PastPlace Gazetteer Search API

If you were expecting search results rather than this page, you mis-specified the parameters. The options are:

• q: The query string. This can be a place name, a place id, or a coordinate pair. In the latter case, you either use the parameter twice (i.e. search?q=lon&q=lat), or you use a comma to separate them (i.e. search?q=lon,lat). Please note that in either case you need to specify first the longitude and then latitude (both in WGS84, decimal degree).
• container: If you search by place name, you can specify a container (such as county name, etc.).
• mode: Specify either "fuzzy" (default) or "precise" when you search by place name to search for name variants or exact place name, respectively.
• type: Specify either "place" (default) or "unit" to query for a place or administrative unit by name or ID (name search not implemented yet for units), respectively.
• verbose: Specify either "true" (default) or "false" when searching for a place to return detailed search results (including gazetteer text, nearby places and contained units) or concise search results, respectively.
• format: Specify "xml" to receive the search result as XML data (default), "html" to have the search result printed as a HTML table, "rdf" to receive the result as RDF/XML, "n3" to receive N3/Turtle data, or "json" to have a JSON data array returned.
• json_callback: Specifies a JSON callback function name. If you specified to have your result returned as JSON, the parameter value will be wrapped around it.

Examples

1. http://data.pastplace.org/search?q=portsmouth&format=xml&mode=precise — queries the place name "portsmouth" and returns the result as XML data.
2. http://data.pastplace.org/search?q=portsmouth&format=xml&mode=precise&container=hampshire — queries the place name "portsmouth" in the container named "hampshire" and returns the result as XML data.
3. http://data.pastplace.org/search?q=portsmouth&format=xml&container=hampshire — queries the place name "portsmouth" and name variants in the container named "hampshire" and returns the result as XML data.
4. http://data.pastplace.org/search?q=portsmouth&format=json&json_callback=my_callback_func — queries the place name "portsmouth" and name variants and returns the result as JSON data array, using "my_callback_func" as call back, i.e. the returned value is my_callback_func(JSON data) .
5. http://data.pastplace.org/search?q=-1.7,50.8 — queries for the nearest 20 places for the specified coordinates (longitude=-1.7, latitude=50.8) and sends you to the HTML result page.
6. http://data.pastplace.org/search?q=-1.7&q=50.8&format=html — same as the above, but with q specified twice.
7. http://data.pastplace.org/search?q=429&format=xml — queries the place ID "429" and returns the result as XML data.
8. http://data.pastplace.org/search?q=10200246&type=unit&format=xml — queries the unit ID "10200246" and returns the result as XML data.