[Qgis-developer] Geocoding plugin: a good case for merge

[Richard Duivenvoorde]

On 09-06-16 10:42, Paolo Cavallini wrote:
>> I don't see any real opportunity to merge the plugins: some of them are
>> > very specific to national geocoders, some other just ignore the TOS of
>> > the webservices they use.

> yes, this is clear to me. even if not much code is shared, from the user
> point of view having a single menu, with a coherent interface where to
> find all the services, would certainly be good.
> for instance, the qgis2web was born in this way, and I believe it is a
> good success.

Thanks for bringing this up Paolo!

I can add my 'pdokserviceplugin' to te list too :-)
And MMQGIS plugin also has geocoder functionality

Part of my plugin's interface is a 'search-bar' with which you do a
quick geocode->zoomto action

It is modelled to the 'search'-bar of Firefox: just fill with an addres
and <enter>.

Bottom part of:
http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1465466009.png

What about something like that:
- we creating a gui-widget/toolbar for a geocoding search
- we create a python api for it (actually: implement a buttonless plugin
which registres the geocoder, and registres some slot/signals and does
(part of) implementation)
- by installing this plugin(s) you registre one or more geocoders, AND
the plugin author actually implements the calling/retrieving/parsing of
the results. We can maybe do some general standards in core (or via
gdal): like OGC-OpenLS interface, or OSM-based ones or so
- the core-geocoder gui then can look like the search bar in Firefox
Upper part of:
http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1465466009.png
a little dropdown in which you can select WHICH geocoder you run by default
- this core geocoder widget can then also implement a small 'multiple
result' list...

A side note:
- some of the geocoders plugins Paolo lists, are 'one shot' geocoders:
you sent one address and it returns one or two results. This is the
geocoder I'm talking about
- some of the geocoder plugins accept a csv/list, you have to select
some columnnames and you sent the list to a service and you get a list
back (with info about misses etcetc). This is much harder I think to
implement in a general way? Would be cool though...
pdokgeocoder and MMQGISplugin have these...

Is this doable?
Should we write a QEP for this?

Regards,

Richard