Rails - Aug 2007 - Being able to search for nearby items based on zip code

Hello everyone,

I am building a site which is a searchable directory of doctors.
Basically, doctors can register where their clinic is (address) and then
patients can search and find clinics. I have the tables set up and
everything with a Doctor containing a street, zip code, state, etc. I
simply need a method of allowing a patient to type in a zip code or city
and the have all the nearest doctors in the database displayed to them
sorted by distance.

So basically, I have a database of doctors with their addresses and I
want to have the patient type in a zip code or city (and a radius) and
then I need to perform a query which will give me a list of the closest
X doctors in order by distance from that zip code.

Problem is I wouldn''t know where to begin to actually code the
algorithm
myself. I assume you would need a huge table of every zip code and maybe
the latitiude and longitude and then calculate the distances or
something. I would much prefer to use a library or purchase a package
that can do this.

This has GOT to be a hugely common requirement to be able to search for
"X''s close to address Y within Z radius sorted by distance".
This seems
like a very common configuration and I would love an experts advice on
whats the "best" route to use for this. Obviously I want it to be
efficient as possible but also be easy to implement.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

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On Aug 29, 10:41 pm, Nathan Esquenazi <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-
s.net> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I am building a site which is a searchable directory of doctors.
> Basically, doctors can register where their clinic is (address) and then
> patients can search and find clinics. I have the tables set up and
> everything with a Doctor containing a street, zip code, state, etc. I
> simply need a method of allowing a patient to type in a zip code or city
> and the have all the nearest doctors in the database displayed to them
> sorted by distance.
>
> So basically, I have a database of doctors with their addresses and I
> want to have the patient type in a zip code or city (and a radius) and
> then I need to perform a query which will give me a list of the closest
> X doctors in order by distance from that zip code.
>
> Problem is I wouldn''t know where to begin to actually code the
algorithm
> myself. I assume you would need a huge table of every zip code and maybe
> the latitiude and longitude and then calculate the distances or
> something. I would much prefer to use a library or purchase a package
> that can do this.
>
> This has GOT to be a hugely common requirement to be able to search for
> "X''s close to address Y within Z radius sorted by
distance". This seems
> like a very common configuration and I would love an experts advice on
> whats the "best" route to use for this. Obviously I want it to be
> efficient as possible but also be easy to implement.
>
> Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.
look at the Apress books on Google maps apps (one for Rails, one for
PHP)


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Will that book have a very clear guide to doing a search for items in my 
database that are near a certain zip code? Is this the book? 
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Google-Maps-Applications-Rails/dp/1590597877

Anyone willing to help me get started without having to purchase a book? 
Surely there is some open source project or code snippet for this common 
behavior?


gene.tani-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org wrote:
> On Aug 29, 10:41 pm, Nathan Esquenazi <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-
> s.net> wrote:
>> So basically, I have a database of doctors with their addresses and I
>> This has GOT to be a hugely common requirement to be able to search for
>> "X''s close to address Y within Z radius sorted by
distance". This seems
>> like a very common configuration and I would love an experts advice on
>> whats the "best" route to use for this. Obviously I want it
to be
>> efficient as possible but also be easy to implement.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
>> --
>> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> 
> look at the Apress books on Google maps apps (one for Rails, one for
> PHP)
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

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Nathan Esquenazi wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I am building a site which is a searchable directory of doctors.
> Basically, doctors can register where their clinic is (address) and then
> patients can search and find clinics. 
Geocoding is the magic term you want to plug into Google. A quick search 
results in this http://geokit.rubyforge.org/ which may do what you want. 
There are many providers (free and commercial) of the postcode/zipcode 
lat/long details you will need as well.

Cheers,

Anthony

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> 
> Anyone willing to help me get started without having to purchase a book? 
> Surely there is some open source project or code snippet for this common 
> behavior?
> 
Maybe take a look at:

   http://www.sanisoft.com/phpziplocator

It''s PHP, Lesser GNU General Public License.  It''s been a
while
(year''s?), but if I recall it wasn''t too difficult to take the
database
table provided and use the PHP examples as a basis for what I was trying 
to accomplish.
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

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Anthony, thank you. Thanks you again. You are truly a gentleman and a 
scholar. Geokit is EXACTLY what I need. For posterity, GeoKit allows you 
to perform distance based queries on any table with a lat/lon. For 
instance if every doctor has a lat, lon attribute then I can simply 
perform this query:

Doctor.find(:all, :origin=>''92453'', :within=>10)

Thanks again.

