Postcode Programming API  Get Full Address using Advanced/Word Search

The HTTP/XML Web Service also supports our advanced/word search when used for Internal Use. This allows the user to enter partial address words to find the full address in the Royal Mail Postcode Address file.

The principle, of searching, is very similar to the Full Address Postcode Finder described in section above.  Except it has more parameters.

Step 1 Sign up for 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 Search for matching data and display

To perform an advanced search, two of the following fields should be filled in with criteria

One or more of the following:

Parameter name Description
organistaion Enter most distinctive word of Organisation name. Start of words can be entered by using *
For example “StartOfWord*”
buildingornumber Enter most distinctive word of Building Name or number. Start of words can be entered by using *
For example “StartOfWord*”
street Enter most distinctive word of Street/Road or Avenue Name. Start of words can be entered by using *
For example “StartOfWord*”

 

And one of the following from a selection list:

 

Parameter name Description
townorvillage Town or village name selected from a list
county County name selected from a list
postarea Start of Postcode (Outer Postcode) selected from a list

The XML list of TownOrVillage, County, and Postcode Outer can be downloaded from URL:

  https://www.simplylookupadmin.co.uk/XMLService/GetLookups.aspx?datatype=1

This list should be written to a local store, and displayed for user to select from.

video  Tutorial Video : Show Advanced Search in Action

Returns

should be displayed if populated

If 0 then nothing found

If 100 then you need to refine the search query since this query will return a maximum of 100 lines. In which case you should add a line to the list saying “Gone over limit of 100 lines, please refine search....”. To test this set to organisation=”tesco” and townorvillage=”London”

  Note: Only the first 100 lines of advanced search results are returned. In which case the criteria should be refined.

  This type of search is only available to “Internal use” type of license

Example

    Web Service   
      
      www.simplylookupadmin.co.uk/XMLservice/XMLSearchForAddress.aspx?datakey=Your Data Key &organistaion=Tesco&buildingornumber=&street=&townorvillage=&county=Cambridgeshire&pobox=&postarea=

 

  Returns XML

 

It is a requirement of the royal mail that if postcode lookup software is used by an employee of a company, then the user must be uniquely identified so we can apply a user count.

Therefore the URL must contain a User ID:

www.simplylookupadmin.co.uk/XMLservice/XMLSearchForAddress.aspx?datakey=Your Data Key &organistaion=Tesco&buildingornumber=&street=&townorvillage=&county=Cambridgeshire&pobox=&postarea= &username=UserID

This will be the datakey beginning with "I"

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, in username parameter, if used by a company employee.

Step 3 Get Address record based on record select

When the users selects a record then simply get it using the sames call as in step 3 of the "Full Address" search.