Cumbria Services A-Z

Here's a map of the public sector services in Cumbria - those that have been given a location.

Data date: 14 June 2011 07:57:37

"The Cumbria A-Z is a joint project between Cumbrian councils to develop a single A-Z covering all public sector services in the county. It also includes a large number of national public sector and regional voluntary services".

This map is created using the latest data available from Eden District Council's open data: (Joint Cumbrian A-Z - partnership working and open data). This Google map shows all the entries that have locations.

This mashup page was produced by Chris Cant of PHD Computer Consultants Ltd, a web and programming consultancy based near Bampton, Penrith.

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Valid CSS!

Programming notes

This ASP.NET web application stores a local copy of the Cumbria A-Z data file (as it is fairly large), along with a note of its date in a separate file.

At every request, it checks the date of the real Cumbria A-Z data file - by issuing a HTTP HEAD request. If the local file is out of date, the web app reads the entire real data file, storing it as a local copy - and updates the date file. (If the data read fails, the local copy has not been changed.)

The code reads the local A-Z file and parses its XML. For XML items that have locations, it adds to the JavaScript that is used by the page code to define the Google Maps points. The app remembers this JavaScript as long as the application 'stays alive' so that it does not have to re-parse the A-Z file.

Page generated: 04 February 2012 02:36:43
Application started: 04 February 2012 02:36:42