Chris Nizzardini, Salt Lake City Utah, Web Developer Specializing in LAMP+Ajax Since 2006

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using the geonames web service with php

The GeoNames web service API, http://www.geonames.org/export/web-services.html, can be used to retrieve information on foreign countries such as postal code, city name, country code, longitude, and latitude. This information can come in very handy in variety of circumstances. I used the information obtained from the API to automate updating a table of countries with the postal code (just needed one in this instance) of every capital in the world.

First you will need to use cURL. I have written a simple cURL class:

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/**
 * Curl: psuedo implements cUrl for posting data to td ameritrade api
 * @author cnizz.com
 * @param void
 * @uses *cUrl
 */
class Curl 
{
	/**
	 * constructor
	 * @author cn
	 * @param url(str),paramArr(array),$jsession_id(str)
	 */
	function __construct(){
 
	}
 
	/**
	 * post: posts parameters to url
	 * @author cnizz.com
	 * @param url(str), paramArr(array), returnString((bool - forces return as string)
	 * @return array(default)
	 */
	public function post($url,$paramArr=array(),$returnsString=0,$url_encode=0)
	{
		$string = $this->returnPostParamStr($paramArr);
		if($url_encode==1){
			$string=urlencode($string)."\n\n";
		}
		$ch = curl_init(); /// initialize a cURL session
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $string);
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, '60');
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
		$cUrlResponse = curl_exec($ch);
		$httpResponseArr = curl_getinfo($ch);
		curl_close($ch);
 
		$return = $this->xml2array($cUrlResponse);
 
		if(!is_array($return) || $return['result']=='FAIL' || $httpResponseArr['http_code']!=200)
		{
			$return['custome_error'] = $cUrlResponse;
			$return['custom_http_code'] = $httpResponseArr['http_code'];
		}
 
		return $return;
	}
 
	/**
	 * returnPostParamStr: accepts an array and returns a parameter string
	 * @author cnizz.com
	 * @param array (key is post name, value is post attribute)
	 * @return string
	 */
	public function returnPostParamStr($val)
	{
		$string='';
		if(is_array($val))
		{
			foreach($val as $k => $i)
			{
				if($j==0){
					$string.="$k=$i";
					$j=1;
				}
				else if($k=='|S'){
					$string.="$k=$i";
				}
				else{
					$string.="&$k=$i";
				}
			}
		}
		return $string;
	}
 
	/**
	 * xml2array: converts xml to an array
	 * @author unknown, modified by cn
	 * @link http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.xml-parse.php#87920
	 * @param xmlStr(string)
	 * @return array
	 */
	public function xml2array($xmlStr, $get_attributes = 1, $priority = 'tag')
	{
		// I renamed $url to $xmlStr, $url was the first parameter in the method if you
		// want to load from a URL then rename $xmlStr to $url everywhere in this method
	    $contents = "";
	    if (!function_exists('xml_parser_create'))
	    {
	        return array ();
	    }
	    $parser = xml_parser_create('');
		// commented out since I already have the xml text stored in memory 
		// this reads XML in from a URL
		/*	    
		if (!($fp = @ fopen($url, 'rb')))
	    {
	        return array ();
	    }
	    while (!feof($fp))
	    {
	        $contents .= fread($fp, 8192);
	    }
	    fclose($fp);
		*/
	    xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_TARGET_ENCODING, "UTF-8");
	    xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
	    xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
	    xml_parse_into_struct($parser, trim($xmlStr), $xml_values);
	    xml_parser_free($parser);
	    if (!$xml_values)
	        return; //Hmm...
	    $xml_array = array ();
	    $parents = array ();
	    $opened_tags = array ();
	    $arr = array ();
	    $current = & $xml_array;
	    $repeated_tag_index = array ();
	    foreach ($xml_values as $data)
	    {
	        unset ($attributes, $value);
	        extract($data);
	        $result = array ();
	        $attributes_data = array ();
	        if (isset ($value))
	        {
	            if ($priority == 'tag')
	                $result = $value;
	            else
	                $result['value'] = $value;
	        }
	        if (isset ($attributes) and $get_attributes)
	        {
	            foreach ($attributes as $attr => $val)
	            {
	                if ($priority == 'tag')
	                    $attributes_data[$attr] = $val;
	                else
	                    $result['attr'][$attr] = $val; //Set all the attributes in a array called 'attr'
	            }
	        }
	        if ($type == "open")
	        {
	            $parent[$level -1] = & $current;
	            if (!is_array($current) or (!in_array($tag, array_keys($current))))
	            {
	                $current[$tag] = $result;
	                if ($attributes_data)
	                    $current[$tag . '_attr'] = $attributes_data;
	                $repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level] = 1;
	                $current = & $current[$tag];
	            }
	            else
	            {
	                if (isset ($current[$tag][0]))
	                {
	                    $current[$tag][$repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level]] = $result;
	                    $repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level]++;
	                }
	                else
	                {
	                    $current[$tag] = array (
	                        $current[$tag],
	                        $result
	                    );
	                    $repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level] = 2;
	                    if (isset ($current[$tag . '_attr']))
	                    {
	                        $current[$tag]['0_attr'] = $current[$tag . '_attr'];
	                        unset ($current[$tag . '_attr']);
	                    }
	                }
	                $last_item_index = $repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level] - 1;
	                $current = & $current[$tag][$last_item_index];
	            }
	        }
	        elseif ($type == "complete")
	        {
	            if (!isset ($current[$tag]))
	            {
	                $current[$tag] = $result;
	                $repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level] = 1;
	                if ($priority == 'tag' and $attributes_data)
	                    $current[$tag . '_attr'] = $attributes_data;
	            }
	            else
	            {
	                if (isset ($current[$tag][0]) and is_array($current[$tag]))
	                {
	                    $current[$tag][$repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level]] = $result;
	                    if ($priority == 'tag' and $get_attributes and $attributes_data)
	                    {
	                        $current[$tag][$repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level] . '_attr'] = $attributes_data;
	                    }
	                    $repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level]++;
	                }
	                else
	                {
	                    $current[$tag] = array (
	                        $current[$tag],
	                        $result
	                    );
	                    $repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level] = 1;
	                    if ($priority == 'tag' and $get_attributes)
	                    {
	                        if (isset ($current[$tag . '_attr']))
	                        {
	                            $current[$tag]['0_attr'] = $current[$tag . '_attr'];
	                            unset ($current[$tag . '_attr']);
	                        }
	                        if ($attributes_data)
	                        {
	                            $current[$tag][$repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level] . '_attr'] = $attributes_data;
	                        }
	                    }
	                    $repeated_tag_index[$tag . '_' . $level]++; //0 and 1 index is already taken
	                }
	            }
	        }
	        elseif ($type == 'close')
	        {
	            $current = & $parent[$level -1];
	        }
	    }
	    return ($xml_array);
	}
}

Using the web service

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include_once 'Curl.class.php';
 
$curl = new Curl();
$array = $curl->post('http://ws.geonames.org/postalCodeSearch?',array('placename'=>'Berlin'));
 
print_r($array);

2 Responses to “using the geonames web service with php”

  1. karthik says:

    Can anyone say how to use this code…
    Like example…
    Thanks in advance.
    Karthik

  2. karthik says:

    Hi,
    I myself found way to use this code..
    first enable curl.dll in you apaceh http.d.
    Then restart the service…

    It showed two errors for me..
    1.$j not defined
    2.$result not defined

    I initiated $j=0;
    and removed the $result['something'];

    Then it works great..
    Thanks to Geonames…

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