Geocoder VS Geokit-rails comparisons

comparisons.md

Gem Comparisons

Repo state

	Geocoder	Geokit-Rails
Stars	4802	1286
Issues	38	58
Open pull requests	19	1
Closed pull requests	512	39
First commit	15.4.2009.	18.12.2008.
Last commit	17.11.2017.	9.8.2017.
Popularity	9.4 and growing	7.2 stable
Activity	7.5 stable	3.9

Features

	Geocoder	Geokit-Rails
Postgis solution	Yes	No
Geocoding by street *	Yes	Yes
Geocoding by IP address*	Yes	Yes
Reverse geocoding*	Yes	Yes
Distance queries	Yes	Yes

Legend:

• geocoding by street: get latitude and longitude based on the address (string)
• geocoding by IP address: get latitude and longitude based on the ip address
• reverse geocoding: finding street address based on given coordinates (lat/lng)
• distance queries: how far is an object from another in meters (the objects need to have lat/lng attributes)

Database support

	Geocoder	Geokit-Rails
MySQL	Yes	Yes
Postgresql	Yes	Yes
SQLite	Yes	No
MongoDB	Yes	No

Differences in code

Given the next example of a project, the goal is to fetch a particular type of users (limit 50) that were close to a job (user and job are names of AR models):

geocoder version

MAX_USER_DISTANCE = 200
MAX_SET_OF_USERS = 50

def call
  User.near(job_location, MAX_USER_DISTANCE)
      .with_user_type_assignee
      .limit(MAX_SET_OF_USERS)
end

def job_location
  [job.latitude, job.longitude].compact
end

Running this the following sql is produced:

SELECT  users.*, 3958.755864232 * 2 * ASIN(SQRT(POWER(SIN((20.0 - users.last_latitude) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2) + COS(20.0 * PI() / 180) * COS(users.last_latitude * PI() / 180) * POWER(SIN((-15.0 - users.last_longitude) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2))) AS distance, MOD(CAST((ATAN2( ((users.last_longitude - -15.0) / 57.2957795), ((users.last_latitude - 20.0) / 57.2957795)) * 57.2957795) + 360 AS decimal), 360) AS bearing FROM \"users\" WHERE (users.last_latitude BETWEEN 17.10536433778304 AND 22.89463566221696 AND users.last_longitude BETWEEN -18.08040693114738 AND -11.91959306885262 AND (3958.755864232 * 2 * ASIN(SQRT(POWER(SIN((20.0 - users.last_latitude) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2) + COS(20.0 * PI() / 180) * COS(users.last_latitude * PI() / 180) * POWER(SIN((-15.0 - users.last_longitude) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2)))) BETWEEN 0.0 AND 200) AND \"users\".\"user_type\" = 'assignee' ORDER BY distance ASC LIMIT 50

However, the following error occurred:

ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid: PG::UndefinedColumn: ERROR:  column "distance" does not exist
LINE 1: ....0 AND 200) AND "users"."user_type" = $1 ORDER BY distance A...
                                                             ^
: SELECT COUNT(count_column) FROM (SELECT  1 AS count_column FROM "users" WHERE (users.last_latitude BETWEEN 17.10536433778304 AND 22.89463566221696 AND users.last_longitude BETWEEN -18.08040693114738 AND -11.91959306885262 AND (3958.755864232 * 2 * ASIN(SQRT(POWER(SIN((20.0 - users.last_latitude) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2) + COS(20.0 * PI() / 180) * COS(users.last_latitude * PI() / 180) * POWER(SIN((-15.0 - users.last_longitude) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2)))) BETWEEN 0.0 AND 200) AND "users"."user_type" = $1 ORDER BY distance ASC LIMIT $2) subquery_for_count
from /Users/cilim/.rbenv/versions/2.4.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.4.0/gems/activerecord-5.1.3/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:614:in `async_exec'

Substituting geocoder with geokit-rails was easy:

geokit-rails version

MAX_USER_DISTANCE = 200
MAX_SET_OF_USERS = 50

def call
  User.within(MAX_USER_DISTANCE, origin: job)
      .with_user_type_assignee
      .limit(MAX_SET_OF_USERS)
end

And all worked normally.

SQL query:

"SELECT  \"users\".* FROM \"users\" WHERE (users.last_latitude IS NOT NULL AND users.last_longitude IS NOT NULL) AND (users.last_latitude>17.10860294292818 AND users.last_latitude<22.89139705707182 AND users.last_longitude>-18.07661470455701 AND users.last_longitude<-11.923385295442989) AND ((\n" +
"          (ACOS(least(1,COS(0.3490658503988659)*COS(-0.2617993877991494)*COS(RADIANS(users.last_latitude))*COS(RADIANS(users.last_longitude))+\n" +
"          COS(0.3490658503988659)*SIN(-0.2617993877991494)*COS(RADIANS(users.last_latitude))*SIN(RADIANS(users.last_longitude))+\n" +
"          SIN(0.3490658503988659)*SIN(RADIANS(users.last_latitude))))*3963.1899999999996)\n" +
"          <= 200)) AND \"users\".\"user_type\" = 'assignee' LIMIT 50"

without errors 👍