Eircode - its implemetation (merged)

Bray Head

plodder wrote: »

Germans in particular, are obsessive about privacy and the idea that unique identifiers would be floating around potentially uniquely identifying people (in some cases) but masquerading as postcodes, would not wash there. 

Except here's a website where you can look up the names, unique addresses and unique phone numbers of millions of Germans.

plodder

Bray Head wrote: »

Except here's a website where you can look up the names, unique addresses and unique phone numbers of millions of Germans.

The phone book. Pick any well known German person and see if you can find them in it. Just like here, the German state doesn't insist you have an entry in it before it will deal with you.

swoofer

eircodes are here to stay, end of.

MBSnr

^^^
I've found that even tradesmen are starting to use them. Had a guy come out to quote on some work over the summer and he wanted our Eircode so he could just arrive at the house. Was impressed with that. Got another guy coming to service our hot water system and they use Eircode's to locate the customer as well.

Bray Head

I think the integration into google maps has been key to use by tradespeople.



Basically a way of easily finding every dwelling and premises in Ireland is now in everyone's pocket.

This has never existed before.

ukoda

Ikea have launched an online delivery service in Ireland, the only address info they ask for is your eircode for the checkout process, the implementation is a bit fiddlie though as it can’t cope without a space in the eircode, so any code without a space is invalid, which I find a bit sloppy from them.

HelgaWard

ukoda wrote: »

Ikea have launched an online delivery service in Ireland, the only address info they ask for is your eircode for the checkout process, the implementation is a bit fiddlie though as it can’t cope without a space in the eircode, so any code without a space is invalid, which I find a bit sloppy from them.

Yeah, IKEA asked us for our Eircode this time last year when we placed an order for delivery with them. I was impressed! However the delivery guys rang us en route to get us to direct them to the house. So even though IKEA ask for it, it doesn't necessarily mean their delivery staff will use it!!

ukoda

HelgaWard wrote: »

Yeah, IKEA asked us for our Eircode this time last year when we placed an order for delivery with them. I was impressed! However the delivery guys rang us en route to get us to direct them to the house. So even though IKEA ask for it, it doesn't necessarily mean their delivery staff will use it!!

It probably wasn’t integrated with google maps this time last year, I can’t actually recall when that happened.

The service I’m referring to is online shopping, which only launched today, as opposed to going into the store and then getting them to deliver

chewed

ukoda wrote: »

Ikea have launched an online delivery service in Ireland, the only address info they ask for is your eircode for the checkout process, the implementation is a bit fiddlie though as it can’t cope without a space in the eircode, so any code without a space is invalid, which I find a bit sloppy from them.

The eircode was built to have a space so don't see any issue here. I've seen some companies include their eircode on websites with no spaces and it just looks messy. In the UK there's also a space which they all adhere to!

ukoda

chewed wrote: »

The eircode was built to have a space so don't see any issue here. I've seen some companies include their eircode on websites with no spaces and it just looks messy. In the UK there's also a space which they all adhere to!

It’s not a big deal really but it’s a bit sloppy. There are implementations out there that can auto add the space or can accept an eircode with or without a space, which is how most UK post codes validate the entry. It would just be a bit smoother for people to add that layer of intelligence

HelgaWard

ukoda wrote: »

It probably wasn’t integrated with google maps this time last year, I can’t actually recall when that happened.

The service I’m referring to is online shopping, which only launched today, as opposed to going into the store and then getting them to deliver

It the same system, or so they told us at the time, the online front end of it was scheduled to be turned on at that stage. Google maps did have Eircodes included at the time. http://www.newstalk.com/You-can-now-use-Eircode-to-find-places-on-Google-Maps

JohnC.

I've had a delivery driver ask for Eircode instead of directions. Can't recall if it was DPD or DHL.

oscarBravo

ukoda wrote: »

It’s not a big deal really but it’s a bit sloppy. There are implementations out there that can auto add the space or can accept an eircode with or without a space...

Yeah, it's annoying when a page or system can't interpret what's obviously an Eircode. I've come across some that allow you to enter lowercase characters and then complain that it has to be in uppercase.

For our own systems I've written a reusable input widget that compares the input to a regular expression which includes an optional space. It converts the input to uppercase and strips the space if there is one, then does any required database lookups with the canonical format.* It's just a few lines of code, and there's really no excuse not to do it.


* The canonical display format has a space in it. The canonical format for database storage doesn't.

Alun

I agree, it's lazy programming. Same as Credit / Debit card numbers that can't be input as groups of 4 digits separated by spaces as they appear on the card.

plodder

ukoda wrote: »

Ikea have launched an online delivery service in Ireland, the only address info they ask for is your eircode for the checkout process, the implementation is a bit fiddlie though as it can’t cope without a space in the eircode, so any code without a space is invalid, which I find a bit sloppy from them.

