Map Life Facts Chapman/County/State Abbreviations

Post by **tatewise** » 04 Apr 2012 13:39

It has been suggested that Map Life Facts should recognise standard abbreviations for UK Chapman Codes, UK Counties, US States, Canadian Provinces, & etc.
The Plugin would replace each abbreviation with its full name before submission to the Google Maps Geocoder to improve plotting.
To recognise the abbreviations they would have to be in upper-case (except UK Counties), and delimited with a comma before and after, unless at the start or end of the field.

Before pursuing this further, is it something that users feel is a worthwhile amendment?

Secondly, I would need confirmation of the specific abbreviations and their full names.
My initial search revealed the following Wikipedia references.
(Click on the brown headings to obtain detailed lists)

UK Chapman Codes
Would Country Codes, and Channel Islands, and Ancient Counties, and 1974/5-1996 Regions all be required?
Are the codes and full names acceptable?

UK County Abbreviations
Are the Abbreviations and Formal postal county names listed an acceptable set?

U.S. Postal Codes
Are the two upper-case letter codes used by United States Postal Service the ones required?

Canadian Provinces
Are the two upper-case letter Abbreviations and Province names listed acceptable?

Australian States
Are these eight codes the ones to use?

The only conflict I have spotted so far is between
NT Northwest Territories, Canada
NT Northern Territory, Australia
Not sure at present how to resolve that one!

ID:6102

andrewbraid · Post by **andrewbraid** » 04 Apr 2012 17:14

Mike

Yes please I would welcome this as I use Chapman Codes.

I think all your suggestions are fine with me. Just for clarity I would include the current Republic of Ireland with the ancient county codes but I assume you did intend to do this.

The one thing you have missing are country codes, other than the UK. I use the ISO 3 digit country codes at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-3
if it helps.

For me this resolves your problem, NT,AUS and NT,CAN

Post by **tatewise** » 04 Apr 2012 18:05

I am not sure I understand your point about RoI, unless it is my use of UK Chapman Codes.
I plan to include all the Chapman Codes listed in the Wikipedia reference.

Adding Country Codes is a good idea, but does not entirely solve all conflicts.

On quick inspection NFK 'Norfolk' Chapman Code is the same as NFK 'Norfolk Island' Country Code, there may be others I have not spotted yet.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 04 Apr 2012 19:00

Mike,

For the USA, I would think the postal codes you referenced would be the correct ones to use. Personally, I spell out the names of states so I wouldn't use these codes, but I'm sure there are some people that do.

Bill

andrewbraid · Post by **andrewbraid** » 04 Apr 2012 21:50

Mike

Yes I realise now that Chapman does include both Northern Ireland and the Republic so no problem there.

I think adding country code does resolve the problem because all codes lower than the country must be unique. I am making the assumption that the country would always be included. I always would include the country even with Chapman codes, e.g. Sheffield,YKS,ENG

Post by **tatewise** » 04 Apr 2012 23:40

Andrew, you may always include the Country, and I always include the Country, but many users do not.

So since the Plugin must fit all, what should it do when it finds NT or NFK in isolation?
It could prompt the user for a choice &/or advise that a Country should be added.

sdl180 · Post by **sdl180** » 05 Apr 2012 07:37

Hi Mike,

Like Bill, I also spell out County and Country codes fully, and as this is how I would want them to appear on all reports etc. I am not sure I would use Chapman codes (unless FH expanded them for reports), although I do like the idea. Having said that, I also agree with Andrew (and yourself) that Country codes should always be used.

I have been told off (in the nicest way) by Canadian relatives for not putting complete addresses in my tree, as there are Villages and Townships with the same name as Counties etc. I have ancestors in Hastings Village, Northumberland County, Ontario, and others in Hasting County, Ontario. If I use Hastings, Ontario, it could be either, and that is just in Ontario. I also have ancestors in Leeds, Yorkshire and in Leeds Co. Ontario. Having addresses that are as full as possible becomes a necessity. Having the Country also helped in using icons with flags.

I think it is too much to expect any software to cope with the ambiguity in partial addresses. I think if some places are interpreted incorrectly, it is down to the individual to specify their addresses without ambiguity. Having said that, one thing that may help might be a default Country. i.e. unless a Country is specified, the individual's default Country is assumed.

Keep up the excellent work,

Steve

andrewbraid · Post by **andrewbraid** » 05 Apr 2012 08:21

Mike

I think your proposed solution for those who do not use countries is better than Steve's of using the home country as default.

