topic Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator in ArcGIS Web AppBuilder Questions

WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

StanMcShinsky — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 21:54:27 GMT

I have a composite locator in the Geocode widget in WAB. I would like to know if there is a way to display what locator was used in the search. Either in the auto populate search bar

or in the popup from the result.

One of the reasons I think this would be helpful is because on one of my composite locators I am searching based of attributes from features. I have unique IDs that I want to search for but the IDs are only unique for that feature class. So I could and do have IDs that match from different feature classes. As An additional thought I might be nice to have the geocode score as well in the popup.

Here is an esri example of what I was thinking

Geocode an address | ArcGIS API for JavaScript

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 05:14:15 GMT

Stan,

Sure this is possible with a couple of changes in the code.

Change the code in the client\stemapp\widgets\Geocoder\widget.js line 230 to:

content = response.result.name + "<br> Source locator: " + response.result.feature.attributes.Loc_name;

Assuming that your composite locator has an out field named "Loc_name". If not the substitute "Loc_name" fro your locators filed name.

Open your apps folder (i.e. server\apps\71\configs\Geocoder\config_Geocoder.json). Add the outfields property and add the same field name as in the previous step.

Example

{

"geocoder": {

"autoComplete": true,

"minCharacters": 3,

"arcgisGeocoder": false,

"geocoders": [

{

"url": "https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer",

"name": "Esri World Geocoder",

"singleLineFieldName": "SingleLine",

"placeholder": "Esri World Geocoder"

{

"url": "http://your server /arcgis/rest/services/your Locator/GeocodeServer",

"name": "Calhoun Geocoder",

"singleLineFieldName": "SingleLine",

"placeholder": "Calhoun Geocoder",

"outFields": "Loc_name,User_fld"

}

]

}

Let me know if anything is unclear.

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

StanMcShinsky — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 15:37:33 GMT

Thanks Robert

That works great. I was missing the line in the Widget.js file.

To add the score I just added this to the Widget .js:

   content = response.result.name + "<br> Locator: " + response.result.feature.attributes.Loc_name + "<br> Score: " + response.result.feature.attributes.score;

and to the config_Geocoder.json:

"outFields": "Loc_name, score"

Do you know of a way to show the locator in the auto suggest box at the top?

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 15:52:01 GMT

Stan,

No that would require extending the Geocode API component. It could be done but would involve a lot of code.

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

StanMcShinsky — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 15:58:19 GMT

Thanks what I thought but I figured I might ask anyway.

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

BrandonKeinath1 — Tue, 19 May 2015 16:03:05 GMT

Hi Stan,

Thanks for the link to this discussion. It's not a fancy method but I do something similar with my geocoders. I work for an electric utility and we use the object id to find multiple types of features (poles, transformers, etc). I created single field locators that use a new field called "SearchField" that I calculate with the objected and the name of the geocoder. For example, "1234 Pole" or "1234 Transformer". Then when I combine them into a composite locator my users are able to see which geocoder is being used.

Brandon

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

LarryStout — Tue, 19 May 2015 19:50:19 GMT

Stan,

It's on my to do list for JavaScript, but I wrote my own auto complete for the Flex Viewer. I'm using a composite geocoder with over 20 feature classes. I think my auto complete is way better than Esri's.

For my address, (9850 Highland Springs Dr N), my auto complete offers it after I type in 5 characters (the minimum). Esri's auto complete using the same geocoder requires 20 characters before my address is offered.

Here's a link: Hamilton County Flex Viewer

I'm writing this up for the JS API team.

Larry

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

StanMcShinsky — Tue, 19 May 2015 21:34:28 GMT

As far as the auto compete goes I believe that as you type it is scoring your text against the geocoder and as soon as you reach the minimum match score then it will start showing up on your results drop down.

-Stan

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

LarryStout — Thu, 21 May 2015 16:18:43 GMT

Stan,

I understand, but I wish they would let us change the scoring. My users would kill me if I replaced an app that suggests the address in 5 keystrokes with one that takes 20 keystrokes. In my Flex auto complete, the query is simple. When you type 12345, it builds a SQL query select * from table where id like '12345*'. I have a Python script that updates the table every morning in the wee hours. It has about a million records, but is indexed.

Larry

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

BrandonKeinath1 — Thu, 21 May 2015 16:24:59 GMT

Hi Larry,

Maybe I'm not understanding the scoring you're referring to but it is possible to change the address locator properties programatically after creation. I have a script that runs daily to create a number of single field and composite locators. After each of the locators is created it loops through the xml files and replaces the properties I choose. For example, MinimumMatchScore and SpellingSensitivity. It would be better to set it first but after the fact works fine.

Brandon

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

LarryStout — Thu, 21 May 2015 16:54:53 GMT

Stan,

Sorry, I didn't make the connection. Since I implemented my Flex autocomplete with a table upstream of the geocoder, I don't have to worry about the geocoder's scoring. If the user selects an autocomplete candidate, I send the whole ID to the geocoder, and the match score is usually 100%. Esri's auto complete runs off of what is returned by the geocoder, so I can just change the scoring in all 26 of my geocoders. I think I may implement my Flex workflow into the WAB. I like it better.

Thanks for helping me see the light. I never made the connection.

Larry

Re: WAB Geocode Widget Composite Locator

Anonymous User — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 17:24:03 GMT

This would be a good default functionality of the Search WAB widget. I have noticed WAB Search is much slower with several geocoders to hit, vs one composite, for Suggestions. Perhaps 10 or 20 seconds even. So I created a composite with several fields and layers like owner name, parcel ID, address in two different fields (address point layer and from parcel layer field). Only problem... can't see which locator was used, when in the Composite. I may look in to this mod here. I'm already planning to use Robert's sweet WAB override to make the parcel polygon feature class's popup show. How to customize Search Widget to show feature pop-up?

Now, the WAB Search can search the feature service directly and display popup, with that checkbox. Works great. The only problem is, it's very very slow. Compared to Locators. Which is to be expected given they're not indexed. So I am going to use his code to intercept and show the click on the parcel the geocode result is inside of as above. But I guess I'll either need to use the logic in this thread on a Composite locator, or figure out some other way of speeding up the auto suggest and general geocoder/locator performance. It will be important for our users see which locator the result is coming from. But even after I doubled RAM/CPU on our AWS to 16GB/4CPU and all it does is this one property search site it still lags for suggestions. http://cloud.sagis.org/sagisnext (still in dev... here, for now as of 10/5 it's using feature layer directly for the webmap popup...) so I'll watch this thread provide any results if successful on my viewer...

:::: Update::::

I just juiced my performance from 10 seconds down to only one second by simply ratcheting up the minimum character length before it starts posting request to Suggest to the Locator service...

add this line as below:

minCharacters: 4,

Go in to the Search widget file. YourApp/Widgets/Search/widget.js

///// approx line 90.....///

this.searchDijit = new Search({
activeSourceIndex: searchSouces.length === 1 ? 0 : 'all',
minCharacters: 4, ///// add this line

///////