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Geocoder

Geocoder is a complete geocoding solution for Ruby. With Rails it adds geocoding (by street or IP address), reverse geocoding (finding street address based on given coordinates), and distance queries. It's as simple as calling geocode on your objects, and then using a scope like Venue.near("Billings, MT").

Please note that this README is for the current HEAD and may document features not present in the latest gem release. For this reason, you may want to instead view the README for your particular version.

Compatibility

  • Supports multiple Ruby versions: Ruby 1.9.3, 2.x, JRuby, and Rubinius.
  • Supports multiple databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and MongoDB (1.7.0 and higher).
  • Supports Rails 3 and 4. If you need to use it with Rails 2 please see the rails2 branch (no longer maintained, limited feature set).
  • Works very well outside of Rails, you just need to install either the json (for MRI) or json_pure (for JRuby) gem.

Rails 4.1 Note

Due to a change in ActiveRecord's count method you will need to use count(:all) to explicitly count all columns ("*") when using a near scope. Using near and calling count with no argument will cause exceptions in many cases.

Installation

Install Geocoder like any other Ruby gem:

gem install geocoder

Or, if you're using Rails/Bundler, add this to your Gemfile:

gem 'geocoder'

and run at the command prompt:

bundle install

Object Geocoding

ActiveRecord

Your model must have two attributes (database columns) for storing latitude and longitude coordinates. By default they should be called latitude and longitude but this can be changed (see "Model Configuration" below):

rails generate migration AddLatitudeAndLongitudeToModel latitude:float longitude:float
rake db:migrate

For geocoding your model must provide a method that returns an address. This can be a single attribute, but it can also be a method that returns a string assembled from different attributes (eg: city, state, and country).

Next, your model must tell Geocoder which method returns your object's geocodable address:

geocoded_by :full_street_address   # can also be an IP address
after_validation :geocode          # auto-fetch coordinates

For reverse geocoding, tell Geocoder which attributes store latitude and longitude:

reverse_geocoded_by :latitude, :longitude
after_validation :reverse_geocode  # auto-fetch address

Mongoid

First, your model must have an array field for storing coordinates:

field :coordinates, :type => Array

You may also want an address field, like this:

field :address

but if you store address components (city, state, country, etc) in separate fields you can instead define a method called address that combines them into a single string which will be used to query the geocoding service.

Once your fields are defined, include the Geocoder::Model::Mongoid module and then call geocoded_by:

include Geocoder::Model::Mongoid
geocoded_by :address               # can also be an IP address
after_validation :geocode          # auto-fetch coordinates

Reverse geocoding is similar:

include Geocoder::Model::Mongoid
reverse_geocoded_by :coordinates
after_validation :reverse_geocode  # auto-fetch address

Once you've set up your model you'll need to create the necessary spatial indices in your database:

rake db:mongoid:create_indexes

Be sure to read Latitude/Longitude Order in the Notes on MongoDB section below on how to properly retrieve latitude/longitude coordinates from your objects.

MongoMapper

MongoMapper is very similar to Mongoid, just be sure to include Geocoder::Model::MongoMapper.

Mongo Indices

By default, the methods geocoded_by and reverse_geocoded_by create a geospatial index. You can avoid index creation with the :skip_index option, for example:

include Geocoder::Model::Mongoid
geocoded_by :address, :skip_index => true

Bulk Geocoding

If you have just added geocoding to an existing application with a lot of objects you can use this Rake task to geocode them all:

rake geocode:all CLASS=YourModel

If you need reverse geocoding instead, call the task with REVERSE=true:

rake geocode:all CLASS=YourModel REVERSE=true

Geocoder will print warnings if you exceed the rate limit for your geocoding service. Some services — Google notably — enforce a per-second limit in addition to a per-day limit. To avoid exceeding the per-second limit, you can add a SLEEP option to pause between requests for a given amount of time. You can also load objects in batches to save memory, for example:

rake geocode:all CLASS=YourModel SLEEP=0.25 BATCH=100

Avoiding Unnecessary API Requests

Geocoding only needs to be performed under certain conditions. To avoid unnecessary work (and quota usage) you will probably want to geocode an object only when:

  • an address is present
  • the address has been changed since last save (or it has never been saved)

The exact code will vary depending on the method you use for your geocodable string, but it would be something like this:

after_validation :geocode, if: ->(obj){ obj.address.present? and obj.address_changed? }

Request Geocoding by IP Address

Geocoder adds location and safe_location methods to the standard Rack::Request object so you can easily look up the location of any HTTP request by IP address. For example, in a Rails controller or a Sinatra app:

# returns Geocoder::Result object
result = request.location

The location method is vulnerable to trivial IP address spoofing via HTTP headers. If that's a problem for your application, use safe_location instead, but be aware that safe_location will not try to trace a request's originating IP through proxy headers; you will instead get the location of the last proxy the request passed through, if any (excepting any proxies you have explicitly whitelisted in your Rack config).

