• The Autocomplete service offers address lookup and verification through standard URL requests. It allows for customization of label formatting and the retrieval of additional data.
• ‘As you type’, the service shows the most relevant matches, starting to display options once the user has entered three characters. To improve usability, the number of displayed matches is limited to 20, and these options dynamically change as the user continues to type.
• This service adheres to RESTful principles, accepting HTTP requests and returning responses in either JSON or XML format.

• To use this functionality you will need to buy an Address Lookup click bundle from the Shop located in our Portal. Register for the Portal here.
• An address lookup is initiated by supplying a URL for example:

https://cloud.hopewiser.com/autoc/json/uk-rm-paf?q=Downing%20Street%2CLondon

• The AutoComplete service defaults to return a free format address label, which may contain up to seven address lines. The town is presented in uppercase and the county is only included when appropriate, for example when it is required to disambiguate town names. If this does not meet your requirements, then you can customise the layout. For example to increase the number of address lines to eight and to fix the last address line for the postcode you can supply a URL of:

https://cloud.hopewiser.com/autoc/json/uk-rm-paf?q=00000000000%24%40sid%5ESBP17424391&OutputFields=Label8&LabelFormat=FixedPostcode

• Authentication is achieved using HTTP Basic Authentication, where both the token username and password are supplied in the HTTP header. To secure this information all requests should use the https:// protocol, in preference to standard http:// .

How do I look up an address?

An address lookup is initiated by supplying a URL of the form.

https://cloud.hopewiser.com/autoc/output/maf?parameters

where:

• output indicates the required output format – currently this must be json
• maf is the identity of the Master Address File to which the lookup is applied
• parameters is a set of request parameters

Only a single request parameter is required – the query string. All other parameters are optional and should only be supplied when a non-default setting is required. As is standard with URLs, each parameter must be separated by an ampersand (&) character.

The query string is denoted by a single ‘q‘ character. This is the address search criteria, which can be anything from a single character up to a full address. Please note that the search criteria must be URL encoded.

It is good practice to avoid sending multiple requests whilst the user is entering the search criteria. Delaying the request by a fraction of a second (for example 500 milliseconds) after each input character will allow for faster data entry with the request being made when the user stops typing.

Example address lookup request for “Downing Street,London”.

https://cloud.hopewiser.com/autoc/json/uk-rm-paf?q=Downing%20Street%2CLondon

This will return a pick-list of possible matches with the best predictions coming first. The client program would most likely reformat and present these to the end user as a list or tree. If the required address is not present then further input is needed to refine the list.

When an item is selected the client program should continue the address lookup by specifying the item’s Sid (search identity) in the q (query string) parameter, along with any non-default options. Please note that the Sid is already URL encoded.

https://cloud.hopewiser.com/autoc/json/uk-rm-paf?q=00000000000%24%40sid%5ETHR647134

The previous two steps should be repeated until a single item is returned with the Selected field value true. When the Selected field is true the address lookup is complete and the requested output fields will be returned.

Each item in a pick-list contains three control flags:

• IsExpandable is true when the item can be expanded
• IsComplete is true when the item contains a complete address
• Selected is true when a single item has been selected and the requested output fields have been returned

Please note that an item can be either expandable or complete, but not both.

How do I customise an address label?

The AutoComplete service defaults to return a free format address label, which may contain up to seven address lines. The town is presented in uppercase and the county is only included when appropriate, for example when it meets PTT guidelines or is required to disambiguate town names.

If this does not meet your requirements, then you can customise the layout. For example to increase the number of address lines to eight add the URL parameter “OutputFields=Label8“. To fix the last address line for the postcode add the parameter “LabelFormat=FixedPostcode“.

https://cloud.hopewiser.com/autoc/json/uk-rm-paf?q=00000000000%24%40sid%5ESBP17424391&OutputFields=Label8&LabelFormat=FixedPostcode

How do I get individual address fields or data fields?

Each Master Address File (MAF) allows for the retrieval of individual address fields and common data. Some MAFs contain extra information beyond that common to all MAFs, such as National Statistics Postcode Directory (NSPD) data.

To discover the available MAF fields, specify ListOutputs as the q (query string) parameter value.

https://cloud.hopewiser.com/autoc/output/maf?q=ListOutputs

where:

• output indicates the required output format – currently this must be json
• maf is the identity of the Master Address File

This will return a list of all possible output fields, which are grouped on TableName. Fields with a TableName value of either Address Label, Address Fields or Data are common to all MAFs. Those with the TableName value Extra Data are MAF specific. Please note that a ToolTip is only provided for the common fields.

Please refer to the Common Output Fields section for a full list of the standard fields.

Required fields can then be requested by specifying their names as a comma separated list in the OutputFields parameter. The shorthand value Extra_ can be used to specify all Extra Data fields. Please note that adding the OutputFields parameter to the request removes its default value. Hence an appropriate label (Label1..Label9) must be included in the comma separated list when a formatted address label is required.

Example to return a seven line formatted label, plus the country and all MAF specific extra data fields.

https://cloud.hopewiser.com/autoc/json/uk-rm-paf?q=00000000000%24%40sid%5ESBP17424391&OutputFields=Label7,Country,Extra_

When the address lookup is complete (i.e. the Selected field is true), then the requested output fields will be returned. It is possible for multiple values to exist per Extra Data field. Hence the Extra Data fields are grouped into records, where the first set of values comprise the first record, the second set comprise the next record, etc. Please note that only output fields containing a value will be returned.

How do I get version information?

To discover the service version information, specify ListVersions as the q (query string) parameter value.

https://cloud.hopewiser.com/autoc/output/maf?q=ListVersions

where:

• output indicates the required output format – currently this must be json
• maf is the identity of the Master Address File

This will return the service and underlying library versions, plus the version of the specified MAF.

The following table lists the output fields that can be retrieved from all Master Address Files (MAFs).

The AutoComplete service will return the HTTP status 200 (OK) for all requests that it can interpret. This will be accompanied with a response document containing an application level status code.

For all status codes, other than OK, a textual description of the response is also provided (for example).

Standard HTTP status codes are applied when the AutoComplete service cannot interpret the request. For example HTTP 401 (Unauthorised) is returned when the request does not contain token credentials or contains invalid credentials. HTTP 500 (Internal Server Error) is returned when the service encounters an unexpected failure.