Google locale api: find news based on your IP location

Some experiments with google apis, this page loads the google search control and finds events near your current location. If the page doesn't work please open this post alone.

Your location is....

Loading...

Here is the code used:

<script src="https://www.google.com/jsapi?key=ABQIAAAAQLd5290Kjbk-VPuCDYAfnBRYfKp0eaDcp4nidsc0rBpfwGQjWBRfZ98_xA1kmbh3biVQCxgc_Nv5_Q" 

type="text/javascript">

</script><br />

<script language="Javascript" type="text/javascript">

    //<![CDATA[

var position = "";

var latitude = 0;

var longitude = 0;

var city = "";

function loadJson(data)

{

if (data!=null)

{

$('#geolocation').append(data["geoplugin_city"]); 

$('#geolocation').append("-");

$('#geolocation').append(data["geoplugin_countryName"]); 

position = data["geoplugin_city"] + "," + data["geoplugin_countryName"];

city = data["geoplugin_city"];

OnLoad();

}

}

function jqLoaded() 

{

var url = "http://www.geoplugin.net/json.gp?jsoncallback=?";

var urlNearBy = "http://www.geoplugin.net/extras/nearby.gp?radius=50&limit=20&format=json&jsoncallback=?";

$.getJSON(url ,  loadJson       ); 

}

google.load("jquery", "1.4.3");  

google.setOnLoadCallback(jqLoaded);

    google.load("search", "1");

    function OnLoad() {

      // Create a search control

      var searchControl = new google.search.SearchControl();

      // Add in a full set of searchers

      var localSearch = new google.search.LocalSearch();

      searchControl.addSearcher(localSearch);

      searchControl.addSearcher(new google.search.NewsSearch());

      searchControl.addSearcher(new google.search.BlogSearch());

      // Set the Local Search center point

      localSearch.setCenterPoint(position);

      // Tell the searcher to draw itself and tell it where to attach

      searchControl.draw(document.getElementById("searchcontrol"));

      // Execute an inital search

      searchControl.execute(city);

    }

    //google.setOnLoadCallback(OnLoad);

    //]]>

</script><br />

Some experiments with google apis, this page loads the google search control 

and finds events near your current location. View the source code of the page 

if you want to see the javascript code used.<br />

<br />

<br />

<div id="geolocation">

Your location is....</div>

<div id="searchcontrol">

Loading...</div>

<br />

How to geolocalize “on the fly” multiple text addresses

If you have a list of addresses and you need to geolocalize them you can use this service:

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/geocoder/

Simply copy in the first text input your list, one address per line, and then click on geocoding:

Every address will be associated to his latitude and longidute using yahoo geo api.

Hope it helps!

Nations of the world in javascript array

If you need a list on continents and nations in javascript format here is the code:

