Need a zip/postal code database or plugin for rails

Anyone here has an idea of any good database or RoR plugin for zip and postal codes ???

Thank you...

I'm not sure of a plugin for it, but for US addresses you could try the web services provided by the USPS:

http://www.usps.com/webtools/technical.htm

What do you need to do with it? I asked this exact same question a while ago because I needed a way to search for an item based on its distance from a certain zipcode. I ended up stumbling onto GeoKit which is an amazing rails plugin for geocoding locations and performing a variety of related tasks.

I have a CSV file for all zip codes in the US: Code,Latitude,Longitude,City,State,County,Type

Load all the zips in a table and use GeoKit so that I can find distance qualifications by address (zip_code) without the expense of hitting a geocoder. Much faster and 100% available. It's also useful for classifying people by county (which geocoders can not do), and for presenting a list of cities, or auto-completing the city/state when someone enters a zip.

Just keep in mind that the lon/lat is for the CENTER of the zip_code area and may or may not fit your accuracy needs.

It may not be 100% correct, but it does have my home zip_code which became active only last year, so it looks pretty good to me.

Just drop me an email if you would like a copy. Also let me know if you would like a model and import script for importing the file.

To be honest, what I was more in need for is a db or a plugin for country/state drop down... But since I don't know how my app is going to evolve, I tought it'd be better to get the full thing now (zip codes etc...). I've heard about GeoKit and I've seen the API, its nice but isn't that a bit too much, since I don't plan to be making a map app??? What could you suggest me ??? thx for your time.

Well, you can use the us_states plugin to create a us_state_options_for_select (selection list). http://svn.techno-weenie.net/projects/plugins/us_states/

And rails provides country_select to select from a list of countries.