Geocodable Behavior

The Geocodable Behavior helps you build geo-aware applications. It automatically geocodes your models when they are saved, giving you the ability to search by location and calculate distances between records.

This behavior uses Geocoder, the Geocoder PHP 5.3 library and requires Propel 1.6.4-dev and above.

Installation

Download the behavior: https://github.com/willdurand/GeocodableBehavior, then cherry-pick the GeocodableBehavior.php file in src/, and put it somewhere.

Add the following line to your propel.ini or build.properties configuration file:

propel.behavior.geocodable.class = path.to.GeocodableBehavior

 Usage

Just add the following XML tag in your schema.xml file:

<behavior name="geocodable" />

Basically, the behavior will add:

• two new columns to your model (latitude and longitude);
• four new methods to the ActiveRecord API (getDistanceTo(), isGeocoded(), getCoordinates(), and setCoordinates());
• a new method to the ActiveQuery API (filterByDistanceFrom()).

ActiveRecord API

getDistanceTo() returns the distance between the current object and a given one. The method takes two arguments:

• a geocoded object;
• a measure unit (KILOMETERS_UNIT, MILES_UNIT, or NAUTICAL_MILES_UNIT defined in the Peer class of the geocoded model).

isGeocoded() returns a boolean value whether the object has been geocoded or not.

getCoordinates(), setCoordinates() allows to quickly set/get latitude and longitude values.

ActiveQuery API

filterByDistanceFrom() takes five arguments:

• a latitude value;
• a longitude value;
• a distance value;
• a measure unit (KILOMETERS_UNIT, MILES_UNIT, or NAUTICAL_MILES_UNIT defined in the Peer class of the geocoded model);
• a comparison sign (Criteria::LESS_THAN is the default value).

It will add a filter by distance on your current query and returns itself for fluid interface.

Automatic Geocoding

At this step, you have to fill in the two columns (latitude and longitude) yourself. It's not really useful, right ?

Automatic geocoding to the rescue! There are two automatic ways to get geocoded information:

• using IP addresses;
• using street addresses.

It provides a geocode method that autoupdate the loaction values. To prevent autofill when modified, just set auto_update attribute to false.

Note: You can use both at the same time.

IP-Based Geocoding

To enable the IP-Based geocoding, add the following configuration in your schema.xml file:

<behavior name="geocodable">
    <parameter name="geocode_ip" value="true" />
    <parameter name="geocoder_api_key" value="<API_KEY>" />
</behavior>

By default, the default Geocoder provider is YahooProvider so you'll need to fill in an API key.

If you want to use another provider, you'll need to set a new parameter:

<parameter name="geocoder_provider" value="\Geocoder\Provider\HostIpProvider" />

Read the Geocoder documentation to know more about providers.

This configuration will add a new column to your model: ip_address. You can change the name of this column using the following parameter:

<parameter name="ip_column" value="ip" />

The behavior will now use the ip_address value to populate the latitude and longitude columns thanks to Geocoder.

Address-Based Geocoding 

To enable the Address-Based geocoding, add the following configuration:

<behavior name="geocodable">
    <parameter name="geocode_address" value="true" />
    <parameter name="geocoder_api_key" value="<API_KEY>" />
</behavior>

By default, the default Geocoder provider is YahooProvider so you'll need to fill in an API key but keep in mind it's an optional parameter depending on the provider you choose.

If you want to use another provider, you'll need to set a new parameter:

<parameter name="geocoder_provider" value="\Geocoder\Provider\GoogleMapsProvider" />

Read the Geocoder documentation to know more about providers.

Basically, the behavior looks for attributes called street, locality, region, postal_code, and country. It tries to make a complete address with them. As usual, you can tweak this parameter to add your own list of attributes that represents a complete street address:

<parameter name="address_columns" value="street,locality,region,postal_code,country" />

These parameters will be concatened and separated by a comma to make a street address. This address will be used to get latitude and longitude values.

Now, each time you save your object, the two columns latitude and longitude are populated thanks to Geocoder.

HTTP Adapters

Geocoder provides HTTP adapters which can be configured through the behavior. By default, this behavior uses the CurlHttpAdapter.

If you want to use another adapter, you'll need to use the following parameter:

<parameter name="geocoder_adapter" value="\Geocoder\HttpAdapter\BuzzHttpAdapter" />

Read the Geocoder documentation to know more about adapters.

Parameters

<behavior name="geocodable">
    <parameter name="auto_update" value="true" />

    <parameter name="latitude_column" value="latitude" />
    <parameter name="longitude_column" value="longitude" />

    <!-- IP-Based Geocoding -->
    <parameter name="geocode_ip" value="false" />
    <parameter name="ip_column" value="ip_address" />

    <!-- Address-Based Geocoding -->
    <parameter name="geocode_address" value="false" />
    <parameter name="address_columns" value="street,locality,region,postal_code,country" />

    <!-- Geocoder -->
    <parameter name="geocoder_provider" value="\Geocoder\Provider\YahooProvider" />
    <parameter name="geocoder_adapter" value="\Geocoder\HttpAdapter\CurlHttpAdapter" />
    <parameter name="geocoder_api_key" value="false" />
</behavior>

This is the default configuration.