Postal web server

This Docker image provides a web server that grants access to the libpostal library, enabling the parsing and normalization of street addresses globally. It need at least 2Gb of RAM (use 4GB for safety)

Ready docker image

docker pull ghcr.io/le0pard/postal_server:latest

Usage

Expand address

To expand address strings into normalized forms suitable for geocoder queries, use the /expand endpoint with the address query parameter. For example, to expand the address "Quatre-vingt-douze Ave des Ave des Champs-Élysées":

GET /expand?address=Quatre-vingt-douze%20Ave%20des%20Ave%20des%20Champs-Élysées

[
  "92 avenue des avenue des champs-elysees",
  "92 avenue des avenue des champs elysees",
  "92 avenue des avenue des champselysees"
]

This will provide the expanded and normalized addresses ready for geocoding queries.

Support additional parameters:

• languages: An array of language codes (e.g., ["en", "fr"]) to help with expansion
• address_components: An array of strings specifying which parts of the address to expand. If not provided, a default set of components is used. See the Address Components section below for all available values.
• latin_ascii: Transliterate to Latin ASCII (true default value)
• transliterate: Transliterate to the script of the first language (true default value)
• strip_accents: Strip accents from the address (true default value)
• decompose: Decompose diacritics and other characters (true default value)
• lowercase: Convert the address to lowercase (true default value)
• trim_string: Trim leading and trailing whitespace (true default value)
• replace_word_hyphens: Replace hyphens in words with spaces (true default value)
• delete_word_hyphens: Delete hyphens in words (true default value)
• replace_numeric_hyphens: Replace hyphens in numbers with spaces (false default value)
• delete_numeric_hyphens: Delete hyphens in numbers (false default value)
• split_alpha_from_numeric: Split alphabetic and numeric parts of the address (true default value)
• delete_final_periods: Deletes final periods (true default value)
• delete_acronym_periods: Deletes periods in acronyms (e.g., "U.S.A." -> "USA") (true default value)
• drop_english_possessives: Drops "'s" from the end of tokens (e.g., "St. James's" -> "St. James") (true default value)
• delete_apostrophes: Deletes apostrophes (true default value)
• expand_numex: Expands numeric expressions (e.g., "Twenty-third" -> "23rd") (true default value)
• roman_numerals: Converts Roman numerals to integers (e.g., "II" -> "2") (true default value)

Address Components

You also can select which parts of the address to expand. If not provided, a default set of components is used

• address_name: The name of a venue, organization, or building
• address_house_number: The house or building number
• address_street: The street name
• address_po_box: Post office box numbers
• address_unit: An apartment, suite, or office number
• address_level: A floor or level number
• address_entrance: An entrance identifier, like "Lobby A"
• address_staircase: A staircase identifier
• address_postal_code: The postal code

Parse address

To parse addresses into components, use the /parse endpoint with the address query parameter. For example, to parse the address "781 Franklin Ave Crown Heights Brooklyn NY 11216 USA":

GET /parse?address=781%20Franklin%20Ave%20Crown%20Heights%20Brooklyn%20NY%2011216%20USA

[
  {
    "label": "house_number",
    "value": "781"
  },
  {
    "label": "road",
    "value": "franklin ave"
  },
  {
    "label": "suburb",
    "value": "crown heights"
  },
  {
    "label": "city_district",
    "value": "brooklyn"
  },
  {
    "label": "state",
    "value": "ny"
  },
  {
    "label": "postcode",
    "value": "11216"
  },
  {
    "label": "country",
    "value": "usa"
  }
]

Support additional parameters:

• language: The language of the address (e.g., "en")
• country: The country of the address (e.g., "us")

This will break down the address into its individual components.

Healthcheck

Endpoint /health can be use to check webserver healthcheck (like in k8s env):

$ curl http://localhost:8000/health
{"status":"ok"}

Auth for server

You can set up either basic authentication or bearer token authentication to protect your web server, while keeping the /health endpoint public

Configuration

Configuration environment variables:

POSTAL_SERVER_HOST - server host (default: 0.0.0.0)
POSTAL_SERVER_PORT or PORT - server port (default: 8000)
POSTAL_SERVER_TRUSTED_PROXIES - trusted proxies IP addresses (separated by comma)
POSTAL_SERVER_LOG_FORMAT - log format, can be "json" or "text" (default: "text")
POSTAL_SERVER_LOG_LEVEL - log level (default: "info")
POSTAL_SERVER_BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME - basic auth username (required if basic auth password is set)
POSTAL_SERVER_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD - basic auth password (required if basic auth username is set)
POSTAL_SERVER_BEARER_AUTH_TOKEN - bearer auth token
POSTAL_SERVER_H2C - whether to use http2 h2c, default false
POSTAL_SERVER_DEBUG - enable debug mode, default false

Development

Local build:

docker build -t postal-server .