Re: RFC Postal Routing Package

Daniel Khan wrote:

But you could try to do a driver for Royal Mail if I provide the infrastructure?

Yup! The sample data I've got should be OK for a test system, but I'd need a paying client before testing on the whole thing.

It's not too difficult. Th Deutsche Post provides a nice flowchart how to get to the data with all exceptions that may occur. This chart mixed with some tricks to accept typos or different writings makes a pretty fault save system. 100% will never bes possible.

The docs with Royal Mail are pretty comprehensive - but not to this level.

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.

Yeah - it's for an online store. But I will only use it for the backend (ths shipping part) for now till I am sure that I don't scrae away customers by not accepting inputs.

OT, but the way I see it, there's two things that can happen: the customer enters their code wrong, or the code is not in the DB (which gets updated at most every month). Either way the worst thing you'll have to do is fall back on a traditional street/city/state form.

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.

O.K. I don't understand this paragraph :-)

Apologies - it was late :) There are two (or three) separate parts to what you're proposing: translating post codes into addresses and back again, and the part that deals with interpreting handwriting. (Well, along with the checksum/barcode part too). I think this would be most useful if we made those separate packages rather than a complete application.

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

Oh. But well, at least companies who need postal routing usually have to buy/get this data. Normally bundled with software. DeutschPost seems to bill the software the provide but not the data they use.

Yeah, Royal Snail don't sell software. But perhaps that's good - once we've got a basic system they might be cooperative about giving access to the full data for development purposes, since it's not competing with anything they do. What we'll need: 1. A common database model, capable of handling the PC data from

     multiple countries

2. A descision on how to access it: DB, MDB, DBO, etc 3. A common API for using the data Do you already have a db model? Do you want me to send you the Royal Mail docs? Matt