GeoCouch Plugin - Storing Geocoded data in CouchDB
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This plugin is for projects that require a local repository of geocoded data that is mined from google's geocoding service. For instance, if your project needs more than the 15k geocode requests allowed by google. Instead of shoving the JSON geodata into a relational database scheme, like MySQL, I find it easier to store it in a JSON-native document format. Fortunately, CouchDB fits that bill and has a lot of other cool features to boot!
This GeoCouch plugin is simple. The following code assumes that:
Grab the geocouch library from: http://geocouch.googlecode.com/files/geocouch.php and drop it into your vendors folder.
Remember to jump into the GeoCouch.php script and edit the configuration paramters.
- You have CouchDB running somewhere
- You have a google API key (grab one here: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html)
- You have a form that submits a text field named 'location' to the following controller action
- [li]The location string can be anything you can type into google maps: i.e. 'Dallas, TX', '9151 Garland Rd, Nowhere, GA', 'Irvine California', etc.
Grab the geocouch library from: http://geocouch.googlecode.com/files/geocouch.php and drop it into your vendors folder.
Remember to jump into the GeoCouch.php script and edit the configuration paramters.
Controller Class:
<?php
class LocationsController extends AppController
{
...
function geocode()
{
App::import('Vendor', 'geocouch');
App::import('Sanitize');
$location = Sanitize::escape($this->data['location']);
/*
* Don't forget to edit the $GeoCouch->conf parameters!
*/
$GeoCouch = new GeoCouch();
/*
* The all-in-one method.
* This geocodes the string and writes it to CouchDB
* The second parameter is any other fields other
* than the Google data that you want to save along
* with this document.
*
* NOTE: if this address already exists in CouchDB
* a new revision is created.
*
* Returns the CouchDB response, i.e.:
* {"ok" : true, "rev":"3825793742", "id" : "dallas-tx" }
*/
$GeoCouch->save($location, array('custom_field' => 'value'));
/*
* Simply geo coding.
* Does not write to CouchDB.
* Returns an Google Geocoded Object.
*/
$geoObj = $GeoCouch->geoCode($location);
/*
* Write some Geo JSON to CouchDB.
* First parameter is a unique name for the data
* Second parameter is the JSON - in
* this case the json_encoded $geoObj from above.
*/
$GeoCouch->put($location, json_encode($geoObj));
/*
* Get some existing geo data
*/
$geoObj = $GeoCouch->get($location);
}
...
}
?>
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