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The Geo+ product combines geocodes, UPRNs and UDPRNs with Royal Mail’s Postal Address File (PAF®) to provide a complete and detailed view of UK locations. This dataset offers roof-top geocodes for GB addresses and at postcode-level for Northern Ireland. It includes:
  • 32m+ records
  • Full UK Matchcode addresses
  • Geocodes accurate to 1m
Plus:
  • Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) - which remains constant for the entire lifecycle of all buildings in the UK
  • Latitude/Longitude accurate to 1m
  • UDPRN cross-reference from address
  • Eastings & Northings at property level

About This Guide

This guide explains how to access Loqate’s Geo+ web service product using GBG’s Identity Management Platform (IdM), available via SOAP and RESTful web services. The document provides a general description of the available functionality along with a definition of the corresponding interfaces used to access different datasets and services on the IdM platform. The fundamentals of integrating with IdM web services are described on the Integration Fundamentals page and the RESTful services help can be found in the REST Services document Section 2 of this guide gives product-specific details regarding the use of the Matchcode360 Geo+ Web Service products on IdM. The Matchcode Geo+ service provides access to the Geo+ data, in a similar manner to Matchcode UK Address searching (see Matchcode UK Address Integration Guide). All status and error codes from the IdM services can be found in the Error Codes page. The Matchcode Geo+ web service address-search functions are available via the Identity Management ExecuteCapture web service method. Please note: Wherever (LatestWSDLVersion) is shown in Example Code below, please replace this with GlobalServices21a.wsdl.

Loqate Geo+ Data

The address data that underpins the Matchcode360 Geo+ web service is entirely sourced from the Royal Mail’s PAF, Not-Yet-Built and Multiple Residence data files. This provides complete coverage of properties across the UK including England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These addresses have been enhanced with UPRN keys and premise-level geo-coordinates (latitude/longitude and Eastings/Northings) from the Ordnance Survey. All data within Geo+ is updated on a monthly basis.

Input Format

Search Criteria

Request Overview

The authenticateUser method (https://idmp.gb.co.uk/idm-core-rest-globalservices/21a/authentication/authenticateUser) should be first be called to generate an authentication token from a username and password. Geo+ address search requests can then be made using the executeCapture method (https://idmp.gb.co.uk/idm-core-rest-globalservices/21a/gbg/executeCapture). For SOAP applications, the authentication token is included in an XML tag within the body of your executeCapture request. For REST/JSON applications, include the authentication token together with your username as a request header. Please see the Integration Fundementals page for full details. In general address searching within the IdM web services can be undertaken using one of three ways:
  • By one or more discrete or ‘atomic’ address elements such as postcode, building number or street name, e.g. “postcode” : “CH4 9GB’”; “building” : “The Foundation”
  • By a partial or full ‘free-format’ or ‘envelope-style’ address entry, e.g. “freeFormatAddress” : “GB Group, Chester, CH4 9GB”
  • By one of several address reference numbers or ‘keys’, e.g. “UPRN” : “1234567890”
Where the search matches to multiple premise records, (for example when you provide a postcode alone, or a postcode and the name of a building that contains mulitple flats), then the web-service response will contain multiple results. This allows you to build a user-interface than can for example, display a drop-down list of buildings in a postcode, from which a user can select their address. The ‘free-format’ search has some tolerance for mistakes such as ‘typos’, incorrect or missing elements. It will match ‘Top Floor Flat’ to ‘Top Flat’ for example where there is no ambiguity. If the search is too ambiguous or contains too much incorrect data, no results will be returned. The following is a JSON illustration of the components that can be included in the request. Not all elements are required for every request. For example, if you are searching by UPRN, then there is no requirement to enter any address fields. JSON