Note that these methods will usually return nil in your test and development environments because things like "localhost" and "0.0.0.0" are not an Internet IP addresses.

See Advanced Geocoding below for more information about Geocoder::Result objects.

Location-Aware Database Queries

For Mongo-backed models:

Please use MongoDB's geospatial query language. Mongoid also provides a DSL for doing near queries.

For ActiveRecord models:

To find objects by location, use the following scopes:

Venue.near('Omaha, NE, US', 20)    # venues within 20 miles of Omaha
Venue.near([40.71, -100.23], 20)    # venues within 20 miles of a point
Venue.near([40.71, -100.23], 20, :units => :km)
                                   # venues within 20 kilometres of a point
Venue.geocoded                     # venues with coordinates
Venue.not_geocoded                 # venues without coordinates

by default, objects are ordered by distance. To remove the ORDER BY clause use the following:

Venue.near('Omaha', 20, :order => false)

With geocoded objects you can do things like this:

if obj.geocoded?
  obj.nearbys(30)                      # other objects within 30 miles
  obj.distance_from([40.714,-100.234]) # distance from arbitrary point to object
  obj.bearing_to("Paris, France")      # direction from object to arbitrary point
end

Some utility methods are also available:

# look up coordinates of some location (like searching Google Maps)
Geocoder.coordinates("25 Main St, Cooperstown, NY")
 => [42.700149, -74.922767]

# distance between Eiffel Tower and Empire State Building
Geocoder::Calculations.distance_between([47.858205,2.294359], [40.748433,-73.985655])
 => 3619.77359999382 # in configured units (default miles)

# find the geographic center (aka center of gravity) of objects or points
Geocoder::Calculations.geographic_center([city1, city2, [40.22,-73.99], city4])
 => [35.14968, -90.048929]

Please see the code for more methods and detailed information about arguments (eg, working with kilometers).

Distance and Bearing

When you run a location-aware query the returned objects have two attributes added to them (only w/ ActiveRecord):

  • obj.distance - number of miles from the search point to this object
  • obj.bearing - direction from the search point to this object

Results are automatically sorted by distance from the search point, closest to farthest. Bearing is given as a number of clockwise degrees from due north, for example:

  • 0 - due north
  • 180 - due south
  • 90 - due east
  • 270 - due west
  • 230.1 - southwest
  • 359.9 - almost due north

You can convert these numbers to compass point names by using the utility method provided:

Geocoder::Calculations.compass_point(355) # => "N"
Geocoder::Calculations.compass_point(45)  # => "NE"
Geocoder::Calculations.compass_point(208) # => "SW"

Note: when using SQLite distance and bearing values are provided for interface consistency only. They are not very accurate.

To calculate accurate distance and bearing with SQLite or MongoDB:

obj.distance_to([43.9,-98.6])  # distance from obj to point
obj.bearing_to([43.9,-98.6])   # bearing from obj to point
obj.bearing_from(obj2)         # bearing from obj2 to obj

The bearing_from/to methods take a single argument which can be: a [lat,lon] array, a geocoded object, or a geocodable address (string). The distance_from/to methods also take a units argument (:mi, :km, or :nm for nautical miles).

