geoplanet-example-method.rb

  def yql_name_hpricot(name)

    # this method takes a place name, and returns the English name of the region it resides in.
    # So 'Marnee La Valle Chessy' becomes 'Chessy', and 'London Kings Cross International' becomes 'London', and so on

    require 'hpricot'
    require 'open-uri'
    
    # Use CGI library to escape out strange characters, which choke up Geoplanet
    url_safe_name = CGI::escape(name)
        
    yql =   "http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?"
    doc = Hpricot.XML(open("#{yql}q=select%20locality1%20from%20geo.places%20where%20text%3D%22#{url_safe_name}%22"))
    (doc/:"locality1").first.innerHTML

  end