This library provides a local reverse geocoder for Node.js that is based on GeoNames data. It is local in the sense that there are no calls to a remote service like the Google Maps API, and in consequence the gecoder is suitable for batch reverse geocoding. It is reverse in the sense that you give it a (list of) point(s), i.e., a latitude/longitude pair, and it returns the closest city to that point.
$ npm install local-reverse-geocoderFor usage with Docker, a Dockerfile is available in this project. It caches all the required files from GeoNames.
To use it:
$ docker build -t local-reverse-geocoder .
$ docker run -it -e PORT=3000 --rm local-reverse-geocodervar geocoder = require('local-reverse-geocoder');
// With just one point
var point = {latitude: 42.083333, longitude: 3.1};
geocoder.lookUp(point, function(err, res) {
console.log(JSON.stringify(res, null, 2));
});
// In batch mode with many points
var points = [
{latitude: 42.083333, longitude: 3.1},
{latitude: 48.466667, longitude: 9.133333}
];
geocoder.lookUp(points, function(err, res) {
console.log(JSON.stringify(res, null, 2));
});
// How many results to display at max
var maxResults = 5;
// With just one point
var point = {latitude: 42.083333, longitude: 3.1};
geocoder.lookUp(point, maxResults, function(err, res) {
console.log(JSON.stringify(res, null, 2));
});
// In batch mode with many points
var points = [
{latitude: 42.083333, longitude: 3.1},
{latitude: 48.466667, longitude: 9.133333}
];
geocoder.lookUp(points, maxResults, function(err, res) {
console.log(JSON.stringify(res, null, 2));
});You can optionally initialize the geocoder prior to the first call to lookUp. This ensures that all files are loaded into the cache prior to making the first call.
var geocoder = require('local-reverse-geocoder');
geocoder.init({}, function() {
// geocoder is loaded and ready to run
});Optionally init also allows you to specify which files to load data from.
This reduces initialization time and the runtime memory footprint of the nodejs process.
By default all files are loaded.
var geocoder = require('local-reverse-geocoder');
geocoder.init({load:{admin1: true, admin2: false, admin3And4: false, alternateNames: false}}, function() {
// Ready to call lookUp
});Optionally init allows you to specify the directory that geonames files are downloaded and cached in.
var geocoder = require('local-reverse-geocoder');
geocoder.init({dumpDirectory: '/tmp/geonames'}, function() {
// Ready to call lookUp and all files will be downloaded to /tmp/geonames
});You can use the built-in Web service by running node app.js as follows.
$ curl "http://localhost:3000/geocode?latitude=48.466667&longitude=9.133333&latitude=42.083333&longitude=3.1&maxResults=2"An output array that maps each point in the input array (or input object converted to a single-element array) to the maxResults closest addresses.
The measurement units are used as defined by GenoNames, for example, elevation is measured in meters. The distance value is dynamically calculated based on the haversine distance for the input point(s) to each of the particular results points and is measured in kilometers.
