GeoNames Forum

Thanks a lot. Do you have a GeoNames username so that I can associate your user account with the originator of the batch update?

Marc

ASP guy describes in a blog posting how to consume GeoNames REST web services from .NET.

I am linking it here in case somebody has troubles dealing with the services in a .net environment:

Dealing with REST Web Services:
http://aspguy.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/dealing-with-rest-web-services/

It is a tricky question.

As I understand it 'New York City' is something that encompasses the adm2 'New York County' etc, but it is below the adm1 (state) 'New York'.

The rather primitive feature code system is probably not powerful enough to reflect complex situations like this one. We cannot declare 'New York City' to be adm2 because it is not, it is not a county.

A similar problem exists for other metropolitan areas like 'Greater London'.

I don't know yet how so solve the problem and model the situation satisfactorily. It would be easy to come up with an all purpose data model that is able to deal with all kind of situations. This is not the point. The real trick is to keep it simple and easy to use.

Marc

We will add the information when we get it. You are free to help finding the data.

Marc

Thanks, Dmitry.

I have added the English alternate name for Saxony here, it was missing indeed:
http://www.geonames.org/2842566/freistaat-sachsen.html

Best

Marc

Not yet. I completely forgot this posting. Sorry.
Do you know whether it is the same as your other posting?

Marc

Hi Stephan

I have modified the file. Hope it is fine for you and it does not break any existing application.

Marc

The alternatename column of the main geoname table is an excerpt from the more detailed alternatename table. It is lacking information like languagecode etc.

Best

Marc

Hi

I may be wrong, but shouldn't it be the client-application to implement this specification and alllow geonames.org as additional resource? Otherwise a malicious site could declare itself safe and cause damage.

Best

Marc

A concept should only have one geonameId. Antarctica is discussed in this thread http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/1083.page

I don't know what "Ahvenanmaan Lääni" is or means. If it is something different than please help us fix the error.

Best

Marc

check the dump tomorrow for the new countryid. Geotree will take longer to take up the new countryid.

Marc

http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/allCountries.zip

You are right this is confusing. In particular as other small islands are part of the continent with other country codes.

I have created a new entry which we will use as the geonameid for the "country":
http://www.geonames.org/6697173/antarctica.html

Marc

Hi Greg

'00' means we don't know. I guess we should change the feature code of these two entries as they have a different status than the other adm2 and they don't have codes in the fips coding system.

Best

Marc

Arnaud FOUCAL has written a blog posting about calling geonames web services from Flex:
http://afoucal.free.fr/index.php/2008/10/05/httpservice-fill-city-field-zip-code-country-flex-form/

Marc

Hi Kasimir

You are right there are too many digits. I have truncated them to four.

If you want to truncate them further you can use the javascript functions to do so. You can multiply the number by 100, convert it to an integer and divide it again by 100 to get two digits.

Best

Marc

For nearby queries you should use the spatial functions and operators of your database system.

This thread has more information about mysql:
http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/692.page

Marc

Hi Dave

I think the main name should be 'Chennai' and I have changed it and added 'Madras' as alternate names.
The changes will be included in daily the dump of the following day.

Best

Marc

Hi Justin

REST means it is so simple that it does not need a WDSL and it does not have one. Check out the methods in Flex to parse xml.

Best

Marc

Hello Eiko

I am afraid I don't know of any service like this for China or Singapore.

Marc