On Aug 31, 12:07 pm, Chris Mc <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm designing the database from scratch for the app. I just don't > know if it's better to have separate fields for everything or just the > one free-form input. It's still a tough decision, and I'll have the > lat/lng whether it's right or wrong as well.
If you're starting now, then I'd suggest both. Use structured fields, because you can always join the structured fields together to get a long full-address string; AND have a full-address field in case you can't split the data into structured fields. And the lat/lng as well of course. That allows for better searchability in your database. The geocoder does output data in a structured fashion, although the xAL spec is not the most helpful for analysing output; and occasionally the output may not even match the spec it seems. So: allow the user to enter a single string and store the structured output together with either the single string as entered by the user or as output by the geocoder. You could even have a confirmation phase where the structured output is presented back to the user for validation, which might do away with the need to store the single long string. Andrew --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps API" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
