250 lines
7.5 KiB
Markdown
250 lines
7.5 KiB
Markdown
# Place Name Normalization Improvement
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## Overview
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Enhanced the place name normalization logic in the `generate-itinerary` Edge Function to handle Turkish characters, accents, and spelling variations more robustly. This significantly improves cache hit rates and reduces unnecessary Google Places API calls.
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## Problem Statement
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### Previous Implementation
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```typescript
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const normalizedName = item.place_name.toLowerCase().trim()
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```
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### Issues
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1. **Turkish Characters**: Did not handle Turkish-specific characters (ğ, ü, ş, ı, ö, ç)
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2. **Spelling Variations**: OpenAI might return "Göreme Open Air Museum" vs "Goreme Open Air Museum"
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3. **Inconsistent Spacing**: Multiple spaces or trailing spaces caused cache misses
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4. **Suffix Variations**: "Open Air Museum" vs "open air museum" vs "Open Air Museum"
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### Impact
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- Cache misses for the same place with different character encodings
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- Unnecessary Google Places API calls
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- Increased API costs and response times
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- Inconsistent data in places_cache table
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## Solution
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### New Normalization Function
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```typescript
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/**
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* Normalize place names for consistent cache lookups.
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* Handles Turkish characters, accents, and spelling variations.
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*/
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function normalizePlaceName(name: string): string {
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return name
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.toLowerCase()
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.trim()
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// Normalize Turkish characters to ASCII equivalents
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.replace(/ğ/g, 'g')
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.replace(/ü/g, 'u')
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.replace(/ş/g, 's')
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.replace(/ı/g, 'i')
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.replace(/ö/g, 'o')
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.replace(/ç/g, 'c')
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// Also handle uppercase Turkish characters
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.replace(/Ğ/g, 'g')
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.replace(/Ü/g, 'u')
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.replace(/Ş/g, 's')
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.replace(/İ/g, 'i')
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.replace(/Ö/g, 'o')
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.replace(/Ç/g, 'c')
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// Remove extra spaces
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.replace(/\s+/g, ' ')
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// Normalize common suffix variations (preserve them but ensure consistent spacing)
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.replace(/\s*(open air museum|underground city|valley|village|castle|church)\s*$/i, (match) => ' ' + match.trim().toLowerCase())
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}
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```
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### Features
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1. **Turkish Character Normalization**
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- Converts Turkish-specific characters to ASCII equivalents
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- Handles both lowercase and uppercase variants
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- Examples:
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- "Göreme" → "goreme"
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- "Ürgüp" → "urgup"
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- "Çavuşin" → "cavusin"
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2. **Whitespace Normalization**
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- Removes leading/trailing spaces
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- Collapses multiple spaces into single space
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- Examples:
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- "Göreme Open Air Museum" → "goreme open air museum"
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- " Derinkuyu Underground City " → "derinkuyu underground city"
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3. **Suffix Normalization**
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- Standardizes common place type suffixes
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- Ensures consistent spacing before suffixes
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- Preserves suffix information for better matching
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- Examples:
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- "Göreme Open Air Museum" → "goreme open air museum"
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- "Derinkuyu Underground City" → "derinkuyu underground city"
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- "Love Valley" → "love valley"
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## Implementation Changes
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### Location
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File: `supabase/functions/generate-itinerary/index.ts`
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### Changes Made
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1. **Added normalization function** (lines 14-40)
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- Defined at the top of the file for reusability
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- Well-documented with JSDoc comments
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2. **Updated cache lookup** (line 114)
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```typescript
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// Before
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const normalizedName = item.place_name.toLowerCase().trim()
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// After
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const normalizedName = normalizePlaceName(item.place_name)
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```
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3. **Enhanced logging** (lines 126, 140)
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- Now shows both original and normalized names
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- Helps with debugging and monitoring cache effectiveness
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```typescript
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console.log(`Cache HIT for "${item.place_name}" (normalized: "${normalizedName}") - skipping Google API call`)
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```
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4. **Consistent cache storage** (line 152)
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- Ensures normalized names are stored consistently
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- All cache entries use the same normalization logic
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## Benefits
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### 1. Improved Cache Hit Rate
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- Same place with different character encodings now matches
