Data & API

Postal Code Boundaries Documentation

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Postal Code Boundaries Documentation

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Purpose

LightBox Postal Code Boundaries API supports autocomplete, tile and BBox image creation, and spatial requests to add to your mapping application or to retrieve postal code objects to add to your analysis. The postal code object contains postal code, state and nation along with the centroid and polygon in WKT format.

OAS 3.1 Specification

Features

Autocomplete
Tile/BBox image creation for your common map controls
Return postal code object by ID
Return postal code object by geometry WKT

Requirements

The LightBox APIs are hosted in the cloud and therefore have no platform requirements. Application requirements include:

A network connection to the LightBox API server
Ability to parse JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) API responses
Secure HTTPS connection
LightBox authentication key
LightBox authentication key

Connecting your account

When your LightBox user account is created, a unique API key is also generated. The API key should be kept secret at all times and can only be used for API requests. The key is required in all API calls.

To retrieve your unique API key:

Log in to the LightBox Developer Portal
Select Apps from the menu bar
In your approved App, note your API key (under Consumer Key)

Performing API requests

All API requests must be made over secure HTTPS connections. Requests made over HTTP will fail.

The base URL of the API server that all API requests will be made to is: https://api.lightboxre.com/ followed by a version number https://api.lightboxre.com/v1

Authentication

LightBox APIs uses a token-based authentication. All requests to the LightBox APIs must be authenticated. The token to be passed via an HTTP header with key 'x-api-key' and value <Your authentication token>

Pass your unique API key in the authorization header of every LightBox API call. LightBox uses this information to authenticate your identify and determine whether you have sufficient permissions to complete the operation. curl -X GET -H ‘x-api-key: (api_key)’ https://api.lightboxre.com/

API Requests

Query by Geometry

Query for postal code records based on a geometry represented as a well-known text (WKT) string.

POINT(-122.40317865990883 45.585729937697515)
LINESTRING (-122.40581795357949 45.58497908445598,-122.40325376176125 45.58627054581282)
POLYGON ((-122.4032877944377 45.58629457984625,-122.40264406427413 45.585697658341736,-122.40184476598769 45.58610686936547,-122.40244558080703 45.586688769812724,-122.4032877944377 45.58629457984625))

GET /postalcodes/us/geometry

Pro Tip:

This endpoint is best used when you have an existing latitude longitude from 3rd party geocoder, or using the value of a map click/identify from a standard map control.

Example requests

curl -X GET -H ‘x-api-key: (api_key)’ https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/us/geometry?wkt=POINT%28-117.852723%2033.63799%29&bufferDistance=50&bufferUnit=m

https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/us/geometry?wkt=POINT%28-117.852723%2033.63799%29&bufferDistance=50&bufferUnit=m

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Usage
wkt	query	The geometry of the location expressed in WKT format.	required
bufferDistance	query	Buffer distance expressed in 'bufferUnits'.	optional
bufferUnit	query	The unit type to apply to the buffer (eg m, km, ft, mi)	optional

Response

Media type: application/json

Query by Postal Code ID

Query postal codes using the 5 digit postal code 'ID.' (postal code e.g. 92630)

GET /postalcodes/us/{id}

Example Requests

curl -X GET -H ‘x-api-key: (api_key)’ https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/us/92630

https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/us/92630

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Usage
id	path	Five digit postal code	required

Response

Media type: application/json

Autocomplete

Return multiple records based on a full or partial postal code.

GET /counties/us/_autocomplete

Example Requests

curl -X GET -H ‘x-api-key: (api_key)’ https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/_autocomplete/us?text=926

https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/_autocomplete/us?text=926

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Usage
text	request	Full or partial postal code	required

Response

Media type: application/json

Tile

Use within common map controls to show postal code boundaries as a tile overlay.

GET /postalcodes/us/tile/{zoom}/{x}/{y}

Example Requests

curl -X GET -H ‘x-api-key: (api_key)’ https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/us/tile/18/45050/104888

https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/us/tile/18/45050/104888

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Usage
zoom	path	Tile zoom level, which can be a minimum of '13' and a maximum or '21.'	required
x	path	Tile column.	required
y	path	Tile row.	required

Response

Media type: image/png

Tile Bounding Box

Use within common map controls to show postal code boundaries as a bounding box overlay.

GET /postalcodes/us/tile

Example Requests

curl -X GET -H ‘x-api-key: (api_key)’ https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/us/tile?bbox=-83.0434660625,40.0198659375,-83.04070793749999,40.0226240625&width=600&height=600

https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/us/tile?bbox=-83.0434660625,40.0198659375,-83.04070793749999,40.0226240625&width=600&height=600

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Usage
bbox	path	A bounding box expressed in the NAD83 projected coordinate system.	required
width	path	Width of the result image	required
height	path	Height of the result image	required

Response

Media type: image/png

Health Check

Health Check is an endpoint used to determine the health of this service

GET /postalcodes/health

Example Requests

curl -X GET -H ‘x-api-key: (api_key)’ https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/health

https://api.lightboxre.com/v1/postalcodes/health

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Usage
None

Response

Media type: application/json

Health Check HTTP Status Codes:

Status Code	Description
200	OK - Service is up and healthy
503	Service is unavailable

API Response

For each endpoint other then the tile requests the response will stay consistent.

{
  "$ref": "string",
  "$metadata": {
    "geogcs": {
      "epsg": "4326"
    },
    "recordSet": {
      "totalRecords": 99,
      "bbox": {
        "xMax": -105.250409,
        "xMin": -105.251916,
        "yMax": 40.023629,
        "yMin": 40.022576
      }
    }
  },
  "postalCode": [
    {
      "$ref": "string",
      "id": "string",
      "fips": "string",
      "location": {
        "representativePoint": {
          "longitude": 0,
          "latitude": 0,
          "geometry": {
            "wkt": "string"
          }
        },
        "geometry": {
          "wkt": "string"
        },
        "regionCode": "AL",
        "postalCode": "string",
        "countryCode": "US"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Field Dictionary

Field	Type	Description
county	string	County that the postal code resides in.
fps	string	Federal Information Processing Code for the State, as well as the Federal Information Processing Code for the county. The first two digits are the state code and the last three digits are the county code.
location.postalCode	string	Postal code value.
locatoin.regionCode	string	Region code based on country code, including USPS Publication 28, Appendix B, for the United States and ISO 3166-2:CA for Canada.
location.countryCode	string	ISO 3166 alpha-2 country code (e.g., 'US' for the United States).

HTTP Error Codes

HTTP Response status codes along with a brief summary of their commonly accepted usage. These status codes are returned by LightBox APIs for each request:

200	The request succeeded.
201	The object was created successfully
202	Accepted, no content
204	Successful, no content
204	The server has successfully fulfilled the request and that there is no additional content to send in the response payload body. Typically returned on a DELETE
400	One or more of the request parameters were invalid.
401	The client must authenticate itself to get the requested response. *Note:* This could also be due to your trial key has expired.
404	The server cannot find the requested resource. This can also mean that the endpoint is valid but the resource itself does not exist.
429	Too many requests were made in a short period of time, or you have exceeded your request-lot pool.
500	The server has encountered an error it does not know how to handle.
503	Service Unavailable.

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What's Next

Postal Code Boundaries Release Notes

Table of contents

Purpose
API Requests
API Response
Field Dictionary
HTTP Error Codes