topic Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service? in ArcGIS Enterprise Questions

ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

GeoffreyWest — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 15:36:30 GMT

I have an application where I need to use a rooftop geocoding service. The use case is a user geocodes an address and a spatial intersection is executed which returns the values of a parcel, since the geocoding service that I am using now is sidewalk or street level, the attributes are not returned. Is there a rooftop geocoding service available by Esri to execute this process?

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

JeffreyUtter2 — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 16:19:55 GMT

I'm also looking for a Rooftop Geocoder. Can someone chime in and assist us?

Thanks.

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

JonathanQuinn — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:34:26 GMT

I don't believe Esri offers a single house locator. If you have your own parcel data, you can create your own locator, though.

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

ShanaBritt — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 00:18:30 GMT

The Esri World Geocoding Service has the ability to return rooftop matches if the input address matches to PointAddress for Addr_type if you use the locationType parameter for the geocodeAddresses operation. The following link will take you to more details about the locationType parameter where you can also specify the output location be the side of street for routing purposes.

geocodeAddresses—ArcGIS REST API: World Geocoding Service | ArcGIS for Developers

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

RobertWayne — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 22:17:56 GMT

Shana:

Is there some magic to the geocodeAddresses API to have it actually return rooftop level coordinates? We've passed in multiple addresses and specified

locationType=rooftop

and the coordinates returned are always street entry level.

I just feel like we are missing something.

Thanks!

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

ShanaBritt — Fri, 19 Apr 2019 15:23:33 GMT

Robert:

Are you using the World Geocoding Service or your own geocode service?

If it is your own geocode service, which tool was used to create the locator that was published?

If your addresses are matched with an Addr_type of PointAddress the XY and Display XY fields will be different. The values in the DisplayXY fields will be the rooftop coordinates. If the address was matched with an Addr_type of StreetAddress the XY and DisplayXY fields will have the same values for side of street.

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

MichaelVolz — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 16:14:00 GMT

Does the underlying data for the World Geocoding Service need to be sourced from address points on rooftops? By this I'm asking if various organizations that share their data with ESRI including address points need to have these address points placed at the rooftop location. So if the data shared with ESRI is at a parcel centroid and not at the rooftop location, then the rooftop geocoding service would only geocode to the parcel centroid in that geographic area as the data source is only that accurate. I hope this makes sense.

Is ESRI's collaboration project with BuildingFootprintUSA providing the capability of geocoding address points to rooftops? If so, is this capability available now in both ArcMap and Pro?

I did a search for this collaboration project and this screenshot is what the search returned on 4/24/2019:

As such, I am confused as to whether this capability is available.

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

MichaelVolz — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 16:14:23 GMT

Is the locationType parameter available in a client application like ArcMap or Pro? I ask because I cannot find this parameter when attempting to Geocode Addresses in batch in ArcMap from a table that has the required address fields using the World Geocoding Service.

Or is this parameter currently only available by accessing the World Geocoding Service thru the ArcGIS REST API using custom code?

In Pro 2.3.2 you currently only have the options of Address Location (centroid I would think) or Routing Location (offset from road centerline in address range), but I do not see the ability to select a rooftop or building location.

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

RobertJensen — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 18:21:49 GMT

Hello Michael,

Matching to a rooftop location does require the underlying data for an address to be positioned at the rooftop. When Esri looks for the best available data, the inclusion of rooftop specific locations is a must have, but not all addresses in a dataset will have a rooftop location. Some have curbside, driveway, front door, or parcel centroid locations instead... and that balance produces a mixture of potential results for geocoding.

To your point, when a rooftop location isn't available the system will fall back to the next best available location for that address. To improve the system overall, Esri has partnered with companies like BuildingFootprintUSA to obtain more addresses with a rooftop location.

The capability for rooftop locations has always existed whenever and wherever the data supported it.

Thanks,

Robert

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

MichaelVolz — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 18:41:14 GMT

Robert:

In Pro when using the World Geocoding Service to geocode a table of addresses which of the two options (Address Location, Routing Location) would have the potential to provide a rooftop location?

Is BuildingFootprintUSA gathering the rooftop locations themselves or are they using ESRI's collaboration with enduser organizations of rooftop address points as the point source for the World Geocoding Service?

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

ShanaBritt — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 23:27:48 GMT

The LocationType parameter is available in ArcMap and Pro in the Geocode Addresses gp tool as Preferred Location Type. Routing Location is equivalent to 'street' and Address Location is equivalent to 'rooftop' in the REST API.

