Geocoder Google Advanced

Purpose

Free access to Google's Geocoding API imposes a 2,500 query per 24hr limitation. By using cached the results of redundant queries to Google, we can avoid exceeding the usage limit as well as reduce the number of interactions.

This module provides a "geocoder_handler" CTools plugin which provides caching functionality for queries to Google's geocoding service. This geocoder utilizes the exsiting Google geocoder to make calls to the geocoding service and may be used just as any other geocoder--field geocoding, views, etc.

Caching

Two layers off storage are provided:

Drupal Cache: Cached lookups are stored in a cache bin provided by Drupal's standard cache system. This allows the results to be cached in alternative cache backends (Memcached, Redis) for rapid access cached lookups.

Persistent Storage: As results are held in the database. This allows less-frequently utilized lookups to be retained and prevents a loss of previously queries geocoder lookups on a Drupal cache clear.

Lookup Normalization

End user or non-technical users are a typical case of how the address information is captured. This module includes a normalization function which is applied to the data to determine its "look up key." This allows input with anomalies to use more-generic look up keys and increase the likelyhood of a match when looking for results from a cached query.