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Home location address lookup ​

Staff set member and vehicle home pins using House number / name and Postcode, Search places, or Click on map on the home location picker (member record, import repair, and similar screens).

How lookup works today ​

House number + postcode search uses Geoapify first and shows a dropdown of matches (nothing is auto-selected from a single result).

If Geoapify returns no matches and IDEAL_POSTCODES_API_KEY is set, the dropdown is filled from Ideal Postcodes (Royal Mail PAF) instead — for example rural lanes where OpenStreetMap data is thin.

When you pick an address that came from Geoapify, Ideal Postcodes is called once to replace the map pin with PAF delivery-point coordinates. Rows already sourced from Ideal Postcodes skip a second lookup.

Geoapify search pipeline:

  1. A direct Geoapify search runs for {house} {postcode}.
  2. The system also runs a structured lookup on streets in that postcode (house number, street name, and postcode) and prefers those building-level coordinates over a single free-text guess.
  3. If that still does not return a confident match, you see a list of possible addresses to choose from.

When results are ambiguous, you always see a list to choose from (nothing is saved automatically from a single guess). A short note reminds you to confirm the pin on the map.

Flats and units — Enter values such as Flat 2, Unit 3, or Apt 4 in the house field with the postcode.

Geoapify is still used for place name search, routing, isochrones, and map click reverse geocoding.

Ideal Postcodes API key ​

  1. Sign up or log in at Ideal Postcodes.
  2. Open the dashboard and go to API keys (or Keys when signed in).
  3. Create an API key (test keys begin with ak_test, live keys with ak_live).
  4. Add credits or a plan as needed — house + postcode lookups consume credits per API request (see their pricing page).
  5. In open-commute/.env, set:
    dotenv
    IDEAL_POSTCODES_API_KEY=ak_live_your_key_here
  6. Restart the app (or reload PHP workers) so config is picked up.

Optional: IDEAL_POSTCODES_BASE_URL (default https://api.ideal-postcodes.co.uk/v1), IDEAL_POSTCODES_CACHE_HOURS (default 24).

API reference: Ideal Postcodes documentation.

Limits compared with Google Maps ​

House number + postcode does not include a street name. Different streets in the same postcode can share the same number, so you may still need to pick the correct line from the list or adjust the map.