[
[{
"geoNameId": "2919146",
"name": "Gomaringen",
"asciiName": "Gomaringen",
"alternateNames": null,
"latitude": "48.45349",
"longitude": "9.09582",
"featureClass": "P",
"featureCode": "PPLA4",
"countryCode": "DE",
"cc2": null,
"admin1Code": {
"name": "Baden-Württemberg",
"asciiName": "Baden-Wuerttemberg",
"geoNameId": "2953481"
},
"admin2Code": {
"name": "Tübingen Region",
"asciiName": "Tuebingen Region",
"geoNameId": "3214106"
},
"admin3Code": {
"name": "Landkreis Tübingen",
"asciiName": "Landkreis Tubingen",
"geoNameId": "2820859"
},
"admin4Code": {
"name": "Gomaringen",
"asciiName": "Gomaringen",
"geoNameId": "6555939"
},
"population": "8400",
"elevation": null,
"dem": "430",
"timezone": "Europe/Berlin",
"modificationDate": "2011-04-25",
"alternateName": {
"de": {
"altName":"Gomaringen",
"isPreferredName": true,
"isShortName": false,
"isColloquial": false,
"isHistoric": false
}
},
"distance": 3.1302317076079285
}, {
"geoNameId": "2814195",
"name": "Wannweil",
"asciiName": "Wannweil",
"alternateNames": null,
"latitude": "48.51667",
"longitude": "9.15",
"featureClass": "P",
"featureCode": "PPLA4",
"countryCode": "DE",
"cc2": null,
"admin1Code": {
"name": "Baden-Württemberg",
"asciiName": "Baden-Wuerttemberg",
"geoNameId": "2953481"
},
"admin2Code": {
"name": "Tübingen Region",
"asciiName": "Tuebingen Region",
"geoNameId": "3214106"
},
"admin3Code": {
"name": "Landkreis Reutlingen",
"asciiName": "Landkreis Reutlingen",
"geoNameId": "3220792"
},
"admin4Code": {
"name": "Wannweil",
"asciiName": "Wannweil",
"geoNameId": "6555933"
},
"population": "5092",
"elevation": null,
"dem": "320",
"timezone": "Europe/Berlin",
"modificationDate": "2011-04-25",
"distance": 5.694122211376861
}],
[{
"geoNameId": "3130634",
"name": "Albons",
"asciiName": "Albons",
"alternateNames": null,
"latitude": "42.10389",
"longitude": "3.08433",
"featureClass": "P",
"featureCode": "PPLA3",
"countryCode": "ES",
"cc2": null,
"admin1Code": {
"name": "Catalonia",
"asciiName": "Catalonia",
"geoNameId": "3336901"
},
"admin2Code": {
"name": "Província de Girona",
"asciiName": "Provincia de Girona",
"geoNameId": "6355230"
},
"admin3Code": {
"name": "Albons",
"asciiName": "Albons",
"geoNameId": "6534005"
},
"admin4Code": null,
"population": "558",
"elevation": "13",
"dem": "18",
"timezone": "Europe/Madrid",
"modificationDate": "2012-03-04",
"distance": 2.626176210836868
}, {
"geoNameId": "3118799",
"name": "la Tallada d'Empordà",
"asciiName": "la Tallada d'Emporda",
"alternateNames": "La Tallada,la Tallada,la Tallada d'Emporda,la Tallada d'Empordà",
"latitude": "42.0802",
"longitude": "3.05583",
"featureClass": "P",
"featureCode": "PPLA3",
"countryCode": "ES",
"cc2": null,
"admin1Code": {
"name": "Catalonia",
"asciiName": "Catalonia",
"geoNameId": "3336901"
},
"admin2Code": {
"name": "Província de Girona",
"asciiName": "Provincia de Girona",
"geoNameId": "6355230"
},
"admin3Code": {
"name": "la Tallada d'Empordà",
"asciiName": "la Tallada d'Emporda",
"geoNameId": "6534150"
},
"admin4Code": null,
"population": "0",
"elevation": null,
"dem": "16",
"timezone": "Europe/Madrid",
"modificationDate": "2012-03-04",
"distance": 3.6618561653699846
}]
]By design, i.e., due to the granularity of the available GeoNames data, this reverse geocoder is limited to city-level, so no streets or house numbers. In many cases this is already sufficient, but obviously your actual mileage may vary. If you need street-level granularity, you are better off with a service like Google's reverse geocoding API. (Full disclosure: the author is currently employed by Google.)
The initial lookup takes quite a while, as the geocoder has to download roughly 300MB of data that it then caches locally (unzipped, this occupies about 1.3GB of disk space). All follow-up requests are lightning fast.
By default, the local GeoNames dump data gets refreshed each day.
You can override this behavior by removing the timestamp from the files in the ./geonames_dump download folder.
If you don't need admin1, admin2, admin3, admin4 or alternate names you can turn them
off in a manual init call and decrease load time.
If you run into a FATAL ERROR: CALL_AND_RETRY_LAST Allocation failed - JavaScript heap out of memory issue,
try running node with the V8 option --max-old-space-size=2000.
To turn on debug logging add a DEBUG=local-reverse-geocoder environment variable on the command line.
Copyright 2017 Thomas Steiner (tomac@google.com)
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
This project was inspired by Richard Penman's Python reverse geocoder. It uses Ubilabs' k-d-tree implementation that was ported to Node.js by Luke Arduini.
