Leveraging Location-Based API's Within Alteryx 7.0

Happy New Year Alteryx Users!

In my last post I introduced a Reverse Geocoding Macro that returned address information using the new Parse XML Tool in Alteryx 7.0 and the Google Maps API for Geocoding. Using the XML Parse Tool, you can extract the returned XML data from the API, giving users access to a whole host of data never before available within Alteryx. With the Google Maps API for Geocoding being only one of the many API's that return data in XML format, I wanted to blog about the various location-based API's you might be able to leverage when the 7.0 version of Alteryx is released next year.

Yet as I was gathering this info, I ran across a post by Kin Lane on his blog that summed up nicely what I wanted to say, so not to dupe what he had already written, I will provide a link to his post here:

Quick Walk Through World of Location & Places API's

Not to say that all of these API's return data in XML format for you to use, yet I hope it does start you thinking about the multitude of API's, the data that can be extracted from them and what you can do with it now that you have access. That said, you also must diligently dig through the data and see if it is appropriate for what you wish to use it for. Following the age old saying "A map is only as good as the data it represents"; be careful of what is being returned, as Whit Nelson found out and posted about here:

Why you shouldn't use the Yelp API

Wishing all of you a great New Year and please keep All About GIS in mind for your Alteryx training needs in 2012! 

Till next time, enjoy!

Ron @ All About GIS.net