Retrieving information from website

[Navodit]

Hi

I have a very basic question regd retrieving information from website using
a scripting language:

Basically I am working on the development of a database where a user enters
an address (street, city, state, zipcode). Based on the user input of the
address, I need to dynamically determine the latitude and longitude of that
address from the internet. One such website was :
http://stevemorse.org/jcal/latlon.php where we enter the street, city, state
and zipcode etc and the webpage returns the latitude and longitude.

I need to retrieve this information and update the database accordingly. My
question is: Should this retrieval be done using Perl or Php or thru any
other language ? What wd be the best way to incorporate this into my Java
application ? Any help/hints wd be appreciated ! Thanks

[John Bokma]

Re: Retrieving information from website

"Navodit" <kaushik2@uiuc. eduwrote:

Hi
>
I have a very basic question regd retrieving information from website
using a scripting language:
>
Basically I am working on the development of a database where a user
enters an address (street, city, state, zipcode). Based on the user
input of the address, I need to dynamically determine the latitude and
longitude of that address from the internet. One such website was :
http://stevemorse.org/jcal/latlon.php where we enter the street, city,
state and zipcode etc and the webpage returns the latitude and
longitude.

How often is this going to happen, and does the owner of the site allow
you to do repeated automatic requests?

I need to retrieve this information and update the database
accordingly. My question is: Should this retrieval be done using Perl
or Php or thru any other language ? What wd be the best way to
incorporate this into my Java application ? Any help/hints wd be
appreciated ! Thanks

IMO, if you are using Java, use Java. Otherwise you end up calling a
Perl/PHP program from Java, and processing the result of such a program.

--
John Bokma Freelance software developer
&
Experienced Perl programmer: http://castleamber.com/

[Mumia W.]

Re: Retrieving information from website

On 07/28/2006 03:47 PM, Navodit wrote:

Hi
>
I have a very basic question regd retrieving information
from website using a scripting language:
>
Basically I am working on the development of a database
where a user enters an address (street, city, state,
zipcode). Based on the user input of the address, I need to
dynamically determine the latitude and longitude of that
address from the internet. One such website was :
http://stevemorse.org/jcal/latlon.php where we enter the
street, city, state and zipcode etc and the webpage returns
the latitude and longitude.
>
I need to retrieve this information and update the database
accordingly. My question is: Should this retrieval be done
using Perl or Php or thru any other language ? What wd be
the best way to incorporate this into my Java application ?
Any help/hints wd be appreciated ! Thanks
>
>

Either PHP or Perl will do. With Perl you'll find the LWP::*
and WWW::Mechanize modules useful.

[harryfmudd [AT] comcast [DOT] net]

Re: Retrieving information from website

John Bokma wrote:

"Navodit" <kaushik2@uiuc. eduwrote:
>
>

>>Hi
>>
>>I have a very basic question regd retrieving information from website
>>using a scripting language:
>>
>>Basically I am working on the development of a database where a user
>>enters an address (street, city, state, zipcode). Based on the user
>>input of the address, I need to dynamically determine the latitude and
>>longitude of that address from the internet. One such website was :
>>http://stevemorse.org/jcal/latlon.php where we enter the street, city,
>>state and zipcode etc and the webpage returns the latitude and
>>longitude.

>
>
How often is this going to happen, and does the owner of the site allow
you to do repeated automatic requests?
>

http://geocoder.us/ is another source. They take SOAP, and are
Perl-friendly (it's a one-liner using SOAP::Lite, once you have
instantiated the SOAP::Lite object). You need to pay them some money if
you are using it for commercail purposes. Personal use is free.

But I agree with John - if you're using Java use Java, which is
advertised as being wonderful for web apps. Of course the fine print in
the book I read said that if you were doing a "POST" you were on your own.

Tom Wyant