Model Configuration

You are not stuck with using the latitude and longitude database column names (with ActiveRecord) or the coordinates array (Mongo) for storing coordinates. For example:

geocoded_by :address, :latitude  => :lat, :longitude => :lon # ActiveRecord
geocoded_by :address, :coordinates => :coords                # MongoDB

The address method can return any string you'd use to search Google Maps. For example, any of the following are acceptable:

  • "714 Green St, Big Town, MO"
  • "Eiffel Tower, Paris, FR"
  • "Paris, TX, US"

If your model has street, city, state, and country attributes you might do something like this:

geocoded_by :address

def address
  [street, city, state, country].compact.join(', ')
end

For reverse geocoding you can also specify an alternate name attribute where the address will be stored, for example:

reverse_geocoded_by :latitude, :longitude, :address => :location  # ActiveRecord
reverse_geocoded_by :coordinates, :address => :loc                # MongoDB

You can also configure a specific lookup for your model which will override the globally-configured lookup, for example:

geocoded_by :address, :lookup => :yandex

You can also specify a proc if you want to choose a lookup based on a specific property of an object, for example you can use specialized lookups for different regions:

geocoded_by :address, :lookup => lambda{ |obj| obj.geocoder_lookup }

def geocoder_lookup
  if country_code == "RU"
    :yandex
  elsif country_code == "CN"
    :baidu
  else
    :google
  end
end

Advanced Querying

When querying for objects (if you're using ActiveRecord) you can also look within a square rather than a radius (circle) by using the within_bounding_box scope:

distance = 20
center_point = [40.71, 100.23]
box = Geocoder::Calculations.bounding_box(center_point, distance)
Venue.within_bounding_box(box)

This can also dramatically improve query performance, especially when used in conjunction with indexes on the latitude/longitude columns. Note, however, that returned results do not include distance and bearing attributes. Note that #near performs both bounding box and radius queries for speed.

You can also specify a minimum radius (if you're using ActiveRecord and not Sqlite) to constrain the lower bound (ie. think of a donut, or ring) by using the :min_radius option:

box = Geocoder::Calculations.bounding_box(center_point, distance, :min_radius => 10.5)

With ActiveRecord, you can specify alternate latitude and longitude column names for a geocoded model (useful if you store multiple sets of coordinates for each object):

Venue.near("Paris", 50, latitude: :secondary_latitude, longitude: :secondary_longitude)

Advanced Geocoding

So far we have looked at shortcuts for assigning geocoding results to object attributes. However, if you need to do something fancy you can skip the auto-assignment by providing a block (takes the object to be geocoded and an array of Geocoder::Result objects) in which you handle the parsed geocoding result any way you like, for example:

reverse_geocoded_by :latitude, :longitude do |obj,results|
  if geo = results.first
    obj.city    = geo.city
    obj.zipcode = geo.postal_code
    obj.country = geo.country_code
  end
end
after_validation :reverse_geocode

Every Geocoder::Result object, result, provides the following data:

  • result.latitude - float
  • result.longitude - float
  • result.coordinates - array of the above two in the form of [lat,lon]
  • result.address - string
  • result.city - string
  • result.state - string
  • result.state_code - string
  • result.postal_code - string
  • result.country - string
  • result.country_code - string

If you're familiar with the results returned by the geocoding service you're using you can access even more data (call the #data method of any Geocoder::Result object to get the full parsed response), but you'll need to be familiar with the particular Geocoder::Result object you're using and the structure of your geocoding service's responses. (See below for links to geocoding service documentation.)

Geocoding Service ("Lookup") Configuration

Geocoder supports a variety of street and IP address geocoding services. The default lookups are :google for street addresses and :freegeoip for IP addresses. Please see the listing and comparison below for details on specific geocoding services (not all settings are supported by all services).

To create a Rails initializer with an example configuration:

rails generate geocoder:config

Some common configuration options are:

# config/initializers/geocoder.rb
Geocoder.configure(

  # geocoding service (see below for supported options):
  :lookup => :yandex,

  # IP address geocoding service (see below for supported options):
  :ip_lookup => :maxmind,

  # to use an API key:
  :api_key => "...",

  # geocoding service request timeout, in seconds (default 3):
  :timeout => 5,

  # set default units to kilometers:
  :units => :km,

  # caching (see below for details):
  :cache => Redis.new,
  :cache_prefix => "..."

)

Please see lib/geocoder/configuration.rb for a complete list of configuration options. Additionally, some lookups have their own configuration options, some of which are directly supported by Geocoder. For example, to specify a value for Google's bounds parameter:

# with Google:
Geocoder.search("Paris", :bounds => [[32.1,-95.9], [33.9,-94.3]])

Please see the source code for each lookup to learn about directly supported parameters. Parameters which are not directly supported can be specified using the :params option, by which you can pass arbitrary parameters to any geocoding service. For example, to use Nominatim's countrycodes parameter:

