How to geocode in JAVA without maps?

Question

I need to geocode address to find the Latitude and Longitude . But I just need the response in XML/JSON format , I don't want to show it on maps. Use of Google Geocoding is prohibited without maps. Please suggest a way to do this.

Answer 1

You can try OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service for example:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim

Example output for the following search

http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search.php?q=brandenburger+tor%2C+berlin%2C+deutschland&format=json

is

[{"place_id":"67311118","licence":"Data \u00a9 OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright","osm_type":"way","osm_id":"104393803","boundingbox":["52.5159645080566","52.5165634155273","13.3776025772095","13.3781223297119"],"lat":"52.51626405","lon":"13.3777246125974","display_name":"Brandenburger Tor, Pariser Platz, Berliner Urstromtal, Mitte, Berlin, 11011, Deutschland, Europ\u00e4ische Union","class":"tourism","type":"attraction","importance":1.1434728583616,"icon":"http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/images/mapicons/poi_point_of_interest.p.20.png"}]