In the ArcMap example below I've made an ArcGIS Server connection to the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service and using it in the Geocode Addresses geoprocessing tool. In the Pro example below I'm signed into ArcGIS Online.

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

RobertJensen — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 00:15:46 GMT

Hi Michael,

BF-USA is collecting rooftop locations themselves in order to feed into the World Geocoding service. Currently the default location used by the World Geocoding service is "street" because of requirements for directions and navigation. This necessitates a geocoding user to specify "locationType=rooftop" in their requests today. The Geocoding recognizes that users have an expectation of getting the rooftop location by default, so in the near future, the Online system will make the switch, but this will require additional changes that permits users with directions and navigation needs to continue to be successful.

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

Anonymous User — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 15:40:27 GMT

Shana Britt‌ Robert Jensen

There appears to be a bug introduced in the Oct AGOL update. The parameters such as min character and rooftop do not work. (when you click on a result from the Suggestion list ie without magickey) I tested with TS and they have it already as a known bug. Also I do not like how this magickey vs no magickey can result in a different location for the address point result. Whether you click a Suggestion or hit enter, the top result should be in the exact same spot. Similar to how fake results that do not exist should never be populated in Suggestions, this conceptually should be an absolute. The x,y should be the same, no exception.

This parameter bug is relevant because of the general dysfunctional state of locators: No units / suggestions in locators, Fake address suggestions, And no ability to create a Hosted Locator. geocoder Suggestions list in Search should not contain addresses that don't exist And so in my app often the world locator service therefore is the only result providing suggestions. And I wire it to click the result, to click the parcel, in www.sagis.org/map (if you click the result it fires an onclick of the of the map to show the parcel popup. Thus the address needs to be in the parcel! Usually it is close enough but sometimes, since 'rooftop' parameter is now broken, it will be in the street or even the wrong parcel)

While we are discussing parameters; I would like a way to disable world Locator service Suggestions via a URL parameter. disable Suggestions from Esri locator in Search widget Locators: add URL parameters. For example, extent, Suggest, others

I wanted to use the world locator service with the 'rooftop' parameter for WebApp Builder. I put the parameter in to the Config: but neither of these parameters worked. (I also tried minCharacters to 20 to confirm that parameters are now broken and do not work with the World Locator Service)

{
"url": "https://utility.arcgis.com/usrsvcs/servers/eb4e3b1d1996465e9d9e8f6d56f1d94f/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer",
"name": "Find a Business or Point of Interest (Address is approximate)",
"singleLineFieldName": "SingleLine",
"placeholder": "Find Business - Point of Interest",
"countryCode": "",
"panToScale": false,
"locationType": "rooftop",
"minCharacters": 8,
"zoomScale": 3600,
"maxSuggestions": 6,
"maxResults": 6,
"searchInCurrentMapExtent": false,
"enableLocalSearch": true,
"localSearchMinScale": 300000,
"localSearchDistance": 50000,
"type": "locator"
}

Re: ESRI Rooftop Geocoding Service?

BradNiemand — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 23:13:36 GMT

Kevin,

Can you please help clarify the following statement?

"There appears to be a bug introduced in the Oct AGOL update. The parameters such as min character and rooftop do not work. (when you click on a result from the Suggestion list ie without magickey) I tested with TS and they have it already as a known bug."

Can you please provide an example address please? The locationType parameter is working for the REST API and we have many tests that verify this at every release which are still passing right now. Did you add the parameter to the WebAppViewer properties JSON manually? I see it in the the JSON snippet above but I am unsure how it got there because I don't believe the WebAppViewer currently supports this parameter. What you can do is create a Locator View, configure the preferred location type to be rooftop for that view, and then use that URL for the Locator View for your app instead.

More information about Locator Views can be found here:

Geocoding and geosearch—ArcGIS Online Help | Documentation

Another thing to note is that rooftop locations will only be returned if a rooftop location exists in the data for that address. If the location does not exist in the data, the next best location will be returned instead such as the side of street or routing location.

Also, what is the minCharacters property? I don't know what that is used for. It is not a geocoding property.

With regards to searching without choosing a suggestion (no magicKey) versus searching with choosing a suggestion (with magicKey) returning different results, can you provide an example? I would like to have some examples so that I can get a clearer understanding of the challenge you are having.

Brad