FN-FORUM: postcode search

date posted 14th May 2006 15:51

Just coming into this thread halfway through - are you talking about code
that will allow my clients visitors to find their nearest stockist (from my
database) by entering their post code??

I have a website ( http://www.romanticaofdevon.co.uk/stockists.php ) which
currently allows visitors to find stockists in any 'selected' county.
However, there has been a suggestion that some visitors are too 'dim' to
appreciate that a stockist in a neighbouring county may well be
geographically closer than one in their 'own' county. My client would like
to add a map of the UK with clearly marked regions each of which may
represent several counties - the idea being that even the dimmest of
visitors may have a vague grasp of whereabouts they live (or shop) with the
aide of a map ... ?!

What do you think? I prefer the idea of entering your own post code and a
??km radius to give a list.

Cheers,

Max.

From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] On Behalf Of Andy
Macnaughton-Jones
Sent: 14 May 2006 14:27
To: FN-FORUM / [EMAIL REMOVED]
Subject: RE: FN-FORUM: postcodes


Think that's the one I'm going to be using. I do have a full postcode
list but it's about 4 years out of date.

I had a chat with the GIS boys where I'm currently contracting and they
reckon that so long as you only need a rough distance then the centroids
of the outcode (the first bit of the code, e.g., DN35) is quite
acceptable. I did a quick test between a couple of postcodes I know and
the distance was within 1km.