What would the best way for a search feature that locates the nearest store by the user entering there postcode? This is for the uk.
I've never done it with UK, but I've done it with US. In the US, there are zip code databases that give you longitude and latitude for the center of most (nearly all) US zip codes. From there you can calculate distance. I would assume the same holds true for UK. A quick search at google reveals a solution at HotScripts: http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Zip_Code_Locators/index.html I skimmed the first 2 pages of results at Google and didn't find any detailed tutorials or additional information on it, but no doubt its out there if you're willing to sift through more pages of results. In the end, the real key is a database of zip code to latitude and longitude. From there, you could easily use a US distance script (some are freely available) calculator as a model to build one for UK.
I've created a few of these applications. You need to use postcodeanywhere.co.uk to buy postcode lookups (4p per lookup). Create a database in mysql of all your store locations (postcode, address, easting, northing) and then you can use a php script to lookup the coordinates of the client postcode with postcodeanywhere and compare it using a formula to the stores in the DB. Then output your data from the array and order it by distance.
you know of 1 cheaper than ultmte lctr..? it has all the features I need but for $249 it's just too much. my database will have thousands of entries. I also need to be ale to add or delte additional search fields & chaneg the results template page.
A search on google for 'postcode to lat long' turns up quite a few resources which you should be able to integrate into your search script.