# with Nominatim:
Geocoder.search("Paris", :params => {:countrycodes => "gb,de,fr,es,us"})

Or, to search within a particular region with Google:

Geocoder.search("...", :params => {:region => "..."})

You can also configure multiple geocoding services at once, like this:

Geocoder.configure(

  :timeout => 2,
  :cache => Redis.new,

  :yandex => {
    :api_key => "...",
    :timeout => 5
  },

  :baidu => {
    :api_key => "..."
  },

  :maxmind => {
    :api_key => "...",
    :service => :omni
  }

)

The above combines global and service-specific options and could be useful if you specify different geocoding services for different models or under different conditions. Lookup-specific settings override global settings so, for example, in the above the timeout for all lookups would be 2 seconds, except for Yandex which would be 5.

Street Address Services

The following is a comparison of the supported geocoding APIs. The "Limitations" listed for each are a very brief and incomplete summary of some special limitations beyond basic data source attribution. Please read the official Terms of Service for a service before using it.

Google (:google)

Google Maps API for Work (:google_premier)

Similar to :google, with the following differences:

Google Places Details (:google_places_details)

The Google Places Details API is not, strictly speaking, a geocoding service. It accepts a Google place_id and returns address information, ratings and reviews. A place_id can be obtained from the Google Places Autocomplete API and should be passed to Geocoder as the first search argument: Geocoder.search("ChIJhRwB-yFawokR5Phil-QQ3zM", :lookup => :google_places_details).

Yahoo BOSS (:yahoo)

Bing (:bing)

Nominatim (:nominatim)

OpenCageData (:opencagedata)

Yandex (:yandex)

Geocoder.ca (:geocoder_ca)

  • API key: none
  • Quota: ?
  • Region: US and Canada
  • SSL support: no
  • Languages: English
  • Documentation: ?
  • Terms of Service: http://geocoder.ca/?terms=1
  • Limitations: "Under no circumstances can our data be re-distributed or re-sold by anyone to other parties without our written permission."

Geocoder.us (:geocoder_us)

Mapbox (:mapbox)

Mapquest (:mapquest)

Ovi/Nokia (:ovi)

Here/Nokia (:here)

ESRI (:esri)

Data Science Toolkit (:dstk)

Data Science Toolkit provides an API whose reponse format is like Google's but which can be set up as a privately hosted service.

Baidu (:baidu)

Geocodio (:geocodio)

  • API key: required
  • Quota: 2,500 free requests/day then purchase $.001 for each, also has volume pricing and plans
  • Region: US
  • SSL support: yes
  • Languages: en
  • Documentation: http://geocod.io/docs
  • Terms of Service: http://geocod.io/terms-of-use
  • Limitations: No restrictions on use

SmartyStreets (:smarty_streets)

OKF Geocoder (:okf)

Geoportail.lu (:geoportail_lu)

PostcodeAnywhere Uk (:postcode_anywhere_uk)

This uses the PostcodeAnywhere UK Geocode service, this will geocode any string from UK postcode, placename, point of interest or location.

IP Address Services

FreeGeoIP (:freegeoip)

Pointpin (:pointpin)

  • API key: required
  • Quota: 50,000/mo for €9 through 1m/mo for €49
  • Region: world
  • SSL support: yes
  • Languages: English
  • Documentation: https://pointp.in/docs/get-started
  • Terms of Service: https://pointp.in/terms
  • Limitations: ?
  • Notes: To use Pointpin set Geocoder.configure(:ip_lookup => :pointpin, :api_key => "your_pointpin_api_key").

Telize (:telize)

  • API key: required
  • Quota: 1,000/day for $7/mo through 100,000/day for $100/mo
  • Region: world
  • SSL support: yes
  • Languages: English
  • Documentation: https://market.mashape.com/fcambus/telize
  • Terms of Service: ?
  • Limitations: ?
  • Notes: To use Telize set Geocoder.configure(:ip_lookup => :telize, :api_key => "your_api_key").

MaxMind Legacy Web Services (:maxmind)

  • API key: required
  • Quota: Request Packs can be purchased
  • Region: world
  • SSL support: yes
  • Languages: English
  • Documentation: http://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/legacy/web-services/
  • Terms of Service: ?
  • Limitations: ?
  • Notes: You must specify which MaxMind service you are using in your configuration. For example: Geocoder.configure(:maxmind => {:service => :omni}).

