locations.module (version 1.1)

locations.module is an easily-implemented library of functions for calculating the distance between postcodes in Australia. The library can calculate distances between Australian localities and Australian Postcodes or a combination of both.

Functions in the locations.module library include:

calculate the distance between any two postcodes in Australia
calculate the distance between any two localities in Australia
calculate the distance between any postcode and any locality in Australia
sort a list of postcodes in order of 'nearness' to a reference postcode (or locality).

The last of these functions is commonly used in informing a web-site visitor as to the closest branch to the visitor's postcode, but all sorts of postcode distance calculations are supported.

The calculated distances in locations.module are 'great circle' distances, so they represent the shortest flying distances between two localities or postcodes.

Because locations.module is able to deal with localities as well as postcodes, it is much more user-friendly than products limited to postcode distances; after all, few of us can recall the postcode of Alice Springs, but all of us know the name. As well as the full set of over 2600 Australian delivery area postcodes, there are nearly 18,000 locality reference points available, so accuracy can be much higher using localities rather than postcodes, though locations.module can cope with either.

locations.module is able to perform over 50 complete distance calculations per second, so performance is more than adequate for any web-site needs.

Examples of acual use of locations.module in use include:

hondausedcars.com.au, a site developed by MotorTRAK Australia where the module is used to determine which used cars are nearest to the site visitor
Craftsmart Australia, where the module is used to target mail brochures to stores within a prescribed distance of major city centres
Mercer Human Resources Consulting (www.mercerHR.com), who use the module to calculate the distance of employees from branches
HIA Award Winners Adenbrook Homes, who calculate the nearest display home to the site visitor

For a demonstration of the capabilities of locations.module, click here for the Perl / Berkeley DBM version, or here for the PHP / mySQL version.

To see locations.module interfaced to Google Map data, click here.

For frequently asked questions about locations.module, click here.

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tags: Modulus,website,design, tools, applications, consultancies, designers, analog log analysis, computer-based training, cbt, guestbook, link checking, locations, postcodes, distance calculation, find nearest postcode, modular process module, parcel post, calculate postal charges, risk management, as/nzs 4360:2004, sitemap, seo, site search, spell-check in forms