Managing locations

Hi All

I know this is a strange request, but I currently creating an estate agent
type site and I noticed on somebody else's (big company - not interested in
little old me!!) that they give the user the option to see property results
that are 2, 5, 10 miles, etc away from the location that I can pick.

I think this is a really clever feature, but have a sneaking suspicion that
this kind of effect could be re-created using some kind of internal grid
reference proc rather than having to buy a £30,000 piece of post coding
software.

The locations that I am using are only probably half of 1 county so its not
as if I'm trying to map out the whole of the UK.

Has anybody had a go at making their own internal grid ref system to get
this sort of thing to work?

Rgds

Robbie




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"Astra" <info@NoEmail.com> wrote in message news:417e311f_4@127.0.0.1...
> Hi All
>
> I know this is a strange request, but I currently creating an estate agent
> type site and I noticed on somebody else's (big company - not interested
in
> little old me!!) that they give the user the option to see property
results
> that are 2, 5, 10 miles, etc away from the location that I can pick.
>
> I think this is a really clever feature, but have a sneaking suspicion
that
> this kind of effect could be re-created using some kind of internal grid
> reference proc rather than having to buy a £30,000 piece of post coding
> software.
>
> The locations that I am using are only probably half of 1 county so its
not
> as if I'm trying to map out the whole of the UK.
>
> Has anybody had a go at making their own internal grid ref system to get
> this sort of thing to work?

Speaking as a trained cartographer, and also as a geek who dabbles in a bit
of web coding, I'd say the Grid Ref method would be the one most likely to
be used by sites employing this feature.....

Never tried it, but I'd imagine it's not that hard to pull off.....Give
yourself a "northings" entry and an "eastings" entry in your
database.....Break them up by using the 1km grid squares as they appear on
an OS 1:50000 scale map, and use 6 figure references to give you a 100m
accuracy range.....

You may need some way of mapping postcodes to grid references....Possibly
using only the first half (for example BT26).....I'd think to pull this off
sucessfully, you'd need a database with the postcode values mapped to grid
ref's, and a second database with the grid refs of your properties.....

This may be just the way my brain interprets the problem, and you're likely
to find as many different solutions as there are people in this
newsgroup....

--
Sam.
www.doohickeys.co.uk
For Desirable Devices

Astra wrote:
> Hi All
>
> I know this is a strange request, but I currently creating an estate agent
> type site and I noticed on somebody else's (big company - not interested in
> little old me!!) that they give the user the option to see property results
> that are 2, 5, 10 miles, etc away from the location that I can pick.

You'd probaly be needing this:
<http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?mediaId=400088&catId=400084>

And then script to run over it. The script bit should be fairly easy.
See "Fat Sam"s response to your query - the maths is no problem.

Royal Mail's postcode / grid ref data may prove pricey. Unless you fancy
mapping the region yourself ;-)

--
Matt Bradley
"I always like to know everything about my new friends,
and nothing about my old ones" - Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Astra wrote:

> I think this is a really clever feature, but have a sneaking suspicion that
> this kind of effect could be re-created using some kind of internal grid
> reference proc rather than having to buy a £30,000 piece of post coding
> software.

It's not *that* expensive. In the UK you want QAS or AFD -- the latter
probably. QAS have been bought by big, scary Experian recently. (They
wrote to tell me, which was nice. But how did they know who I was? /me
looks over shoulder.)

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

"Toby Inkster" <usenet200410@tobyinkster.co.uk> wrote in message
news:pan.2004.10.26.21.09.37.233477@tobyinkster.co .uk...
> Astra wrote:
>
> > I think this is a really clever feature, but have a sneaking suspicion
that
> > this kind of effect could be re-created using some kind of internal grid
> > reference proc rather than having to buy a £30,000 piece of post coding
> > software.
>
> It's not *that* expensive. In the UK you want QAS or AFD -- the latter
> probably. QAS have been bought by big, scary Experian recently. (They
> wrote to tell me, which was nice. But how did they know who I was? /me
> looks over shoulder.)

Perhaps you're their main supplier for inkjet cartridges ;-)

--
Sam.
www.doohickeys.co.uk
For Desirable Devices

Fat Sam wrote:

>
> "Toby Inkster" <usenet200410@tobyinkster.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:pan.2004.10.26.21.09.37.233477@tobyinkster.co .uk...
>> Astra wrote:
>>
>> > I think this is a really clever feature, but have a sneaking
>> > suspicion
> that
>> > this kind of effect could be re-created using some kind of internal
>> > grid reference proc rather than having to buy a £30,000 piece of
>> > post coding software.
>>
>> It's not *that* expensive. In the UK you want QAS or AFD -- the
>> latter probably. QAS have been bought by big, scary Experian
>> recently. (They wrote to tell me, which was nice. But how did they
>> know who I was? /me looks over shoulder.)
>
> Perhaps you're their main supplier for inkjet cartridges ;-)

Bastard! Beat me to it!

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

"Charles Sweeney" <me@charlessweeney.com> wrote in message
news:Xns958EF0EB280EBmecharlessweeneycom@130.133.1 .4...
> Fat Sam wrote:
>
> >
> > "Toby Inkster" <usenet200410@tobyinkster.co.uk> wrote in message
> > news:pan.2004.10.26.21.09.37.233477@tobyinkster.co .uk...
> >> Astra wrote:
> >>
> >> > I think this is a really clever feature, but have a sneaking
> >> > suspicion
> > that
> >> > this kind of effect could be re-created using some kind of internal
> >> > grid reference proc rather than having to buy a £30,000 piece of
> >> > post coding software.
> >>
> >> It's not *that* expensive. In the UK you want QAS or AFD -- the
> >> latter probably. QAS have been bought by big, scary Experian
> >> recently. (They wrote to tell me, which was nice. But how did they
> >> know who I was? /me looks over shoulder.)
> >
> > Perhaps you're their main supplier for inkjet cartridges ;-)
>
> Bastard! Beat me to it!

Sorry...I couldn't resist it.....

--
Sam.
www.doohickeys.co.uk
For Desirable Devices