Baidu IP (:baidu_ip)

IP Address Local Database Services

MaxMind Local (:maxmind_local) - EXPERIMENTAL

This lookup provides methods for geocoding IP addresses without making a call to a remote API (improves speed and availability). It works, but support is new and should not be considered production-ready. Please report any bugs you encounter.

  • API key: none (requires the GeoLite City database which can be downloaded from MaxMind)
  • Quota: none
  • Region: world
  • SSL support: N/A
  • Languages: English
  • Documentation: http://www.maxmind.com/en/city
  • Terms of Service: ?
  • Limitations: ?
  • Notes: There are two supported formats for MaxMind local data: binary file, and CSV file imported into an SQL database. You must download a database from MaxMind and set either the :file or :package configuration option for local lookups to work.

To use a binary file you must add the geoip (or jgeoip for JRuby) gem to your Gemfile or have it installed in your system, and specify the path of the MaxMind database in your configuration. For example:

Geocoder.configure(ip_lookup: :maxmind_local, maxmind_local: {file: File.join('folder', 'GeoLiteCity.dat')})

To use a CSV file you must import it into an SQL database. The GeoLite City and Country packages are supported. Configure like so:

Geocoder.configure(ip_lookup: :maxmind_local, maxmind_local: {package: :city})

You can generate ActiveRecord migrations and download and import data via provided rake tasks:

# generate migration to create tables
rails generate geocoder:maxmind:geolite_city

# download, unpack, and import data
rake geocoder:maxmind:geolite:load PACKAGE=city

You can replace city with country in any of the above tasks, generators, and configurations.

GeoLite2 (:geoip2)

This lookup provides methods for geocoding IP addresses without making a call to a remote API (improves speed and availability). It works, but support is new and should not be considered production-ready. Please report any bugs you encounter.

  • API key: none (requires a GeoIP2 or free GeoLite2 City or Country binary database which can be downloaded from MaxMind)

  • Quota: none

  • Region: world

  • SSL support: N/A

  • Languages: English

  • Documentation: http://www.maxmind.com/en/city

  • Terms of Service: ?

  • Limitations: ?

  • Notes: You must download a binary database file from MaxMind and set the :file configuration option. The CSV format databases are not yet supported since they are still in alpha stage. Set the path to the database file in your configuration:

    Geocoder.configure( ip_lookup: :geoip2, geoip2: { file: File.join('folder', 'GeoLite2-City.mmdb') } )

You must add either the hive_geoip2 gem (native extension that relies on libmaxminddb) or the maxminddb gem (pure Ruby implementation) to your Gemfile or have it installed in your system. The pure Ruby gem (maxminddb) will be used by default. To use hive_geoip2:

Geocoder.configure(
  ip_lookup: :geoip2,
  geoip2: {
    lib: 'hive_geoip2',
    file: File.join('folder', 'GeoLite2-City.mmdb')
  }
)

Caching

It's a good idea, when relying on any external service, to cache retrieved data. When implemented correctly it improves your app's response time and stability. It's easy to cache geocoding results with Geocoder, just configure a cache store:

Geocoder.configure(:cache => Redis.new)

This example uses Redis, but the cache store can be any object that supports these methods:

  • store#[](key) or #get or #read - retrieves a value
  • store#[]=(key, value) or #set or #write - stores a value
  • store#del(url) - deletes a value

Even a plain Ruby hash will work, though it's not a great choice (cleared out when app is restarted, not shared between app instances, etc).

You can also set a custom prefix to be used for cache keys:

Geocoder.configure(:cache_prefix => "...")

By default the prefix is geocoder:

If you need to expire cached content:

Geocoder::Lookup.get(Geocoder.config[:lookup]).cache.expire(:all)  # expire cached results for current Lookup
Geocoder::Lookup.get(:google).cache.expire("http://...")           # expire cached result for a specific URL
Geocoder::Lookup.get(:google).cache.expire(:all)                   # expire cached results for Google Lookup
# expire all cached results for all Lookups.
# Be aware that this methods spawns a new Lookup object for each Service
Geocoder::Lookup.all_services.each{|service| Geocoder::Lookup.get(service).cache.expire(:all)}

Do not include the prefix when passing a URL to be expired. Expiring :all will only expire keys with the configured prefix (won't kill every entry in your key/value store).

