GeoNames Forum

Hi,

I have some trouble with the output when I do some reverse geocoding. For a given coordinate I would like to get :
- city name, zip code, and administrative names.

So I use the great findNearbyPostalCodes web service, see the following example and the corresponding output:

http://ws.geonames.org/findNearbyPostalCodes?maxRows=1&lat=48.7&lng=2.08333

<postalcode>78470</postalcode>
<name>St Remy Les Chevreuse</name>
<countrycode>FR</countrycode>
<lat>48.7</lat>
<lng>2.0833333</lng>
<admincode1>J</admincode1>
<adminname1>Ile De France</adminname1>
<admincode2>78</admincode2>
<adminname2>YVELINES</adminname2>
<admincode3/>
<adminname3/>
<distance>2.3253185074810357E-4</distance>

Well, the names are the expected ones but not correctly spelt. If I use the also great findNearbyPlaceName web service, I got the correct spelt city name, but no information about admin names and zip code :

http://ws.geonames.org/findNearbyPlaceName?maxRows=1&lat=48.7&lng=2.08333

<name>Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse</name>
<lat>48.7</lat>
<lng>2.0833333</lng>
<geonameid>2977197</geonameid>
<countrycode>FR</countrycode>
<countryname>France</countryname>
<fcl>P</fcl>
<fcode>PPL</fcode>
<distance>2.3253185074810357E-4</distance>

So, is there a way to get the correct names (city and admin) with findNearbyPostalCodes?

Thanks.

Eric.

Hi Eric

At the moment there is no way to get the place names with accents from the postal code web service.
We are working on improving this. Would you like to help us with this?

Cheers

Marc

Hi Marc,

Thanks for your answer,

No problem to help you, tell me what you are expecting.

Best regards,

Eric.

Hi Eric

First we have to decide what the 'correct' name is for each place. In France we are lucky and can use the INSEE dataset. I believe it should be a good source.

Then the difficult part is to figure out which place name / postal code is which INSEE code. I have started with this mapping process and can send you what I already have.

Marc

Hi Marc,

Ok, you can send me what you have done, I will help you for the mapping.
What are the differences between the both web services : findNearbyPostalCodes and findNearbyPlaceName, in the way to get data? (different tables in your database?)

Thanks,

Eric.

Hi Eric

Yes, the two services work with two different tables in our data base.

Cheers

Marc