Over the past few days I have been working on a project for work when it suddenly dawned on me that PostGIS would do exactly what I want and be incredibly useful for some marketing-related information. So, I got to work on the PostGIS 1.5.2 ebuild.
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\nSo, there’s some customer information that I need to clean up, among which I need to verify the zip codes. Or, at least fill in the city and state based on the zip code. (As I get more focused on database work, I get more frustrated with the loose restrictions on data entry that our software has.)<\/p>\n
Since this same data set I’m using is also used for other marketing reports, I figured it’d be kind of neat to determine how far away our customers are coming, or even to generate a report that reduces the number of potential mail outs to those who are within a certain radius of our location.<\/p>\n
So, I got cracking on the ebuild because now that I needed it. (Okay, wanted, but it’s a fine line.) The ebuild has been entirely revamped, and I think you PostGIS users may be quite happy with it.<\/p>\n
It properly works with slotted PostgreSQL with one caveat: You’ll need to reemerge PostGIS for each slot you want it to work with.<\/p>\n
root@host # postgresql-config set 9.0\r\nroot@host # emerge -av =dev-db\/postgis-1.5.2-r1\r\nroot@host # emacs \/etc\/postgis_dbs\r\nroot@host # emerge --config =dev-db\/postgis-1.5.2-r1\r\nroot@host # postgresql-config set 8.4\r\nroot@host # emerge -av =dev-db\/postgis-1.5.2-r1\r\nroot@host # emacs \/etc\/postgis_dbs\r\nroot@host # emerge --config =dev-db\/postgis-1.5.2-r1<\/pre>\nAnd now that that’s done, I get to have some fun. First, I needed to find a zip code database that wouldn’t cost me huge bucks to get it from USPS themselves, or indeed any bucks at all. (Seriously, USPS can’t just give me a list of zip codes with the city name and state?) There are other options out there that don’t cost much, but I need that money to pay for food.<\/p>\n