[isf-wifidog] Geocoding

[Robin Jones]

I have recently been (re)looking into geocoding for the UK within WiFidogs auth server.
 
Unfortunately here, due to our main postal service (The Royal Mail) they have made it a royal pain in the ass for anyone to offer a free geocoding service that is any good.
 
I have discovered that Googles attempt is only accurate down to about 6 miles, or as they put it them selves, an accuracy level of 5 out of 9 for instance: http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=TA24+5BG,+GB&output=xml&oe=utf8&sensor=true_or_false
 
Yahoos is much better, infact it is spot on: http://local.yahooapis.com/MapsService/V1/geocode?appid=0--&zip=ta24+5BG so I thought I'd use this for the UK.
 
if you search for the post code TA24 5BG at maps.google.co.uk and then compare this to the results of entering the long and lat instead, you will see what I mean
 
 
The only problem is that due to yahoos terms and conditions, I would need to add another API Key to the servers Virtual Host in order for this to work properly. So, since these providers both offer geocoding for quite a few countries, e.g. USA, Canada, UK. would it not be better for either the geocode provider to be selected from a list and the necessary API key entered, or spaces for multiple API keys with a primary geocoder field with the option to try others if one cannot find an address? this way, a lot more of our community will benefit from the geocoding features of wifidog.
 
Obviously I am looking for the general opinion of other developers and users before I spend any time making the necessary patches for this, so if I don't receive any replies, I will probably leave it as is. If it does go ahead it will probably close #436.
 
 
I have also noticed with google maps JavaScript API V3, you are no longer required to have an API Key, which is quite interesting.. source: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/v3/
 
 
Robin.
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