How OSM namefinder works and how to mashup this webpage?

xintao · 2009-04-07T22:58:31.000Z

Hello!

From this webpage, http://gazetteer.openstreetmap.org/namefinder/ we can find a place by name. If I want to mashup this webpage (or the namefinder function) in my own webpage, is it possible to do so?

Actually, I viewed the source code of this webpage. It is just a html webpage. I looked over and over, but I just could not see how it finds a place by name. Because in the webage, there is code like this: . That means this webpage will handle the request by itself. But I could not figure it out that where the code is, and how it works.

Thanks.
Xintao

emj · 2009-04-08T00:18:25.000Z

namefinder is a php+mysql webapp
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Name_finder
svn co http://svn.openstreetmap.org/sites/namefinder/

Though I have to warn you, I’ve sent other people down that path and none has come back, the name finder code base is in great need of love…

xintao · 2009-04-08T11:31:20.000Z

Hi, emj, thanks for your reply. We are talking again, and I am still in the same place and doing alomst the same work.

I am devloping a web application using ASP.net (C#). If I want to intergrate the namefinder function into my own webpage, is it possible to do so? Shall I download the PHP code to my own server and integrate it into my own webpage, or by other methods? And is it very difficult? And will the namefinder searching efficiency bcome slow?

By the way, I can make IIS support ASP and PHP at same time. I am also wondering if there is a ASP.net version of namefinder?

Xintao

emj · 2009-04-08T12:40:09.000Z

Hey again xintao, I think lambertus would answer this best.

Name finder is built to allow you call it via webservice, see http://www.yournavigation.org/ or the wiki. for examples.

Almost no osm code is available in c# you have kosmos, but not much more. I don’t recommend you using the php namefinder scripts on your own server. Crappy response times might be an issue you can look past, and I think you will spend too much time on this if you implement namefinder by yourself.

xintao · 2009-04-08T19:31:36.000Z

Hi, lambertus, would you please help? I have sent you mail, could you please check it.

Thanks.

Xintao

Lambertus · 2009-04-08T20:14:57.000Z

To keep the information usefull for others as well:

xintao:

Hello!
I am sorry for distrurbing you. I have visited your website http//www.yournavigation.org. It works very well. Now I am doing some test for my future thesis work. I want to call http://gazetteer.openstreetmap.org/namefinder/search.xml?find= in my ASP.net website, but the response XML is always null. I have been stucked here for 2 days. Would you please give me any instrution? It would be highly appreciated if you can make any comments.

I noticed that you are using xmlhttp[‘url’] = “http://www.yournavigation.org/transport.php?url=” + url; Does it because the cross-domain is now allowed for AJAX? If so, I tried to use aspx to imitate your method: xmlhttp[‘url’] = “http://www.myweb.org/transport.aspx?url=” + url. I want to know whether I can do it this way? Or I have to use PHP to realize this function? Or I have to write some function in my transport.aspx? I am totally stucked here. Please HELP!

Browsers dont allow you to do crossdomain AJAX calls so you will have to use a proxy. The transport.php is a proxy for yournavigation you can find it in SVN. You can find examples of proxies everywhere with Google, e.g. OpenLayers also has one (python cgi-bin). The language where the proxy is written in doesn’t matter if it can relay the url parameters correctly. Your imitation as you described above should work if your proxy works OK and the url parameters are properly encoded.

xintao · 2009-04-09T18:05:33.000Z

Thanks, Lambertus. I have solved my problem using ASP.net proxy. If anyone want the proxy file, just send me message.

Xintao