But I do agree with Steve about keeping up your excellent work.

Post by **tatewise** » 07 Apr 2012 16:51

I have been experimenting with a possible implementation of the above ideas.

Firstly, the Plugin will have a Smart Geocoding On/Off sticky option that enables/disables the Code recognition and related functions.

The Plugin will recognise all the Country, State, County, and Chapman Codes & Abbreviations identified above.
I plan to check that the translated full names are plotted rationally by the Google Maps Geocoder.

The Code conflicts fall into two camps:

(1) Country Code v Chapman Code
ARM = 'Armenia' or 'Armagh'
HUN = 'Hungary' or 'Huntingdonshire'
KEN = 'Kenya' or 'Kent'
NFK = 'Norfolk Island' or 'Norfolk'
PER = 'Peru' or 'Perthshire'
SOM = 'Somalia' or 'Somerset'
The Plugin automatically uses the Country Code if it is in the right-most field of the Location.
Otherwise, it uses the Chapman Code, on the assumption that a County should be followed by a Country on the right.
Users can easily add a Country if necessary by using Work with Data.

(2) Australian State v N.American State
NT = 'Northern Territory' or 'Northwest Territories'
WA = 'Western Australia' or 'Washington State'
The Plugin automatically uses the Australian State if Australia is found anywhere to its right (after Country Code translations).
Otherwise, it uses the N.American State.

I have found circumstances where the Google Geocoder works better with some location names than others.
e.g.
Yorkshire appears to give better results than North/South/East/West Yorkshire (I know there are only three Ridings).

So these substitutions may also be included in the plotting process.

AdrianBruce · Post by **AdrianBruce** » 14 Apr 2012 17:38

Probably worth emphasising to users of your plug-in that if they don't use abbreviations in lists X, Y and Z, then results are unpredictable. I understand, for instance, that the 1850 US census uses IA (or maybe Ia?) as an abbreviation for Indiana, whereas IA is (today) Iowa.

For reference purposes, I've always used http://www.statoids.com/statoids.html

Post by **tatewise** » 14 Apr 2012 20:17

Certainly the Help & Advice page will give full details of the codes used, with appropriate warnings.
Also the user will be able to switch off the code translations.

It looks like the your Statoids reference for USA State two letter codes and Country A-3 codes are a subset of the earlier Wikipedia references.
Would you be prepared to spend a little time to double check?

If there are other codes such as Ia = Indiana then, as long as they are different from all the other codes, they can easily be added to the Plugin.
(Ia is different from IA)
Found references to Ia = Indiana and Wn = Washington at
Talk:List of U.S. state abbreviations
1850 US Fed Census abbr for Indiana

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 14 Apr 2012 23:26

Mike,

I've never seen Ia as an 'official' code for Indiana. Wikipedia has a list of the abbreviations for the states used prior to the current two character postal codes went into effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U. ... reviations

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 14 Apr 2012 23:29

Yes, I saw those, but what do genealogists use?

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 15 Apr 2012 00:12

Mike,

Most genealogists I know here in the US spell out the state names in their entirety so as to be absolutely clear as to which state it is.

I know of only one that uses the 2 character postal codes.

The two character codes went into effect in 1963 I believe so they have been in use for almost 50 years now. I don't know of anyone using any earlier codes or abbreviations. I suppose there might be some old work being published that uses these older codes, but I can't imagine anyone using them anymore.

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 25 Apr 2012 12:03

Map Life Facts V2.7 is now available from the Plugin Store with the Smart Geocoding option.

This option supports the Country Codes, State Codes, Chapman Codes and County Abbreviations discussed above.

See the Help & Advice for Smart Geocoding for full details.

Post by **tatewise** » 27 Apr 2012 13:06

The Chapman Codes of ARM, HUN, KEN, NFK, PER & SOM use the same code as some ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 Country Codes.

The Map Life Facts Plugin resolves this conflict by assuming it is a Country Code if it is the last code on the right of the Location field.
Otherwise, it assumes it is a Chapman Code.

Would it be useful if the Plugin always assumed a Chapman Code if the Region Bias Code is set to uk United Kingdom?

Shelley · Post by **Shelley** » 29 Apr 2012 11:19

Re Australian states and territories, the eight codes you found are the usual abbreviations. Be aware that users are just as likely to have Vic, Qld and Tas in their database as all capitals. The other five states and territories would always be in all capitals.

