I know it's been xerox-ed beyond original usage, but ZIP is an acronym - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_code - "Zone Improvement Plan". Bugs the heck out of me that people don't treat it as an acronym.
I have spoken.
That is all.
Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?
61–70 of 113 posts
Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?
#62doesn't google do this too?
http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=488...
Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?
#63Unfortunately in some cases a zipcode is in fact not enough, as it's possible for a zipcode to spread across multiple towns. However, if you have a full 9 digit zipcode then you can in fact always determine. However, even if you can't always determine this information exactly, a zipcode should be enough to pre-populate these fields for you most of the time, and in those rare cases which they don't a choice can be pre…
Thanks! I will be looking into this more. I'm aware of the 9digit zipcodes. I'll look into the USPS API. Also, I'll address the other comment below. That might answer some questions.
My only problem with 9 digit zip codes is that I have no idea what mine is. I know the first 5 but not the last 4. If you have multiple addresses or move around a lot its not something you are quick to remember, at least for me. I wonder how many people actually know their 9 digit zip.
Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?
#64I got 404 for my German code.
Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?
#65Is the fact that so few sites actually implement this behavior evidence that it's not as beneficial as it seems?
Would be nice to see a complete, "best-practice" implementation.
Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?
#66When you query for an inexistent postal code (i.e. http://zip.elevenbasetwo.com/?zip=101 ) the page returns "404" as content but the response header is "200 OK". That is inconvenient, and RESTfully wrong. UPDATE: added pull request https://github.com/gbaygon/ziptastic/commit/7284cb2e4f863161...
It has nothing to do with REST. REST != HTTP
The point is that regardless of naming, it's not standard HTTP, nor convenient for the developer consuming the api to return soft 404's.
Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?
#67I'm not sure if this is supposed to be USA-only or not. It seems to ask for 'country', so I assume it's aimed at the whole world. And here's where reality disagrees with your simple organisation. * First "zip code" is mostly an American term, "post code" is used in other anglosphere countries. * Not all countries have "everyone is in a city" model, this seems to happen in the USA, where 'city' is often an administrat…
On the third bullet point, that's just a word with two meanings, not a country-to-country difference. The USA is also a State in that sense: it has a Department of State to handle state-to-state affairs (i.e. foreign affairs), is a Member State of the United Nations, etc. The use of the term "state" for a subnational division, roughly akin to a Canadian "province", is a different meaning with the same spelling.
The same is true in some European countries; for example, Austria is a member state of the EU, but its subnational entities (Länder in German) are conventionally called states in English also.
Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?
#68Full ZIP codes are actually 9 digits: a 5 digit prefix, which is what people are used to -- and a 4 digit "block" extension.
Each city will typically have many block extensions, and probably multiple prefixes associated to it.
Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?
#69doesn't google do this too? http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=488...
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Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?
#70I'm not sure if this is supposed to be USA-only or not. It seems to ask for 'country', so I assume it's aimed at the whole world. And here's where reality disagrees with your simple organisation. * First "zip code" is mostly an American term, "post code" is used in other anglosphere countries. * Not all countries have "everyone is in a city" model, this seems to happen in the USA, where 'city' is often an administrat…
On the third bullet point, that's just a word with two meanings, not a country-to-country difference. The USA is also a State in that sense: it has a Department of State to handle state-to-state affairs (i.e. foreign affairs), is a Member State of the United Nations, etc. The use of the term "state" for a subnational division, roughly akin to a Canadian "province", is a different meaning with the same spelling. The s…
And you can also call all of Austria a `Land' in German. Same applies to Germany.