Does it confirm the address back to you at any point in the process? It would be rather dangerous to just take an Eircode as a full address specification, without verifying it back to you. From what I can see, it calculates the delivery charge without doing that, which could end up calculating the charges wrong if you make a mistake.

ukoda

plodder wrote: »

Does it confirm the address back to you at any point in the process? It would be rather dangerous to just take an Eircode as a full address specification, without verifying it back to you. From what I can see, it calculates the delivery charge without doing that, which could end up calculating the charges wrong if you make a mistake.

Yeah it does, click on check out and it has your address in full format (and you can edit it)

L1011

BT MyDonate, used by UK charities almost solely, has extensive but buggy eircode support. Has an address selector thing which generated the eircode for the first house on my road despite selecting the correct number.

Why they even bother I have no idea!

atgate

Hi

I hope this hasn’t been asked and answered 100 times (I did search).

I bought a house that was in six flats (with six Eircodes) 18 months ago. Told Eircode (who told An Post). The original eircodes were retired and a new one issued about 12 months ago.

So, now the new eircode is correct on Eircode, Autoaddress, Vodafone and some more. However, the new one doesn’t exist and the old ones do exist on An Post, Google Maps, Motortax.ie and most other services.

Geodirectry say they have the correct data. As do Eircode. An Post don’t reply.

Any ideas?

oscarBravo

ECAD updates are issued quarterly. It looks like some users are a bit slow to apply the updates.

Bray Head

I see eircode is now fully integrated with the electoral register.

You can check to see if you are registered to vote (http://www.checktheregister.ie) and use your eircode as the address input. It's very neat.

This saves time for urban addresses - less typing and automatic elimination of similar addresses. 
It also saves time for rural addresses, no multiple attempts with different spellings of townlands, no confusion with your relative who shares the same name and lives across the road.

This is a small, but really effective benefit of eircode which could never have been achieved with either a UK- or a German-style system.

swampgas

Bray Head wrote: »

I see eircode is now fully integrated with the electoral register.

You can check to see if you are registered to vote (http://www.checktheregister.ie) and use your eircode as the address input. It's very neat.

This saves time for urban addresses - less typing and automatic elimination of similar addresses. 
It also saves time for rural addresses, no multiple attempts with different spellings of townlands, no confusion with your relative who shares the same name and lives across the road.

This is a small, but really effective benefit of eircode which could never have been achieved with either a UK- or a German-style system.

I think eircode support depends on where you live. Select Cork County Council and you won't see any option for eircodes (yet). Which is a pity, as Cork County has a lot of non-unique rural addresses.

plodder

swampgas wrote: »

I think eircode support depends on where you live. Select Cork County Council and you won't see any option for eircodes (yet). Which is a pity, as Cork County has a lot of non-unique rural addresses.

I don't think it has changed at all since we talked about it last, months/years ago. It's still the same with Fingal. You can't enter your eircode. If you have a rural address with a housename, you have to enter that in the town-land field. Not very intuitive.

Also, the issue isn't really Eircode per-se, which isn't a magic bullet. It's the fact that the addresses themselves differ between the Eircode d/b and the electoral register. Given the amount of work that (apparently) goes into updating the electoral register, they ought to be able to do a single country-wide sweep, getting everyone's eircode for some future version of the register. I'd say the fact that legal responsibility is at the county level, rather than nationally, might be what's hampering that.

donspeekinglesh

Kildare CC has the option but it didn't work. Had to type my address as usual (and my full name, and not just the 2 characters it said it needed).

Bray Head

I had looked at Dublin City and Wicklow and the eircode lookup works.

Slightly OT, but it's another reason why responsibility for compiling the electoral register should be taken away from the local authorities and centralised.

MBSnr

^^^
Eircode lookup doesn't work for Mayo Electoral Register either...

GerardKeating

swampgas wrote: »

I think eircode support depends on where you live. Select Cork County Council and you won't see any option for eircodes (yet). Which is a pity, as Cork County has a lot of non-unique rural addresses.

Not working for my part of Galway County, I can find myself with the Irish version of my address, but not the EIRCode

murpho999

Works for me for Wicklow Co Co. Good stuff

Bray Head

Parcel Motel would not let me top up my account by credit card without an eircode. Not sure if this is their own system or a third party one.

piuswal

swampgas wrote: »

I think eircode support depends on where you live. Select Cork County Council and you won't see any option for eircodes (yet). Which is a pity, as Cork County has a lot of non-unique rural addresses.

Just checked the register, been on it 40 years but not now.

Neither EIRCODE nor usual address could find me!

This is in Dublin County Council area.

BonnieSituation

piuswal wrote: »

Just checked the register, been on it 40 years but not now.

Neither EIRCODE nor usual address could find me!

This is in Dublin County Council area.

Then there's a fierce chance you're not registered.

Of you go to resolve that conundrum and re-register.