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    Postcode finder using data supplied by royal mail
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Home >> For Web >> Ajax Thoroughfare/Street Address Finder using PHP

  Web AJAX Thoroughfare/Street Finder using PHP:

Using this Thoroughfare/Street Address Web Postcode Finder, the user:

  1. enters a postcode
  2. presses [Find Address] button
  3. has to enter the house name or number, the rest of the address is populated by the lookup

 

Your Web Sign Up/Checkout Page

Postcode: Postcode Finder Button
Building No/Name:
Line 1:
Line 2:
Line 3:
Town:
County:
Country:

   Please note : This demonstration uses demonstration data unlike the live system

video  Tutorial Video : Show to add Street Address AJAX List


The above functionality can be installed in minutes in 5 easy steps:

The above Postcode Lookup for thoroughfare (Street Level) Address search functionality can be added to a PHP capable web server in minutes, by simply dropping the supplied files into your Web project.   

Advantages

  • Uses AJAX to populate web page, for a smooth customer experience
  • "Out of the box" Postcode Address Search solution 
  • Very little programming required. 
  • Your Simply Postcode Lookup account codes are hidden from client
  • Quick to install, Simply add two files into your Web site
  • Will run on most Web servers
  • Not blocked by Pop-up blockers
  • No Data Administration Cost for you
  • Latest up to date Royal Mail data from our reliable web servers
  • Special test postcodes to test your PHP Street AJAX web postcode address finder

Requirements:

Web server capable of running PHP code, which is most web servers.   See version for .NET


How to implement in 5 steps:

Step1: Download the Example Code 

Simply download the example code.  The code is in the "AJAX PHP Thoroughfare" directory of our example downloads. Simply copy, into the same directory as your web page which requires Postcode Address Lookup, "SPL_AJAX_Street.js" and "SPLGetStreetAddress.php" files.   Download code

Step 2 : Add reference to our JavaScript file to your page

Then on your own web page header, add the following reference to the JavaScript file you copied. 

This line is showen in the "index.html" file included in the example download, as is the rest of the code.

Reference the JavaScript file

  HTML Code in <head> in section
<script type="text/javascript" src="SPL_AJAX_Street.js"></script>

Step 3 : Add a Link, button or image to activate Postcode Lookup

Then add either a link, or button image, using the following code to activate the Postcode Lookup Web pop-up:

Example link to activate Postcode Lookup Window:

  HTML Code (in your page)
<a href= "javascript:SPLGetAddressData(document.getElementById('postcode').value)">
Lookup Address from link</a>

Example button to activate Postcode Lookup Window:

  HTML Code (in your page)
<input type=button value="Lookup Address" 
onClick= "javascript:SPLGetAddressData(document.getElementById('postcode').value)">

This could easily be changed to use an image button.  

  Note: In the above example the Postcode Text field must have an ID of "postcode"

Step 4 : Map your Address fields

Now edit the JavaScript at the end of file "SPL_AJAX_Street.js", to write the correct address lines, which result from the Postcode Lookup, back to your target web page address fields:

Example address field mappings:

  JavaScript Code (SPL_AJAX_Street.js)
document.getElementById("line1").value=LINE1;
document.getElementById("line2").value=LINE2;
document.getElementById("line3").value=LINE3;
document.getElementById("town").value=TOWN;
document.getElementById("county").value=COUNTY;
document.getElementById("country").value=COUNTRY;

Where the fields on your web page all have ID'd expressed:

<input type=text name=line1 id=line1 size=45>
<input type=text name=line2 id=line2 size=45>
etc.

Step 5 : Specify the Data Key

Open an account with us. Within seconds you will then receive a data key, by e-mail, which should be entered at the top of the "SPLGetStreetAddress.php" file. This key will enable your account, for a 30 day evaluation period, for one postcode area.  

Identify your account:

  PHP Code (SPLGetStreetAddress.php)
$datakey = "PUT YOUR DATA KEY HERE";

Enter Postcode "ZZ99" to use test data.   Test postcodes for various address formats.


How it Works

When the customer presses the [Find] button, then the function SPLGetAddressData is called, passing the Postcode entered in your Postcode field.   This then calls the SPLGetStreetAddress.php page with the Postcode in the parameters, using the xmlHttp object created when the page was opened on the browser.   This xmlHttp object provides AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) to perform a Asynchronous call the SPLGetStreetAddress.php page, without a complete page refresh.

 SPLGetStreetAddress.php code on your web server then calls our Postcode lookup web server for the address information, adding your account information, etc.  This means the client browser never sees your account information.

When the SPLGetStreetAddress.php page receives address information from our server it simply relays it back to the web page (your page with address fields on the customers computer) on the client computer. 

The result of SPLGetStreetAddress.php is then handled by the JavaScript function SPLhandleRequestStateChange which calls SPLhandleServerResponse when fully complete.

Function SPLhandleServerResponse then reads the XML, if it contains tag "<line1>" and writes the address information to your address fields on your web page.   If the response does not contain "<line1>", because of invalid postcode entered, then it is not processed.


Why do you have to have extra pages on your server?

Reason 1

Some browsers, especially if the client has turned up the security settings, may stop the client web page talking to a server from different domain.  So by adding a page into your web domain, to relay the query to our Postcode address lookup server, removes this security problem.

Reason 2

Hides your account information from the Client Web Browser

[More information on AJAX]

[More information on AJAX Programming]

This example could easily be converted to any other server side language, since the PHP pages are simply used to relay XML data from our server.  The clients side JavaScript would remain the same.


Important PHP switches

In order to allow communication between your server and ours, a PHP setting must be set to allow communication PHP.INI file:

The following should be on:
; Whether to allow the treatment of URLs (like http:// or ftp://) as files.
allow_url_fopen = On

If this is off, then the code cannot get the address information from our server!

On most servers it is ON