Post by **tatewise** » 29 Apr 2012 12:19

Thank you for that insight to Australian abbreviations.
If this affects a significant number of users then those three abbreviations could easily be added to the Plugin.

However, with the FH V5 Search and Replace Text Plugin it is really easy to change those abbreviations to upper-case.
The Plugin allows just Place fields to be chosen, and Whole Words only delimited by spaces and punctuation (commas), and Case Sensitive searches.

Personally, I would prefer that officially recognised codes are used where possible, to avoid any doubt.

Post by **tatewise** » 03 May 2012 14:27

Here are my current proposed changes for plugin V2.8 that essentially all affect the Geocode Location Plots tab:

Include the mixed case Australian abbreviations Qld, Tas & Vic since they are unlikely to do any harm.
Colour code Purple all Nudged or Manually edited Latitude/Longitude entries.
Add a count of Manual entries in Purple to the Statistics row.
The Plotted count in Green will only include Auto-Plotted entries.
The Geocode Plot All Locations button will offer to include/exclude all Manual entries in the re-plotting (but only if any exist).
If they are included, then the Manual values will be replaced by Auto-Plotted values.
[EDIT] This button will literally Auto-Plot ALL Locations, whether already Plotted or not.
A new Geocode Plot Some Locations button will allow any one of the five Statistics classes of entries to be Auto-Plotted.
Once chosen, each entry in that class may be selectively plotted or skipped, or all the rest plotted or skipped.
As now, the Geocode Plot This Location button will only be active for Unplotted entries.
The four Prior/Next Plotted/Unplotted buttons will be replaced by Next Plotted, Next Substitute, Next Manual, and Next Unplotted.
The reverse Prior direction will be achieved by holding the Alt key while the button is clicked.
Next Plotted will include all Auto-Plotted & Substituted & Manual entries.
Next Substitute will include all entries with a Substitute value whether plotted or not.
Next Manual will include all Purple Manual entries.
Next Unplotted will include all the No Plot, Invalid & No Data entries.

Any comments?

Should Geocode Plot All/Some Locations always start from the first entry, or from the current displayed entry, in the same way as the Next/Prior... buttons?

If the latter, then when Stop Plotting Locations is pressed while the Progress Bar is displayed, should the entry that was reached become the current displayed entry, so that the next Geocode Plot All/Some Locations will continue from where it left off?

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 03 May 2012 15:36

Mike,

Should Geocode Plot All/Some Locations always start from the first entry, or from the current displayed entry, in the same way as the Next/Prior... buttons?

As long as it wraps around at the end and does those entries prior to the current displayed entry, then starting at the current displayed entry would be fine. I do think this would have to be made very clear though since it is quite a change from how it currently works.

If the latter, then when Stop Plotting Locations is pressed while the Progress Bar is displayed, should the entry that was reached become the current displayed entry, so that the next Geocode Plot All/Some Locations will continue from where it left off?

This seems like a good way to handle it.

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 08 May 2012 11:48

Map Life Facts V2.8 is now available from the Plugin Store with the features listed above.

See the updated Help & Advice pages listed below for details.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 08 May 2012 17:14

Mike,

Version 2.8 looks very nice. I have a couple of questions though.

I have many manually plotted locations, but the plugin says I have 0. Is there any way to get the plugin to recognize my already manually plotted ones?

I think in reading the help and looking it over that the 'Plotted' total doesn't include the 'Manual' total. So, if I tell it to plot the 'Plotted' locations, then the 'Manual' ones will not be plotted. Is that correct? You might want to spell this out in very clear and simple terms in the help for simple people like me. [smile]

Thanks,

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 09 May 2012 09:19

Good point Bill - I had overlooked that problem of previous manually adjusted entries, that are considered as Auto-plotted by the new Plugin.
I will give it some urgent attention.

Post by **tatewise** » 09 May 2012 17:40

Map Life Facts V2.9 is now available from the Plugin Store with the added features below.

If there are existing Plotted Locations it offers to automatically try and find Manual Locations.
It does this by re-Geocoding all Plotted Locations and comparing the original plots with re-Geocoded plots.
If significantly different then it is assumed to be a Manual Location plot.
Actual Latitude & Longitude values are never altered.
If there are thousands of plots, then it may take a while.

This version also allows any Geocode Plot/Map All/Some operation to be cancelled in the Quota Warning window by clicking the X Close button to right.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 09 May 2012 18:08

Mike,

Seems to have worked like a charm. Thanks!

Bill

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