I need to create or hopefully customize an existing tool that will grab a series of addresses and find the shortest path to each (in a loop, I suppose) from a singular starting address.
Can this be done with the "Route Tool" available in ArcMap Desktop 10 ?
Would this be more easily accomplished in ArcGIS Online ? Can I do it on the desktop using Python Scripting ? Is the "Find Route" Tool "open" and available for scripting customization to accomplish the above task ?
Hi Roland, The route tool available in ArcGIS Desktop 10 uses the legacy routing service by default which as you noticed will be retried at the end of 2013. However if you can (or already have) Service Pack 5 for ArcGIS Desktop 10 and have a valid ArcGIS Online Organization subscription or a trial, you can connect to the new routing service from the Find Route tool and continue using the tool even after 2013. You can find more information about how to connect the route tool to the new service in the help topic.
The find route tool does not provide a way to script or customize it in order to do any kind of batch processing. The routing functionality available via the directions tool in arcgis.com also provides a way to generate routes based on the new route service. But again the directions tool is more designed as an end user tool and cannot be easily used for batch processing.
Currently the only way is to use the REST API for the routing service and write a tool using any programming language that supports making REST requests (Python is a valid option) on your own to complete your workflow.
In the next release of ArcGIS Online (to be released around Thanksgiving), there will be a new geoprocessing tool available as part of your ArcGIS Online Subscription that will provide an easy way to perform such batch route processing tasks or easily script them using Python. The new route geoprocessing tool will be available as part of logistics services that you can access from ArcMap
