GeoNames Forum

Hello Everyone,

I have been using the free inverse geocoding service but these days it is often too busy to be useful.

I'd like to inverse geocode about 400 lat/long pairs a week for a non-profit/educational web site. Who should I speak to?

Thanks,

661

Use the new domain api.geonames.org:
http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/2206.page

Marc

Hi Marc,

Thanks for the speedy response.

I read the page you linked me to but found it a bit hard going. I haven't actively used geonames for a long time and I guess many things have changed and I need to read some documentation.

I was wondering though, if it is no hassle, if you could tell me how to translate my old-style URLs eg

http://ws.geonames.org/countrySubdivision?lat=12.3&long=45.6

into new-style ones?

I guessed

http://api.geonames.org/countrySubdivision?lat=12.3&long=45.6&username=...

but this generates

<geonames>
<status message="user kilgore661 does not exist." value="10"/>
</geonames>

It doesn't help that unfortunately I got confused when accessing this forum. I thought I had logged on as ... but when I tried to post here I was asked for a username and password so I created user name kilgore661a. So I tried substituting ... for .. but that generated

<geonames>
<status message="user kilgore661a does not exist." value="10"/>
</geonames>

Where am I going wrong and/or where is the documentation please?

Best,

661

Update. Maybe my username hadn't been added to the database when I tried earlier. For the api.geonames URL above, I now get:

<geonames>
<status message="missing lat/lng" value="14"/>
</geonames>

which looks the result of a syntax error on my part.

The username is not the same account as the forum account, this might have caused some confusion. Glad to see that it works for you now.

the parameter is called 'lng' (not long).

Best

Marc

Thanks for correcting my syntax

marc wrote:

Glad to see that it works for you now.

It does? I've changed long to lng and now the result is "167" rather than some json telling me which country that latlng is in.

Sorry to be a pest, but I'm still in the dark here.

Thanks,

661

it seems you are now calling an elevation service.

Marc

Thanks for your prompt reply - that's very much appreciated - but I have no idea what you are talking about. Could you point me in the direction of the docs please?

Thanks,

661

Hi kilgore

Did you try with the above mentioned LatLon 12.3/45.6 ?
Your api.link (with your username) returns "we are afraid we could not find a administrative country subdivision for latitude and longitude :12.3,45.6" and that is right >
Your point is in international waters in the Gulf of Aden, 46 nautical miles off Yemen...
With 13.3/45.6 your link returns admin-informations about Yemen...

By the way... with the new anti-abuse-system it is not wise to publish your GeoNames-Username in this forum... someone could abuse with your username... (like me before...)

Regards

saphir

saphir wrote:

Hi kilgore

Did you try with the above mentioned LatLon 12.3/45.6 ?

Yes, and the result I got was "167", no json, no html or whatever, just the text "167". However, when I just tried it again, I got

Code:

"we are afraid we could not find a administrative country subdivision for latitude and longitude :12.3,45.6"

just like you did. So I am not sure what happened before unless "calling an elevation service" it geocoder tech-speak for "trying to access a service that works only intermittently"

saphir wrote:

With 13.3/45.6 your link returns admin-informations about Yemen...

Yep, I get that too. Things seem to be working now although my old code doesn't work because it seems the call I was using has changed what it returns, but that's another problem I can work on myself.

saphir wrote:

By the way... with the new anti-abuse-system it is not wise to publish your GeoNames-Username in this forum... someone could abuse with your username... (like me before...)

D'Oh! Who can I speak to about that. I only have one email address at the moment so I can't just create another username.

Best,

661Code:

I have checked the log files. You DID call the astergdem elevation service.

Marc

marc wrote:

I have checked the log files. You DID call the astergdem elevation service.

When I said "I have no idea what you are talking about" I didn't mean to imply that I disagreed with your assertion. What I meant was I don't know what an elevation service is.

Best,

661