PAF API

HTTP API that parses Postcode Address File records into correctly formatted address lines

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Parses Postcode Address File records into correctly formatted address recognised by Royal Mail according to its Clear Addressing Guidelines.

Produces consistent address lines, a post town line and a postcode line via HTTP

Features

Correct Addressing

Getting Started

Try on paf-api.ideal-postcodes.dev

curl -X POST \
  https://paf-api.ideal-postcodes.dev/parse \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{ "sub_building_name": "Flat 8", "building_name": "Oxford House 110-114", "thoroughfare": "High Street" }'

HTTP API Usage

This API responds to POST requests to /parse with a JSON payload representing a PAF Record

POST /parse

Request
POST /parse

{
  "postcode": "WS11 5SB",
  "post_town": "CANNOCK",
  "thoroughfare": "Pye Green Road",
  "building_name": "Flower House 189A",
  "organisation_name": "S D Alcott Florists",
}
Response
{
  "query": {
    "postcode": "WS11 5SB",
    "post_town": "CANNOCK",
    "thoroughfare": "Pye Green Road",
    "building_name": "Flower House 189A",
    "organisation_name": "S D Alcott Florists",
    "building_number": "",
    "sub_building_name": "",
    "dependant_locality": "",
    "double_dependant_locality": "",
    "dependant_thoroughfare": "",
    "po_box": "",
    "department_name": "",
  },
  "formatted": {
    "postcode": "WS11 5SB",
    "post_town": "CANNOCK",
    "line_1": "S D Alcott Florists",
    "line_2": "Flower House",
    "line_3": "189a Pye Green Road",
    "premise": "Flower House, 189a"
  }
}

Available Payload Attributes

{
  building_number: string | number;
  building_name: string;
  sub_building_name: string;
  dependant_locality: string;
  double_dependant_locality: string;
  thoroughfare: string;
  dependant_thoroughfare: string;
  po_box: string;
  post_town: string;
  postcode: string;
  department_name: string;
  organisation_name: string;
}

Deploy

Deploy as a docker container

Using the Docker CLI

docker pull idealpostcodes/paf-api:latest

docker run -p 8080:8080 idealpostcodes/paf-api

Alternatively with docker-compose

git clone https://github.com/ideal-postcodes/paf-api && cd paf-api

docker-compose up -d

Deploy as a Node.js process

Requires Node.js 8 or above

git clone https://github.com/ideal-postcodes/paf-api && cd paf-api && npm install

npm start # Traffic served on 8080

NPM Module

The npm module exports an Express app factory, which takes a pino logger

const { App } = require("paf-api");

const app = App({ logger: pino() });

http.createServer(app).listen(PORT);

Configuration

The following environment variables can be passed to the application.

PORT=8080 # Sets the port to listen on

Licence

MIT