For an example of a cache store with URL expiry please see examples/autoexpire_cache.rb

Before you implement caching in your app please be sure that doing so does not violate the Terms of Service for your geocoding service.

Forward and Reverse Geocoding in the Same Model

If you apply both forward and reverse geocoding functionality to the same model (say users can supply an address or coordinates and you want to fill in whatever's missing), you will provide two address methods:

  • one for storing the fetched address (reverse geocoding)
  • one for providing an address to use when fetching coordinates (forward geocoding)

For example:

class Venue

  # build an address from street, city, and state attributes
  geocoded_by :address_from_components

  # store the fetched address in the full_address attribute
  reverse_geocoded_by :latitude, :longitude, :address => :full_address
end

However, there can be only one set of latitude/longitude attributes, and whichever you specify last will be used. For example:

class Venue

  geocoded_by :address,
    :latitude  => :fetched_latitude,  # this will be overridden by the below
    :longitude => :fetched_longitude  # same here

  reverse_geocoded_by :latitude, :longitude
end

The reason for this is that we don't want ambiguity when doing distance calculations. We need a single, authoritative source for coordinates!

Once both forward and reverse geocoding has been applied, it is possible to call them sequentially.

For example:

class Venue

  after_validation :geocode, :reverse_geocode

end

For certain geolocation services such as Google geolocation API this may cause issues during subsequent updates to database records if the longtitude and latitude coordinates cannot be associated known location address (on a large body of water for example). On subsequent callbacks the following call:

 after_validation :geocode

will alter the longtitude and latitude attributes based on the location field, which would be the closest known location to the original coordinates. In this case it is better to add conditions to each call, as not to override coordinates that do not have known location addresses associated with them.

For example:

class Venue

  after_validation :reverse_geocode, :if => :has_coordinates
  after_validation :geocode, :if => :has_location, :unless => :has_coordinates

end

Use Outside of Rails

You can use Geocoder outside of Rails by calling the Geocoder.search method:

results = Geocoder.search("McCarren Park, Brooklyn, NY")

This returns an array of Geocoder::Result objects with all data provided by the geocoding service.

Testing Apps that Use Geocoder

When writing tests for an app that uses Geocoder it may be useful to avoid network calls and have Geocoder return consistent, configurable results. To do this, configure and use the :test lookup. For example:

Geocoder.configure(:lookup => :test)

Geocoder::Lookup::Test.add_stub(
  "New York, NY", [
    {
      'latitude'     => 40.7143528,
      'longitude'    => -74.0059731,
      'address'      => 'New York, NY, USA',
      'state'        => 'New York',
      'state_code'   => 'NY',
      'country'      => 'United States',
      'country_code' => 'US'
    }
  ]
)

Now, any time Geocoder looks up "New York, NY" its results array will contain one result with the above attributes. You can also set a default stub, to be returned when no other stub is found for a given query:

Geocoder.configure(:lookup => :test)

Geocoder::Lookup::Test.set_default_stub(
  [
    {
      'latitude'     => 40.7143528,
      'longitude'    => -74.0059731,
      'address'      => 'New York, NY, USA',
      'state'        => 'New York',
      'state_code'   => 'NY',
      'country'      => 'United States',
      'country_code' => 'US'
    }
  ]
)

Note: Keys must be strings not symbols when calling add_stub or set_default_stub. For example 'latitude' => not :latitude =>.

Command Line Interface

When you install the Geocoder gem it adds a geocode command to your shell. You can search for a street address, IP address, postal code, coordinates, etc just like you can with the Geocoder.search method for example:

$ geocode 29.951,-90.081
Latitude:         29.952211
Longitude:        -90.080563
Full address:     1500 Sugar Bowl Dr, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
City:             New Orleans
State/province:   Louisiana
Postal code:      70112
Country:          United States
Google map:       http://maps.google.com/maps?q=29.952211,-90.080563

There are also a number of options for setting the geocoding API, key, and language, viewing the raw JSON reponse, and more. Please run geocode -h for details.

Numeric Data Types and Precision

Geocoder works with any numeric data type (e.g. float, double, decimal) on which trig (and other mathematical) functions can be performed.

