from an address string and cache these in a MySql table, co-ords will be used for loading a map at the location of the address. There are examples on the net for loading a Google map using an address, but this is without caching:

var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map"));
var geocoder = new GClientGeocoder();

function showAddress(address) {
  geocoder.getLatLng(
    address,
    function(point) {
      if (!point) {
        alert(address + " not found");
      } else {
        map.setCenter(point, 13);
        var marker = new GMarker(point);
        map.addOverlay(marker);
        marker.openInfoWindowHtml(address);
      }
    }
  );
}

I've also seen where a request can be sent with a url server side and it returns xml. Maybe that would work best for me using php, but I would have to parse the xml. All I want is 2 values, latitude and longitude so I can store these in a database table which would act as a cache. I would retrieve these values from the database for the same search to save time and number of calls to the Google server.

What format does the 'point' returned from getLatLng take? Can that be saved as is?

Any ideas please?

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Asked On
2007-10-06 at 08:08:55ID22876589
Tags

getlatlng

,

google

,

cache

,

geocode

Topics

PHP and Databases

,

JavaScript

,

PHP Scripting Language

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: ncwPosted on 2007-10-06 at 08:20:02ID: 20027746

Just tested returning 'point' and I see it is in the format of eg (50.123456,-1.123456), but this is returned clientside in javascript so there's no way of inserting in the database. I need something similar serverside without having to parse xml unless there's an easy way to do the parsing.

 

by: ncwPosted on 2007-10-06 at 08:28:13ID: 20027760

Information at http://www.geospatialtraining.com/Newsletter/Summer%202006/Google%20Geocoding.htm indicates that the serverside request takes the form:
http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=<address>&output  =xml&key=<key>

So maybe my question should be "what's the easiest way to parse the returned xml and retrieve latitude and longitude?"

 

by: B_DorseyPosted on 2007-10-06 at 10:12:47ID: 20027999

cant you just make an AJAX request to a server side code that inserts it into a database?

 

by: ncwPosted on 2007-10-06 at 10:46:12ID: 20028076

I'm not familiar with AJAX, I didn't realise you could connect to the database from the client browser in that way.

 

by: B_DorseyPosted on 2007-10-06 at 11:00:14ID: 20028116

var xmlhttp;
var xmlResults;
/*@cc_on @*/
/*@if (@_jscript_version >= 5)
try{
 xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
}catch(e){
 try{
  xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
 }catch(E){
  xmlhttp=false;
 }
}
@else
 xmlhttp=false
@end @*/
if(!xmlhttp && typeof XMLHttpRequest!='undefined'){
 try{
  xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
 }catch(e){
  xmlhttp=false;
 }
}
if(!xmlhttp && window.createRequest){
 try{
  xmlhttp = window.createRequest();
 }catch(e){
  xmlhttp=false;
 }
}
 xmlhttp.open('POST','/path/to/server/side/code.asp',false);
 xmlhttp.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
 xmlhttp.send('googlevariables'); //This is where you create a string of variables to send to the server side code.
 xmlResults = xmlhttp.responseText;

Basically what is going on is that you send the returned google variables to a string like 'google='50.123456,-1.123456' then on your server side code you handle it like a normal request.form and insert it into the database.

 

by: ncwPosted on 2008-11-28 at 01:30:11ID: 23054495

For anyone reading this I didn't try B_Dorsey's solution (it looks like it might be asp), I got my solution to work in the end.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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