Geographic Databases

[Scott Schluer]

Can anyone provide information or links to resources for the following two
questions:

1) I want to build a geographical "drilldown" function for a website, so the
user will first select (from a list of text links) their state, then their
county or other area, then the city they want. Alternatively, they should be
able to do this using a graphical map. www.rent.com has a good example of
both (see text links at the bottom) and www.realtor.com has a good map
search (click the "Map Search" link under the search area). Any pointers or
help on how these are done? I assume there's a database table or two
powering the link-based drilldown. Not sure how the map is done.

2) Does anyone have useful links for programming against a zip code database
(i.e. find all records within an "x" mile radius, find nearest "x"
locations, etc)? I'm programming against a SQL Server 2000 database.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Hi Scott,

You should readily be able to find both a commercially-available web app to
do the drill-down search, and the Zip Code database by Googling the web. I
know for a fact that the Zip Code databases can be purchased from a large
number of web sites.

--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.

 

[Scott Schluer]

I'm having a tough time finding the web apps for the drill down. Any help?

There are a few great WebServices that provide the information you

require. Do a search in the UDDI and you will find quite a few.

 

[Someone]

There are various ways of doing this. The best way to do this by using one
of the many mapping products from INTERGRAPH and/or ESRI. Microsoft Mappoint
does some of it as well. But MSFT doesn't sell you the product not data but
do sell a service which you can hook into you website.

Note: The specific query you are looking for (x records in circle with
radius y from a user selected point) is known as a spatial query. SQL server
doesn't have spatial option. Thus Intergraph & ESRI use BLOBS to store their
data in it.

Hope this helps

Cheers,
JP

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