A summary of the relationship between geographic precision and the number of decimal places in latitude and longitude degree values is available on Wikipedia. As an example: at the equator, latitude/longitude values with 4 decimal places give about 11 metres precision, whereas 5 decimal places gives roughly 1 metre precision.

Notes on MongoDB

The Near Method

Mongo document classes (Mongoid and MongoMapper) have a built-in near scope, but since it only works two-dimensions Geocoder overrides it with its own spherical near method in geocoded classes.

Latitude/Longitude Order

Coordinates are generally printed and spoken as latitude, then longitude ([lat,lon]). Geocoder respects this convention and always expects method arguments to be given in [lat,lon] order. However, MongoDB requires that coordinates be stored in [lon,lat] order as per the GeoJSON spec (http://geojson.org/geojson-spec.html#positions), so internally they are stored "backwards." However, this does not affect order of arguments to methods when using Mongoid or MongoMapper.

To access an object's coordinates in the conventional order, use the to_coordinates instance method provided by Geocoder. For example:

obj.to_coordinates  # => [37.7941013, -122.3951096] # [lat, lon]

Calling obj.coordinates directly returns the internal representation of the coordinates which, in the case of MongoDB, is probably the reverse of what you want:

obj.coordinates     # => [-122.3951096, 37.7941013] # [lon, lat]

For consistency with the rest of Geocoder, always use the to_coordinates method instead.

Notes on Non-Rails Frameworks

If you are using Geocoder with ActiveRecord and a framework other than Rails (like Sinatra or Padrino) you will need to add this in your model before calling Geocoder methods:

extend Geocoder::Model::ActiveRecord

Optimisation of Distance Queries

In MySQL and Postgres the finding of objects near a given point is speeded up by using a bounding box to limit the number of points over which a full distance calculation needs to be done.

To take advantage of this optimisation you need to add a composite index on latitude and longitude. In your Rails migration:

add_index :table, [:latitude, :longitude]

Distance Queries in SQLite

SQLite's lack of trigonometric functions requires an alternate implementation of the near scope. When using SQLite, Geocoder will automatically use a less accurate algorithm for finding objects near a given point. Results of this algorithm should not be trusted too much as it will return objects that are outside the given radius, along with inaccurate distance and bearing calculations.

Discussion

There are few options for finding objects near a given point in SQLite without installing extensions:

  1. Use a square instead of a circle for finding nearby points. For example, if you want to find points near 40.71, 100.23, search for objects with latitude between 39.71 and 41.71 and longitude between 99.23 and 101.23. One degree of latitude or longitude is at most 69 miles so divide your radius (in miles) by 69.0 to get the amount to add and subtract from your center coordinates to get the upper and lower bounds. The results will not be very accurate (you'll get points outside the desired radius), but you will get all the points within the required radius.

  2. Load all objects into memory and compute distances between them using the Geocoder::Calculations.distance_between method. This will produce accurate results but will be very slow (and use a lot of memory) if you have a lot of objects in your database.

  3. If you have a large number of objects (so you can't use approach #2) and you need accurate results (better than approach #1 will give), you can use a combination of the two. Get all the objects within a square around your center point, and then eliminate the ones that are too far away using Geocoder::Calculations.distance_between.

Because Geocoder needs to provide this functionality as a scope, we must go with option #1, but feel free to implement #2 or #3 if you need more accuracy.

Tests

Geocoder comes with a test suite (just run rake test) that mocks ActiveRecord and is focused on testing the aspects of Geocoder that do not involve executing database queries. Geocoder uses many database engine-specific queries which must be tested against all supported databases (SQLite, MySQL, etc). Ideally this involves creating a full, working Rails application, and that seems beyond the scope of the included test suite. As such, I have created a separate repository which includes a full-blown Rails application and some utilities for easily running tests against multiple environments:

http://github.com/alexreisner/geocoder_test

Error Handling

By default Geocoder will rescue any exceptions raised by calls to a geocoding service and return an empty array. You can override this on a per-exception basis, and also have Geocoder raise its own exceptions for certain events (eg: API quota exceeded) by using the :always_raise option:

Geocoder.configure(:always_raise => [SocketError, TimeoutError])

You can also do this to raise all exceptions:

Geocoder.configure(:always_raise => :all)

The raise-able exceptions are:

SocketError
TimeoutError
Geocoder::OverQueryLimitError
Geocoder::RequestDenied
Geocoder::InvalidRequest
Geocoder::InvalidApiKey
Geocoder::ServiceUnavailable

Note that only a few of the above exceptions are raised by any given lookup, so there's no guarantee if you configure Geocoder to raise ServiceUnavailable that it will actually be raised under those conditions (because most APIs don't return 503 when they should; you may get a TimeoutError instead). Please see the source code for your particular lookup for details.