var continents =
[
["Africa","Algeria,Angola,Benin,Botswana,Burkina,Burundi,Cameroon,Cape Verde,Central African Republic,Chad,Comoros,Congo,Congo, Democratic Republic of,Djibouti,Egypt,Equatorial Guinea,Eritrea,Ethiopia,Gabon,Gambia,Ghana,Guinea,Guinea-Bissau,Ivory Coast,Kenya,Lesotho,Liberia,Libya,Madagascar,Malawi,Mali,Mauritania,Mauritius,Morocco,Mozambique,Namibia,Niger,Nigeria,Rwanda,Sao Tome and Principe,Senegal,Seychelles,Sierra Leone,Somalia,South Africa,Sudan,Swaziland,Tanzania,Togo,Tunisia,Uganda,Zambia,Zimbabwe"],
["Asia","Bangladesh,Bhutan,Brunei,Burma (Myanmar),Cambodia,China,East Timor,India,Indonesia,Japan,Kazakstan,Korea,North,Korea, South,Laos,Malaysia,Maldives,Mongolia,Nepal,Philippines,Russian Federation,Singapore,Sri Lanka,Thailand,Vietnam"],
["Europe","Albania,Andorra,Armenia,Austria,Azerbaijan,Belarus,Belgium,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Bulgaria,Croatia,Cyprus,Czech Republic,Denmark,Estonia,Finland,France,Georgia,Germany,Greece,Hungary,Iceland,Ireland,Italy,Latvia,Liechtenstein,Lithuania,Luxembourg,Macedonia,Malta,Moldova,Monaco,Montenegro,Netherlands,Norway,Poland,Portugal,Romania,San Marino,Serbia,Slovakia,Slovenia,Spain,Sweden,Switzerland,Ukraine,United Kingdom,Vatican City"],
["North America","Antigua and Barbuda,Bahamas,Barbados,Belize,Canada,Costa Rica,Cuba,Dominica,Dominican Republic,El Salvador,Grenada,Guatemala,Haiti,Honduras,Jamaica,Mexico,Nicaragua,Panama,Saint Kitts and Nevis,Saint Lucia,Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,Trinidad and Tobago,United States"],
["Oceania","Australia,Fiji,Kiribati,Marshall Islands,Micronesia,Nauru,New Zealand,Palau,Papua New Guinea,Samoa,Solomon Islands,Tonga,Tuvalu,Vanuatu"],
["South America","Argentina,Bolivia,Brazil,Chile,Colombia,Ecuador,Guyana,Paraguay,Peru,Suriname,Uruguay,Venezuela"],
["Middle East","Afghanistan,Bahrain,Iran,Iraq,Israel,Jordan,Kuwait,Kyrgyzstan,Lebanon,Oman,Pakistan,Qatar,Saudi Arabia,Syria,Tajikistan,Turkey,Turkmenistan,United Arab Emirates,Uzbekistan,Yemen"]
]; 

 

This is useful if you need to find using google geolocation the continent of a nation.

Here is the firebug console:

hope it helps!

How to generate KML file from excel data (or csv!)

The marketing department gives you an excel file and says : “it would be nice to have this data available on gGogle Earth (and also on Google Maps! ”…. can you do this today?

Instead of running out of the room with your hands in your hair simply download the excel file located at http://processtrends.com/Files/MapExcelData.zip 

Follow the instructions and in 10 minutes you will have the data geolocated and a beautiful kml file.

This is the excel file:

The generated KML file:

And the kml file in viewed in Google Earth:

Many thanks to http://processtrends.com and to simon_a !

How to call Outside.in location service using c#

If you are evaluating the Outside.in localized news service you may find useful this little command line program, it generates the right MD5 security code and it calls the "Location by name" service:

Here a basic test program written in c#, I think is a good start, it queries for locations:

///////////////////

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("enter location,for example new york:");
            string action = Console.ReadLine();
            while (action != "")
            {
                string search;
                search = action;

                string mykey = "xxx";
                string shared_secret = "xxx";
                int unixTime = (int)(DateTime.UtcNow - new DateTime(1970, 1, 1)).TotalSeconds;
                string sUrl = "http://hyperlocal-api.outside.in/v1.1/locations/named/" + search + "?dev_key=" + mykey + "&sig=" + MD5_ComputeHexaHash(mykey + shared_secret + unixTime.ToString());

                WebRequest wrGETURL;
                wrGETURL = WebRequest.Create(sUrl);

                Stream objStream;
                objStream = wrGETURL.GetResponse().GetResponseStream();

                StreamReader objReader = new StreamReader(objStream);

                string sLine = "";
                int i = 0;

                while (sLine != null)
                {
                    i++;
                    sLine = objReader.ReadLine();
                    if (sLine != null)
                    Console.WriteLine("{0}:{1}", i, sLine);
                }
                action = Console.ReadLine();
            }
        }

        public static string MD5_ComputeHexaHash(string text)
        {
            // Gets the MD5 hash for text
            MD5 md5 = new MD5CryptoServiceProvider();
            byte[] data = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(text);
            byte[] hash = md5.ComputeHash(data);
            // Transforms as hexa
            string hexaHash = "";
            foreach (byte b in hash)
            {
                hexaHash += String.Format("{0:x2}", b);
            }
            // Returns MD5 hexa hash
            return hexaHash;
        }
    }
}

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