Postal code search

Discussion in 'Mike-N-Tosh' started by damiun, Jul 4, 2009.

  1. damiun Customer

    Hi,

    Whats the reason for the postalcode field in the ad creation process during checkout?
    Is it possible to transfer this field to the next step? or substract the data from the usersdata, because the user entered his postal code already during registration, so why again for each listing?

    Dominick
  2. seymourjames All Hands On Deck

    I don't understand. Why do you have to enter it again. The billing screen should be auto populating with the users details?
  3. Mike-N-Tosh Developer & Moderator

    The reason for this is to keep it separate from the user's information as it is quite common (especially for business users) to have a different postal code than what is stored in the user's information. Similar to why many use extra address fields for Real Estate listings. Also the UK version can only use the Outer code while the user's postal code would have both the Outer and Inner codes in one field.

    Although I think that it is a good feature request that perhaps a checkbox for the same as seller's postal code may be something to keep in mind for a future release.
  4. damiun Customer

    Developers: Is it possible to change the mod just a little bit so it will display the distance between the start zip and the listings'zip?

    Damiun
  5. Mike-N-Tosh Developer & Moderator

    That is an interesting suggestion and does seem possible. I'll keep it in mind for inclusion for any possible updates.
  6. Chaslie Moderator

    damiun - can you elaborate more on this idea please? Sorry - am lost.
  7. seymourjames All Hands On Deck

    It would be a nice idea if this could be applied to the alternative address module (the distance between the advertiser and the product so to speak).
  8. Mike-N-Tosh Developer & Moderator

    Chaslie, I believe that what he is asking for is that it shows the distance between the user inputted postal code and the postal code for each listing resulting from the search.

    Example: inputted postal code: 12345 distance for search: 10KM

    result listing 1 distance from 12345: 2KM
    result listing 2 distance from 12345: 7KM
  9. Chaslie Moderator

    Thanks Mike - I now understand. Yes that's an interesting thought.
  10. damiun Customer

    Sorry for my late reply.

    but mike explained it perfectly.

    Dominick

    Attached Files:

  11. zooi Customer

    Hello,

    Any chance that the distance feature will be added sometime to the functionality of C68 or to one of the mods?
  12. Mike-N-Tosh Developer & Moderator

    Bear in mind that this is NOT a feature whatsoever of 68 Classifieds. This is specific to the Postal Code Module that I offer.

    I do not have any plans to add this feature at this time. In addition, with the pending change in 68 Classifieds software script this as well as all other modules made for previous versions of 68 Classifieds would need to be completely rewritten to be compatible with version 5.x.

    At this time, I do not know if I will be converting this module or not. If I do, I will consider adding this feature, but can not guarantee that I will.

    I do thank you for your interest in this product and any other products that I offer.
  13. zooi Customer

    Mike,

    As you know I use your postal code module and I'm very satisfied with it. The distance feature is a nice to have add on.
  14. Mike-N-Tosh Developer & Moderator

    Honestly, the biggest issue with this whole thing about postal codes and distance is that it is a guess at best to begin with. Posting a distance per listing brings that to even further light. It's not because there is anything wrong in the math, it has to do with the object. The object being a postal code which is NOT a single point with a defined fixed point on the earth. A postal code is an area. The area is defined based on population and physical mailing addresses.

    In a heavily populated area like a large city a single postal code will be a much smaller area, yet will still be a few square kilometers/miles. In a rural setting however one postal code area could span several hundred square KM/miles. The math would state that two addresses within the same postal code would have a distance of... 0! The reality is that even in a populated area one address in one corner could actually be 2 or 3 KMs away from another address in the same postal code at the opposite corner of the postal code area.

    In a rural area, this could actually be over a hundred KMs/miles difference within the same postal code. If you then list distance as suggested in this thread would make that much more evident.

    Take the scenario even further. Let's say you have a mailing address that is right at the very edge of a postal code area in a rural area. You then have a listing in a different postal code that is right beside the other postal code area, but again this mailing address is right on the very edge of the neighboring postal code. Physically, they are only a hundred meters away from each other.

    With the suggested feature, in this example might show one listing in the same postal code as 0 KMs, and the other one in the neighboring postal code as 100 KMs, because the math is taken from a point in two very large postal code areas somewhere in the middle. The distance from those two points ARE 100KMs apart.

    The end user sees this and thinks... WHAT??? That listing is for the store across the street right over there, this other one (0KM) is like 50KMs away which is the reality.

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