Data Structures

The ExecuteCapture method takes in a ExecuteCaptureRequest data structure, which contains all the information neccessary to carry out the request. Type: ExecuteCaptureRequest The SecurityHeader structure holds security data to access products and services in the IdM Platform. The ProfileRequestCapture structure contains the criteria to identify the target product being called and the search data for the product request. Within the profileRequest element, the profileGuid element should contain the GUID value listed below: Loqate hosts a number of services on its IdM platform that use the executeCapture URL. The Profile GUID identifies which particular service this request should be directed to. A full list of the Profile GUIDs for all IdM services can be found here. The following JSON request snippet directs the request to the Geo+ service and instructs it to use Configuration ID 2 which may on your organisation’s account for example include a subscription to additional datasets such as the RED ROUTE data over and above the standard Geo+ data.
The address search criteria should be entered into the IdmDataSearchAddress data structure, which is located within the input details as follows: ExecuteCapture → ProfileRequestCapture → ProfileRequestCaptureData → address The following JSON request snippet will search for the building name “The Foundation” at postcode “CH4 9GB”:
Full XML and JSON example requests are provided below.

Alternative Search Criteria

Along with the standard address search criteria, this service supports address searching by one of the address identifiers listed below. This search criteria is specified by using the additionalItems property of the search address. To carry out a search with one of these identifiers, a key-value pair must be included in the additional items property, with the key being the identifier and the value being the search value. Only one identifier can be used in a search, if more than one are specified the others will be ignored. This alternative search criteria overrides the standard address search criteria, which will be ignored if a valid identifier is provided in the IDM request. For example, the following JSON request snippet will search using the UPRN for GB Group plc.

Additional Request Options

The additional search options, used for configuring options such as casing or transliteration of output results, can be set in the IdmRequestOptions structure located in the ProfileRequestCaptureData.options property.

Additional Return Data

Additional data can be returned, or excluded from being returned, for each address by providing one or more values in the IdmRequestOption.relatedDataItems property. For each value provided, the corresponding additional data is returned, and the corresponding additional data for all the values not provided, are not returned. If you do not explicitly declare any relatedDataItems in your request, then ALL related data items will be returned by default, where they are applicable and/or non-blank for the matched address(es) The following values are supported by this service. Please see the table of related-data fields returned in the response further down, for full details of each data item. Note: A default or requested related-data field is only returned in the response if its value is non-blank. The following JSON request snippet will return the UDPRN, UPRN, latitude, longitude, and the UPRN-derivation and Geo- derivation fields but will not for example, return a NYB Flag or the Large/Small User type flag.

Request Additional Datasets

Data from additional datasets can be enabled or disabled for an address search, by populating the ProfileRequestCaptureData.additionalData property with key-value pairs from the applicable list table below. To use a particular dataset, the user must be subscribed to the dataset. This information should be entered into the IdmDataArrayAdditionalData data structure, which is located within the input details as follows: ExecuteCapture → ProfileRequestCapture → ProfileRequestCaptureData → additionalData

Property Intelligence/CongestionZone/Red Routes

The Property Intelligence, Congestion Zone and Red Route datasets are detailed here.

Output Format

The results of the Matchcode Geo+ web service search are returned in a ProfileResponseDetails structure with a ProfileResponseDetail.responseType of ‘CAPTURE’. The ProfileResponseDetails structure contains a single CaptureResponse data structure which holds an array of IdmDataAddress records containing the returned address data. ExecuteCaptureResponse > ProfileResponse [0] > ProfileResponseDetails [0] > CaptureResponse > CaptureResponseData > IdmDataAddress [n] Additional data from a search may be returned in the additionalItems or the groupedAdditionalItems of the IdmDataAddress.

Output Fields

Address Fields The service will return the following address fields if a match has been made to the search request data: If no related data fields are specified in the request, then all the following fields will be returned in the response where they are non-blank for a property address. If specific fields are listed in the relatedDataItems section of the request (using the keys below) then only those fields will be returned if non-blank.

Example Requests & Responses

The following example show the requests and responses for a simple postcode search ###SOAP Request

SOAP Response

JSON (REST) Request

The following example show the requests and responses for a UPRN key search

JSON (REST) Request

Error Information

All status and error codes from the IdM services can be found in the Error Codes page.