Download the UK Postcode Mapper Firefox extension here:
This is my first Firefox Extension. It searches the current page you are browsing for any UK Postcode. It then shows you a list of all postcodes on a small popup window. Then you just click on the postcode you would like to see on a map and (by default) a new tab opens with the postcode mapped in Google Maps. You can change the settings to open in a new window and also change the default map provider from Google to MultiMap or StreetMap.
I built this extension to learn how Firefox Extensions work and also to make my life easier as I always seem to be cutting and pasting postcodes into Google Maps to see where places are in London. After installing this you can see any UK postcode on a map in only 2 clicks! (That is saving a copy + open new window + type in maps.google.co.uk + paste + an enter!)
Here you can change the default settings
I’d recommend adding a button to your Toolbar. This can be done by right-clicking on your toolbar and selecting ‘Customise…’. Then you can drag and drop the ‘Map postcodes’ button.
This extension can also be accessed from the Tools menu.
Please leave me any feedback, suggestions or complaints in the comments.
Hi there,
The tool is a good idea but I think it could do with a couple of features that will make it much more usable.
Firstly, You can only select one postcode at a time. It would be great if you could select multiple postcodes and have it place them all on the map.
Secondly, what I really need is a way to load a csv files or similar with postcodes into the tool and to then be able to have all of them displayed on a map.
If you could do this I will happily review it on Google Apps to get it out of the experimental state.
Many thanks
James
Hi James,
Thanks for your comment. I like your first feature idea and this is something that I will consider for the next version. Your second idea however seems beyond the scope of what I intended this small plug-in to achieve.
Cheers
Daniel
James – did you ever find a way to upload a list of postcodes and display them on a map. I need to do this too and have been searching for a simple solution, but can’t see one without writing code myself. Ideally I’d like a mash-up with Google to make it easy to share the map with others.
Pete
This is pretty good, but I find the extra window slows me down to the point where it’s almost not worth using. Surely it would be far better to be able to right click on a postcode and select ‘map’?
The extra window requires three clicks and I really don’t need a list of all the postcodes on this page in one place.
Hi Eliot,
Thanks for your comment. I considered building an ‘inline’ version of this working with a right-click menu and might get around to it in the future. However the current method actually only takes two clicks (if you operate via the toolbar button as suggested), which would be the same as the method you suggested, so I can’t really see any advantage doing it this way.
Cheers
It would be really great if this could be updated for firefox 3.6.x . Alternatively, if you don’t have the time, how about turning it into an open source project and letting other people have a go?
Hi Raphael, Thanks for your comment. Making this open source is a good idea and something that I’ll explore further. Hopefully I post about this here soon.
Cheers,
Daniel
Hi Raphael,
I’ve now made this open source, and created a repository at github for this. More info about this here: http://blog.sitedaniel.com/2010/09/uk-postcode-mapper-firefox-extension-is-now-open-source/