Is anyone aware of a zip-code centric user search module or hack? I guess I need to be a bit more specific?

I run a site with focus around a large community, world wide. I want people to be able to search for each other based on zip codes (in the US...i'm not familiar with similar searches in Europe/Asia, etc). Anyhow...I'd like members to enter their zip code in the user profile area (I imagine that would have to be hacked in?) and then a module that would search through the zip codes and display all the members within a given range of zip codes.

I code PHP, so I can code such an app if I knew where to start. The biggest feat for me at the moment is figuring out how to hack in the zip code entry system into the user profile without breaking my XOOPS engine.

ATM you cannot add additional fields to the user table without hacks. However I am working on a system (planned for XOOPS 2.1) that will let you define custom fields for a member's profile.

In the mean time I would reuse one of the existing fields you might not use for other purposes (such as Location, ICQ or AIM). This would only require modifying a few language files, and remembering which field you stored this information in. Using this method will allow you to upgrade to new versions of XOOPS as they are released without having to re-do your hacks for each version.

Also if you wish to search for users based on proximity to a zip code, take a look at the ziploc class located:

http://www.sanisoft.com/ziploc/

If you are interested in the general method to determine the distance between two global points, this article explains the various methods:

http://distance-calculation.com/Distance-Calculation.asp