Anthony Richardson wrote:
> Nathan Esquenazi wrote:
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> I am building a site which is a searchable directory of doctors.
>> Basically, doctors can register where their clinic is (address) and
then
>> patients can search and find clinics. 
> Geocoding is the magic term you want to plug into Google. A quick search
> results in this http://geokit.rubyforge.org/ which may do what you want.
> There are many providers (free and commercial) of the postcode/zipcode
> lat/long details you will need as well.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Anthony
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

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If what you are doing is OpenSource Nathan would you be so kind to
write a blog entry about it?

On Aug 30, 10:26 am, Nathan Esquenazi <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-
s.net> wrote:
> Anthony, thank you. Thanks you again. You are truly a gentleman and a
> scholar. Geokit is EXACTLY what I need. For posterity, GeoKit allows you
> to perform distance based queries on any table with a lat/lon. For
> instance if every doctor has a lat, lon attribute then I can simply
> perform this query:
>
> Doctor.find(:all, :origin=>''92453'', :within=>10)
>
> Thanks again.
>
> Anthony Richardson wrote:
> > Nathan Esquenazi wrote:
> >> Hello everyone,
>
> >> I am building a site which is a searchable directory of doctors.
> >> Basically, doctors can register where their clinic is (address)
and then
> >> patients can search and find clinics.
> > Geocoding is the magic term you want to plug into Google. A quick
search
> > results in thishttp://geokit.rubyforge.org/which may do what you want.
> > There are many providers (free and commercial) of the postcode/zipcode
> > lat/long details you will need as well.
>
> > Cheers,
>
> > Anthony
>
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

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I came across http://zipcodesearch.rubyforge.org/ but geokit looks like it
may be a more robust solution.

On 8/30/07, unimatrixZxero
<unimatrixZxero-gM/Ye1E23mwN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>
>
> If what you are doing is OpenSource Nathan would you be so kind to
> write a blog entry about it?
>
> On Aug 30, 10:26 am, Nathan Esquenazi <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-
> s.net> wrote:
> > Anthony, thank you. Thanks you again. You are truly a gentleman and a
> > scholar. Geokit is EXACTLY what I need. For posterity, GeoKit allows
you
> > to perform distance based queries on any table with a lat/lon. For
> > instance if every doctor has a lat, lon attribute then I can simply
> > perform this query:
> >
> > Doctor.find(:all, :origin=>''92453'',
:within=>10)
> >
> > Thanks again.
> >
> > Anthony Richardson wrote:
> > > Nathan Esquenazi wrote:
> > >> Hello everyone,
> >
> > >> I am building a site which is a searchable directory of
doctors.
> > >> Basically, doctors can register where their clinic is
(address) and
> then
> > >> patients can search and find clinics.
> > > Geocoding is the magic term you want to plug into Google. A quick
> search
> > > results in thishttp://geokit.rubyforge.org/which may do what you
want.
> > > There are many providers (free and commercial) of the
postcode/zipcode
> > > lat/long details you will need as well.
> >
> > > Cheers,
> >
> > > Anthony
> >
> > --
> > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
>
> >
>

-- 
David Andrew Thompson
http://dathompson.blogspot.com

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Thank you for finding an alternative david. The big difference between 
geokit and this one is that geokit is using google api''s to do 
everything behind the scenes while this method you linked to does it all 
from my own server. Once my application begins to scale, I may very well 
switch to this method because it allows me to do it all without 
requiring external api''s. So, again, thanks for finding me exactly what
I needed!

As for writing a blog entry, I doubt you would be interested. I have 
only been working with rails for a month or so now and this is my first 
project I am doing  in it which will to be deployed to the public. Not 
to mention that right now  all I have is paper prototypes and a set of 
milestones for the project. I appreciate the offer though!


David Andrew Thompson wrote:
> I came across http://zipcodesearch.rubyforge.org/ but geokit looks like 
> it
> may be a more robust solution.
> 
> On 8/30/07, unimatrixZxero
<unimatrixZxero-gM/Ye1E23mwN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> > instance if every doctor has a lat, lon attribute then I can
simply
>> > >> I am building a site which is a searchable directory of
doctors.
>> >
>> > > Anthony
>> >
>> > --
>> > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>>
>>
>> >
>>
> 
> 
> --
> David Andrew Thompson
> http://dathompson.blogspot.com
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

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