Postcode Programming API  SOAP Web Service Get Street Address

Street Address Search functionality:

  1. Postcode is entered
  2. User presses search button
  3. Address filled in apart from House Name/Number
  4. User manually types in House Name/Number, unlike Full Address

The following example calls our server to retrieve Street address for a given postcode. The Street Address is a cut down version of the Full Address, basically it does not contain the Building name or number. Therefore the programmer should allow the user to enter the House Name/Number for the address. These licenses are cheaper than Full Postcode data.

Step 1 Sign up for 30 day free trial

Simply use the "Sign Up for Trial" link at top right of this page to open a trial account.   We will then send you a data key, which is used to identify your account, when using the following service.

Step 2 Add SOAP reference to your project

The following web references give access to our SOAP web service

.NET Web Reference

https://www.SimplyLookupadmin.co.uk/WebService.asmx

WSDL Web Reference

https://www.SimplyLookupadmin.co.uk/WebService.asmx?WSDL

You should add this SOAP reference to your project.

Step 3 Call SOAP Web to get Street Address

The following code will call the SOAP Web Service to get the Street Address for a given a postcode. 

Parameters

Parameter name Description
DataKey Datakey, which is available when account has been created, under the “DataKey” tab of the online account administrator page.
Username Only needed if for internal postcode address use
SearchType Set to “UK”
SearchPrima.Postcode Postcode to find

Returns

Returns true if address search completed and General_credits_display_text contains summary of Credits/License status. Else errors reported in General_errormessage. 

Example Code


        VB.NET   
          
          Dim PostcodeToGet as string = 
          "PE132XQ"
Dim PostcodeSearch As New PostcodeWebService.WebService
Dim Address As PL_AddressRecord

'Ask for Address by ID
Address = PostcodeSearch.SearchForThoroughfareAddress("My DataKey", "TestComputer", "UK", PostcodeToGet )

If Address.AddressRecordGotWithoutError Then
   'Display results
   If Address.ErrorMessage <> "" Then MsgBox(Address.ErrorMessage)

      'Process the Address to text field
      Dim AddressText As String
      With Address
         AddressText + = "Line1:" & .Line1 & vbCrLf
         AddressText + = "Line2:" & .Line2 & vbCrLf
         AddressText + = "Line3:" & .Line3 & vbCrLf
         AddressText + = "Town:" & .Town & vbCrLf
         AddressText + = "Postcode:" & .PostZipcode & vbCrLf
         AddressText + = "Country:" & .Country & vbCrLf
      End With
      Me.TxtAddress.Text = AddressText
Else
      'Display error (Account stuff mostly, i.e. No License)
      MsgBox(Address.ErrorMessage)
End If

Where PostcodeWebService is a web reference to: https://www.SimplyLookupadmin.co.uk/WebService.asmx

        C# .NET   
          
           //Search for Address by 
          Postcode, but returning Thoroughfare/Street data
uk.co.simplylookupadmin.www.WebService PostcodeSearch =
                   new uk.co.simplylookupadmin.www.WebService();

uk.co.simplylookupadmin.www.PL_AddressRecord AddressesDataReturned =
                   new uk.co.simplylookupadmin.www.PL_AddressRecord();


string datakey = Request.QueryString["datakey"].ToString();
string PostCode = Request.QueryString["postcode"].ToString();
string userid = Request.QueryString["userid"].ToString();

//Do Search, on Postcode or two or more address fields
AddressesDataReturned = PostcodeSearch.SearchForThoroughfareAddress(datakey, userid, "UK", PostCode);

if (AddressesDataReturned.AddressRecordGotWithoutError == true)
{
   //Display results, no major error
   this.TxtResults.Text = AddressesDataReturned.ErrorMessage;

   string AddressText;
   AddressText = "Status:" + AddressesDataReturned.CreditsStatusText + "\n" + "\n";
   AddressText += "Line1:" + AddressesDataReturned.Line1 + "\n";
   AddressText += "Line2:" + AddressesDataReturned.Line2 + "\n";
   AddressText += "Line3:" + AddressesDataReturned.Line3 + "\n";
   AddressText += "Town:" + AddressesDataReturned.Town + "\n";
   AddressText += "County:" + AddressesDataReturned.CountyState + "\n";
   AddressText += "PostCode:" + AddressesDataReturned.PostZipCode + "\n";
   AddressText += "Country:UK" + "\n";

   this.TxtResults.Text = AddressText;

}
else
{
   //Display error (Account stuff mostly)
   this.TxtResults.Text = AddressesDataReturned.ErrorMessage;
}

Where PostcodeWebService is a web reference to: https://www.SimplyLookupadmin.co.uk/WebService.asmx


  Please note: Section 3.5 of the terms and conditions state: "The Customer, when using the Postcode Lookup service via Web Service, must make sure each user is identified by a unique Computer name, in each call to the Web Service if used internally”. In simple language this means that each user must be identified by a unique computer name, if used by a company employee. In the above example "UserID" was passed as the computer name.

Step 4 Testing

Final step is to test, to enable easy testing please use our special test postcodes.

Street Address Search - Example Code 

Simply download the example code.   The code is in the "SOAP/VBNET 2010 Thoroughfare" or "SOAP/VBNET 2003 Thoroughfare" directory of our example downloads.

These two examples demonstrate postcode lookup software using Thoroughfare/Street address data.