suggest API is too literal even when searching in a location

Question

Hi,

In my web application I'm using the suggest API to drive a search box for a map that I'm displaying (using Leaflet Geosearch but I don't think that matters here). Specifically, I'm trying to find some rural provincial roads in Alberta. Here's an example:

https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/suggest?f=json&text=township+rd+604&location=-113.49014,53.545946445696195

This correctly gives me some results, one of which is the one I'm looking for:

https://veoci.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=8ef6358285ee41868dfc2552390ead80

But if I simply change "rd" to "road" in my search term:

https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/suggest?f=json&text=township+road+604&location=-113.49014,53.545946445696195

I get results that are nowhere near what I want, even though I've supplied a "location" value. The really funny part is that "Road" is spelled out if you actually look at the basemap. It's only in the search that I need to abbreviate it to "Rd". But my users aren't going to know to do that.

Is there a way to have the suggest API return correct results in my case? Thanks.

DanielDormont · Answer

In fact, here's another indication that this is really a search issue. If I use the `searchExtent` parameter instead of or in addition to `location`, I _do_ get the right result:

https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/suggest?f=json&text=township+road+604&location=-112.87078857421876,53.94315470224928&searchExtent=-117.1087646484375,52.8757609818473,-108.63281250000001,54.983918190363234

So it seems that the search engine does correctly understand that "rd" and "road" are synonyms, but for some reason it is prioritizing results containing the exact text "road" even though they are far from the location given, over results containing the synonym text "rd" that are much closer.

Can this be fixed?

DanielDormont · Answer

Hi @Tyler_M

Thanks, I did that but looking again, I don't really see this as a problem with the feature data. The problem is really with the search. I would expect both "township rd 604" and "township road 604" to return this result in the suggest call. Is that not possible? The system doesn't know (or can't be told) that rd is a synonym for road?

Dan

Tyler_M · Answer

Hi @DanielDormont , I hope you are doing well!

I think this would be good information to submit to the Geocoding Feedback Web Map for our review: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=b7d30c782d63401894b36a44e62f76a9

(and also possibly the Basemap Feedback Web Map (https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=28450cb78b324aaeaadb751e92d16ae0) regarding the basemap portion!)

Thank you!