Troubleshooting

Mongoid

If you get one of these errors:

uninitialized constant Geocoder::Model::Mongoid
uninitialized constant Geocoder::Model::Mongoid::Mongo

you should check your Gemfile to make sure the Mongoid gem is listed before Geocoder. If Mongoid isn't loaded when Geocoder is initialized, Geocoder will not load support for Mongoid.

ActiveRecord

A lot of debugging time can be saved by understanding how Geocoder works with ActiveRecord. When you use the near scope or the nearbys method of a geocoded object, Geocoder creates an ActiveModel::Relation object which adds some attributes (eg: distance, bearing) to the SELECT clause. It also adds a condition to the WHERE clause to check that distance is within the given radius. Because the SELECT clause is modified, anything else that modifies the SELECT clause may produce strange results, for example:

  • using the pluck method (selects only a single column)
  • specifying another model through includes (selects columns from other tables)

Unexpected Responses from Geocoding Services

Take a look at the server's raw response. You can do this by getting the request URL in an app console:

Geocoder::Lookup.get(:google).query_url(Geocoder::Query.new("..."))

Replace :google with the lookup you are using and replace ... with the address you are trying to geocode. Then visit the returned URL in your web browser. Often the API will return an error message that helps you resolve the problem. If, after reading the raw response, you believe there is a problem with Geocoder, please post an issue and include both the URL and raw response body.

You can also fetch the response in the console:

Geocoder::Lookup.get(:google).send(:fetch_raw_data, Geocoder::Query.new("..."))

Reporting Issues

When reporting an issue, please list the version of Geocoder you are using and any relevant information about your application (Rails version, database type and version, etc). Also avoid vague language like "it doesn't work." Please describe as specifically as you can what behavior your are actually seeing (eg: an error message? a nil return value?).

Please DO NOT use GitHub issues to ask questions about how to use Geocoder. Sites like StackOverflow are a better forum for such discussions.

Known Issue

You cannot use the near scope with another scope that provides an includes option because the SELECT clause generated by near will overwrite it (or vice versa).

Instead of using includes to reduce the number of database queries, try using joins with either the :select option or a call to preload. For example:

# Pass a :select option to the near scope to get the columns you want.
# Instead of City.near(...).includes(:venues), try:
City.near("Omaha, NE", 20, :select => "cities.*, venues.*").joins(:venues)

# This preload call will normally trigger two queries regardless of the
# number of results; one query on hotels, and one query on administrators.
# Instead of Hotel.near(...).includes(:administrator), try:
Hotel.near("London, UK", 50).joins(:administrator).preload(:administrator)

If anyone has a more elegant solution to this problem I am very interested in seeing it.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome via Github pull requests. If you are new to the project and looking for a way to get involved, try picking up an issue with a "beginner-task" label. Hints about what needs to be done are usually provided.

For all contributions, please respect the following guidelines:

  • Each pull request should implement ONE feature or bugfix. If you want to add or fix more than one thing, submit more than one pull request.
  • Do not commit changes to files that are irrelevant to your feature or bugfix (eg: .gitignore).
  • Do not add dependencies on other gems.
  • Do not add unnecessary require statements which could cause LoadErrors on certain systems.
  • Remember: Geocoder needs to run outside of Rails. Don't assume things like ActiveSupport are available.
  • Be willing to accept criticism and work on improving your code; Geocoder is used by thousands of developers and care must be taken not to introduce bugs.
  • Be aware that the pull request review process is not immediate, and is generally proportional to the size of the pull request.
  • If your pull request is merged, please do not ask for an immediate release of the gem. There are many factors contributing to when releases occur (remember that they affect thousands of apps with Geocoder in their Gemfiles). If necessary, please install from the Github source until the next official release.

Copyright (c) 2009-15 Alex Reisner, released under the MIT license

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Complete Ruby geocoding solution.

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