Google Maps Reverse Geocoding CLI
· Part of my work at DJP
Abstract: Developed a sophisticated command-line tool to reverse geocode latitude/longitude coordinates into full addresses using the Google Maps API.
The Challenge
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a business need to monitor employee locations for safety and logistical purposes. The raw data consisted of a large volume of latitude and longitude coordinates. Manually converting these coordinates into meaningful addresses was not feasible. An efficient, automated solution was required.
The Solution
I engineered a powerful Command-Line Interface (CLI) tool to automate the process of reverse geocoding. The tool was designed to be robust, efficient, and easily deployable, leveraging a modern tech stack to handle the task.
Architecture & Technology
- Symfony Framework: The core CLI application was built on the Symfony framework, providing a solid structure for commands, dependency injection, and configuration management.
- Google Maps API: The tool integrated directly with the Google Maps Geocoding API to perform the reverse geocoding lookups.
- Performance: A component of the tool was written in Go to handle high-performance processing tasks.
- Containerized: The entire application was containerized using Docker, making it completely portable and easy to run in any environment without dependency conflicts.
- Data Persistence: The tool used a PostgreSQL database for storing and managing the coordinate and address data, and Redis for caching to reduce API calls and improve performance.
This project was a prime example of building a modern, containerized, and polyglot application to solve a specific and critical business problem.