Re: RFC Postal Routing Package

Sorry to be stupid, but is this the same as Post Code (zip to you yanks) lookup software (ie, type in a post-code, get the street, city, etc and visa-versa)? I've got a sample PostCode DB ('PAF data') from Royal Mail in the UK. What a hideous data model! I was supposed to be doing something with it earlier this year till the client got cash shy.

I use SQLite as DBMS as it exactly fits for this purpose. My package would handle the import of the data provided by the postal companies using shell scripts. It will provide methods to pull the data out of sqlite. It will try to do some extended lookup methods inlcuding phonetic search to also process typos and/or different writings. In the end it will spit out the information needed to create a barcode (e.g. using FPDF).

Ah, no, that's quite a bit more complex than what I had in mind. Sounds good - if challenging. Don't forget the 'customer service' type applications though, where entering the postcode saves customers entering their entire address, bar the house number: very good for online stores/distance finders/etc. Perhaps the address <--> post code part of it could be separate from the gory handwriting heuristics? It'd basically be a common DB format and a bunch of data mangling scripts to arrive there from whatever each postal service sends.

BTW: The routing databases are property of the postal companies. AFAIK the are freely available to it's customers.

Royal Mail certainly don't give the data away free - it's quite a few thou' for a yearly subscription to the entire UK database, and only slightly less for a 3rd party webservicey interface :( http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?mediaId=400085&catId=400084 Matt