The Geocoder library is for getting GPS coordinates from address details such as town, county, country, etc. and vice versa.
To build this library, you need the grassroots core and grassroots build config modules.
The files to build the Geocoder library are in the build directory.
Enter the build directory for your your given platform which is inside the build/unix/<platform>
For example, under linux:
cd build/unix/linux
whereas on MacOS:
cd build/unix/mac
then
make all
and then
make install
to install the library into the Grassroots system where it will be available for use immediately.
Under Windows, there is a Visual Studio project in the build/windows folder that allows you to build the geocoder library.
The configuration options for this library are specified with the geocoder key within teh global Grassroots configuration file. It has an array of geocoder configuration details specified by the geocoders key. Each one of these consists of two entries:
-
name: The name to use for this geocoder. Currently there are three available options; google, opencage and nominatim.
-
geocode_url: This is the web address to call when you have address details and wish to determine the corresponding GPS coordinates. These uri values are vendor-dependent and you will need to get an API key from the appropriate vendor and assign its value to the key parameter in this address.
-
reverse_geocode_url: This is the web address to call to when you have some GPS coordinates and wish to discover the corresponding address. These uri values are vendor-dependent and you will need to get an API key from the appropriate vendor and assign its value to the key parameter in this address.
The other key is default_geocoder which specifies which and the associated value needs to be one of the names of the entries in the geocoders array.
An example configuration section is shown below with <api key> being where your appropriate vendor key should go.
{
"geocoder": {
"default_geocoder": "nominatim",
"geocoders": [{
"name": "nominatim",
"reverse_geocode_url": "https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/reverse",
"geocode_url": "https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?format=json"
}, {
"name": "google",
"geocode_url": "https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?sensor=false&key=my_google_key"
}, {
"name": "opencage",
"geocode_url": "https://api.opencagedata.com/geocode/v1/json?key=my_opencage_keyd&pretty=1&q="
}]
}
...
}
So, for example, if your Google Geocoding API Key is 123Google and your OpenCage key is 456OpenCage, and you wanted to use the Google Geocoder by default, then the config would be:
{
"geocoder": {
"default_geocoder": "google",
"geocoders": [{
"name": "google",
"geocode_url": "https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?sensor=false&key=123Google"
}, {
"name": "opencage",
"geocode_url": "http://api.opencagedata.com/geocode/v1/json?pretty=1&key=456OpenCage"
}],
}
...
}