How to search both standard and 3 word addresses

In a typical use case, a user enters a 3 word address into a search box. It is desirable that the user can enter and search for both standard addresses and 3 word addresses.

HERE hosts APIs to process standard addresses and 3 word addresses. To determine which API to call on the client side, the system matches user input against a regular expression. This detects whether the input is a standard or 3 word address.

In the following tutorial, one box search is used in a navigation scenario.

One box search consists of three navigation stages as follows:

Regex detects a 3 word address pattern
Autosuggest provides location suggestions based on typed input
Convert the selected 3 word address to coordinates

Regex detects a 3 word address pattern

When the user starts typing in the search box Regex runs on the background looking for a 3 word address pattern. Search results from HERE’s autosuggest endpoint will be suggested as normal until the 3 word address pattern is recognised. The pattern is word.word.word or ///word.word.word

Regex

^\/{0,}[^0-9`~!@#$%^&*()+\-_=[{\]}\\|'<,.>?/";:£§º©®\s]{1,}
[・.。][^0-9`~!@#$%^&*()+\-_=[{\]}\\|'<,.>?/";:£§º©®\s]{1,}
[・.。][^0-9`~!@#$%^&*()+\-_=[{\]}\\|'<,.>?/";:£§º©®\s]{1,}$

Autosuggest - API call

Autosuggest provides location suggestions based on typed input

When the regex matches, the what3words Autosuggest API is called.

Autosuggest - API call

https://what3words.search.hereapi.com/v3 /autosuggest?input=factory.shorts.butt&focus=[CAR-LOCATION]&key=[API-KEY]

Autosuggest - JSON

{
  "suggestions": [
    {
      "country": "DE",
      "nearestPlace": "Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin",
      "words": "factory.shorts.button",
      "rank": 1,
      "distanceToFocusKm": 2,
      "language": "en",
      "locale": null
    },
    {
      "country": "PL",
      "nearestPlace": "Suchy Las, Greater Poland",
      "words": "factory.shorts.gift",
      "rank": 2,
      "distanceToFocusKm": 237,
      "language": "en",
      "locale": null
    },
    {
      "country": "PL",
      "nearestPlace": "Toruń, Kujawsko-Pomorskie",
      "words": "factory.shorts.bath",
      "rank": 3,
      "distanceToFocusKm": 352,
      "language": "en",
      "locale": null
    }
  ]
}

Convert the selected 3 word address to coordinates

When the user selects a suggested 3 word address the convert-to-coordinates API call is triggered.

Convert-to-coordinates API call

https://what3words.search.hereapi.com/v3 /convert-to-coordinates?words=factory.shorts.button&key=[API-KEY]

Convert-to-coordinates JSON

{
  "country": "DE",
  "square": {
    "southwest": {
      "lng": 13.420922,
      "lat": 52.538621
    },
    "northeast": {
      "lng": 13.420966,
      "lat": 52.538648
    }
  },
  "nearestPlace": "Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin",
  "coordinates": {
    "lng": 13.420944,
    "lat": 52.538635
  },
  "words": "factory.shorts.button",
  "language": "en",
  "locale": null,
  "map": "https://w3w.co/factory.shorts.button"
}

Use the coordinates returned to set the destination. This response also provides the name of nearest place and the requested 3 word address.