[wp-hackers] Geodata storage

[Mike Schinkel]

On Jun 5, 2010, at 5:37 PM, Jeremy Clarke wrote:
> I'm more interested in the specific use-case of wanting to say where the
> post is *about* (i.e. on a post about gaza the pin is on gaza on the map),
> but that's not really important. If the geo storage is standardized it could
> be used to associate a location with a post for any reason.

Ah, that's more clear, thanks.  For some reason it just wasn't clicking.

>> Me too. I hugely value standards.  I do think that code makes standards
>> more pervasive though, hence why something in core or at least a canonical
>> plugin that supports this would be helpful.
> Like mdawaffe said in the first post the geolocation plugin from
> wordpress.com already uses this format. It's use-case is very narrow
> (logging where you were when you publish a post) but it serves as a starting
> point for plugins that would want to do other things with the data.

Something to consider. If something is in a plugin there's no reasonably expectation that anyone will do it the same way in another plugin, even if written about as a best practice (because the develop may not look for the best practice.) Just look at how many plugins do the same thing only slightly differently.  However if there where a set of functions in core (or a canonical plugin) like get_post_geo() and update_post_geo()  developers would be much more likely to find and follow the conventions because they'd find then doing what they already have to do; search the WordPress code base to understand how to write plugins.  JMTCW.

-Mike