# OpenStreetMap CiviCRM GeoCoder

This CiviCRM extension adds the Nominatim OpenStreetMap server as a geocoding
option. Just install the extension, and activate via *Administer*
→ *System Settings* → *Mapping and Geocoding*.

Disclaimer: This CiviCRM extension requests geodata from nominatim.osm.org, a
service of OpenStreetMap Foundation. We have been advised that OSM servers might
not be suitable for massive data requests, but so far could not get precise
information on what this exactly means. Also, we don't know what the
consequences of requests too massive for the OSM infrastructure might be.
Therefore we recommend that you consider using the throttling option for the
"Geocode and Parse Adresses" cronjob if processing data sets containing more
than 10.000 addresses.

Find the [German README here](german.md).

Remark: Be careful when activating the "Geocode and Parse Addresses" scheduled
job. It will try to look up all addresses that have not been geocoded yet. That,
however, includes all the addresses that couldn't be successfully completed the
last time - causing the same failed addresses to be queried again and again.

For most scenarios it should be sufficient to run the job once, since newly
entered addresses and address changes should be automatically geocoded.

Links:

* [Open-Street-Map-Project](http://www.openstreetmap.org)
* [Open-Street-Map-Server](http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org)
* [API specs](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/API_v0.6)