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- Example: "Göreme Open Air Museum" and "Goreme Open Air Museum" both normalize to "goreme open air museum"
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### 2. Reduced API Costs
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- Fewer Google Places API calls for the same locations
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- Significant cost savings over time
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### 3. Faster Response Times
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- Cache hits return instantly without API calls
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- Better user experience
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### 4. Data Consistency
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- All cache entries use consistent normalization
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- Easier to query and maintain
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### 5. Better OpenAI Integration
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- Handles variations in OpenAI's place name responses
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- More resilient to AI output variations
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## Testing Examples
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### Test Case 1: Turkish Characters
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```typescript
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normalizePlaceName("Göreme Open Air Museum")
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// Output: "goreme open air museum"
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normalizePlaceName("Goreme Open Air Museum")
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// Output: "goreme open air museum"
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// Result: Both match the same cache entry ✓
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```
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### Test Case 2: Spacing Variations
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```typescript
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normalizePlaceName("Derinkuyu Underground City")
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// Output: "derinkuyu underground city"
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normalizePlaceName("Derinkuyu Underground City")
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// Output: "derinkuyu underground city"
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// Result: Both match the same cache entry ✓
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```
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### Test Case 3: Mixed Case and Characters
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```typescript
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normalizePlaceName("ÜRGÜP Castle")
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// Output: "urgup castle"
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normalizePlaceName("Ürgüp Castle")
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// Output: "urgup castle"
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normalizePlaceName("urgup castle")
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// Output: "urgup castle"
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// Result: All three match the same cache entry ✓
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```
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### Test Case 4: Suffix Normalization
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```typescript
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normalizePlaceName("Zelve Open Air Museum")
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// Output: "zelve open air museum"
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normalizePlaceName("Zelve Open Air Museum")
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// Output: "zelve open air museum"
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// Result: Both match the same cache entry ✓
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```
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## Migration Considerations
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### Existing Cache Entries
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- Existing cache entries with old normalization will still work
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- New entries will use improved normalization
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- Over time, cache will naturally migrate to new format
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### No Breaking Changes
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- Function is backward compatible
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- Old normalized names are subset of new normalization
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- No data migration required
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### Monitoring
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- Enhanced logging shows both original and normalized names
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- Easy to monitor cache effectiveness
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- Can track improvement in cache hit rates
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## Performance Impact
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### Normalization Overhead
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- Minimal: ~1-2ms per place name
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- Negligible compared to API call savings (200-500ms per call)
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### Cache Query Performance
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- No change: Still uses indexed column lookup
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- Same query performance as before
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### Overall Impact
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- **Positive**: Reduced API calls far outweigh normalization overhead
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- **Estimated savings**: 30-50% reduction in Google Places API calls
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## Future Enhancements
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### Potential Improvements
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1. **Fuzzy Matching**: Add Levenshtein distance for typo tolerance
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2. **Alias Support**: Store multiple normalized names for same place
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3. **Language Detection**: Handle multiple language variations
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4. **Abbreviation Expansion**: "St." → "Saint", "Mt." → "Mount"
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### Monitoring Metrics
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- Track cache hit rate before/after deployment
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- Monitor API call reduction
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- Measure cost savings
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## Deployment
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### Status
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✅ Deployed successfully to production
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### Verification Steps
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1. Test with Turkish character place names
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2. Verify cache hits for variations
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3. Monitor logs for normalization output
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4. Check API call reduction metrics
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## Related Files
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- `supabase/functions/generate-itinerary/index.ts` - Main implementation
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- `supabase/migrations/00004_add_cache_tables.sql` - Cache table schema
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- `SUPABASE_CLIENT_STANDARDIZATION.md` - Related improvements
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## References
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- Turkish alphabet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_alphabet
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- Google Places API: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service
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- Supabase Edge Functions: https://supabase.com/docs/guides/functions
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