Does anyone know of a software package, that integrates well with
PICK, that will find the distance between two locations using the
address or zip?

If not a software package has anyone had any luck with a script that
would query google maps or something and return the distance to your
program?

On Mar 8, 9:18 am, "ProBlazer" <matt.hertzf... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

google "geographic distance zip" gets a ton of hits that might be of
use

On Mar 8, 11:10 am, "OldSchool" <scott.my... (AT) fds (DOT) com> wrote:
i've done google searches, and have found some interesting stuff. But
I was more interested in what people in the PICK world were already
using that works. Note, that the system I'm going to be using this
for is GUI and not Web, so I want to try to stay away from things
using PHP, HTLM, ect...

I would really like a script that could just go out and query google
maps or something and just return the distance, in text, for display
and some calculations.

If you google cdp for "distance calculation" you will find two threads
from 2003 regarding this topic.

A source of latitude and longitude zip code information is zipinfo.com

/Scott Ballinger
Pareto Corporation
Edmonds WA USA
206 713 6006

We bought a zipcode file for a $100 from ZipcodeWorld.com that has longitude
and latitude.

distance = sqrt(abs(long1 - long2)**2 + abs(lat1-lat2)**2)

If you're concerned about curvature, there's a fudge factor I don't remember
right off, but the above is close enough if you're not walking.

For GUI, our restaurant software also interfaces with Microsoft (eww, dirty
word!!!) MapPoint to calc distances between two addresses and generate maps
on demand.

Mark Brown


"ProBlazer" <matt.hertzfeld (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

The easy part of this is the distance calculation -- Google for
"Haversine formula". But you need your locations expressed as latitude
and longitude values for it to work.

The hard part is called "geolocation" -- translating zip codes or
addresses into latitude/longitude pairs. There are many different ways
to approach this, some of which have been mentioned already. And in my
experience, they all have their little frustrations.

You can do most of what you need to do with Google's Maps API, but one
frustration I had with it is that it doesn't give you a City and State
name on a Zip-code only lookup.

You can use Yahoo's API, and it seems pretty complete feature-wise,
but it uses a weird (to me, anyway) non-SOAP protocol.

If it really is just distance you want, you can probably get by with
either one, but there will be a learning curve, and you will have to
get into HTTP and XML at least, even though it's all on the back end.

-Gary-

"ProBlazer" wrote:


See this blog article I wrote:
removethisNebula-RnD.com/blog/general/2006/09/dbtip-url1.html

That specific information shows how to call Google Maps and other
external resources from DesignBais, but the same principles can be
used to call anything directly from MV. I use cURL for calling
directly from MV to other websites to retrieve information. I wrap
the calls in a subroutine which can be called from the application in
a way that completely abstracts how the operation is performed.
Example:
CALL GET.DISTANCE(FROM.HERE,TO.THERE,FLAGS,RESULTS)

When you say this is from GUI, it may be better if the client or DBMS
passed the request to a middle-tier, which then made a Web Service
call for the info.

As Mark mentioned, it's not tough (for us anyway) to interface
directly into Microsoft MapPoint to pull out distances and other data.

Lots of ways to skin the cat depending on your specific needs.

Please email if you'd like to engage services to deliver a solution
that addresses your specific needs.

Tony Gravagno
Nebula Research and Development
TG@ remove.this...we.dont.like.spamNebula-RnD.com

ProBlazer

Prior to moving to DTOD, our DOD (Army) transportation system used
MileageMaker by Rand McNally. We had the version that ran on the same
Unix box that ran our application. It was fast and had periodic
updates. I don't know about pricing.

The URL:
http://www.randmcnally.com/rmc/tdm/t...gnh.0&cmty= 0

Tom