ArcGIS Pro, Locator Properties, Options have all but gone away

GeorgeBrown1 · ‎12-16-2019

While working to improve our locators, moving from AM to AGP locators, we have noticed that the abundance of options found in AM are no longer available in AGP (see pics below as just a few options no longer available), or we are just missing where to set these options. We have found that catering these settings have been a tremendous benefit when customizing locators for specific needs. However, due to “optimization” of the locators within AGP, nearly every setting possible within the AM Locators are gone. For example, when checking in with ESRI regarding the ability to set the Side Offset within the locator properties, it was that dreaded statement we end users hate to hear, “We’ve optimized the new locators and the default offset is 3m and there is no option to adjust the side offset. This setting will not be in the next release. I would encourage you to submit an enhancement request including a justification for the need or perhaps adding as an idea on GeoNet.” If it’s not broken, why fix it? We loved having the settings offered in AM and would love for ESRI to consider some of the major settings used by the end user to be returned to the locator property window. Thank you ESRI.

ScottFedak2085 · ‎01-05-2023

I know this is an old thread, but seemed the most relevant without opening up something new item. I was able to do similar adjustments for the offset to a published service by just right-clicking the .loz file (...arcgisserver\directories\arcgissystem\arcgisinput...), choosing to edit in notepad++, doing a find on words like "offset" to get to an area I wanted to change, and than made the desired adjustment (set offset to 0.00000). I had to go in and do this as the offset values of the published service did not appear to honor the 0.0 side / end offset that the local version of the locator had.

This proved to be successful; however, any change I made had to contain the same amount of characters as what existed. If the # of characters for the overall document were changed in anyway, ArcGIS Server Manager would say the service was corrupted when trying to restart. Unpacking and re-zipping the files as you mentioned appeared to completely alter the .loz file and would run into the same corruption issue. It almost seems like arcgisserver does some sort of character count to see if the .loz file has been altered and considers it corrupt if there is a mismatch.

Is anyone aware of any other way to manipulate the .loz file for a service without running into this corruption issue? For instance, it could be convenient to slightly adjust some of the standard output fields (MatchAddress, ShortLabel, LongLabel) to better match an organizations workflows. This seemed possible, but would necessarily increase or decrease the overall # of characters for the file and would be seen as corrupt by ArcGIS server when restarted. This is unfortunate as a more robust ability to manipulate the .loz file could offer GIS administrators more control over customizing a geocoding service outside of the base options ESRI offers.

IanMackenzie · ‎01-10-2023

I have done modifications to the .loz file to customize suggestion and match address returns. I've done some preliminary testing of adjusting the side and end offsets to zero and this seems to be working (I have a slight discrepancy of <1m that I think is probably related to the map projection I used to create the locator). Published to ArcGIS Server 10.8.1. I needed to modify the offset in both the loz and the loc file. In the loz file I changed "side offset" and "end offset" to 0 (under house interpolation section). In loc file I set each of EndOffset and SideOffset = 0. When making changes in the .loz file if you accidentally delete a bracket or add one where it shouldn't be that will cause issues when you re-package it, but you should see that something is wrong immediately when you test the locator in Pro (simply does not load properly). Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any other questions. Might just be easier to show you the steps that I have been taking rather than trying to write them out.

ScottFedak2085 · ‎01-10-2023

Thanks @IanMackenzie, I'll give adjusting the .loc and .loz file for the local locator a try when I have a chance to get back to it. I was just trying to make the changes to the published service after publishing the local locator. I'll reach out to you directly if I'm not getting similar results when modifying the local file.

ShanaBritt · ‎01-10-2023

@ScottFedak2085 @IanMackenzie If you are able to use ArcGIS Pro 2.7 or later and Enterprise 10.9 or later you can modify the side and end offsets in the Locator Properties dialog and have the changes reflected in the published service. https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/data/geocoding/tips-for-improving-geocoding-quality.ht...

If you modify the offset settings in the locator properties to 0 is that setting not being honored with the local locator or when published as a geocode service?

It sounds like the issue with the geocode service is due to the version of Enterprise.

IanMackenzie · ‎01-10-2023

Thanks Shana. Good to know this is work in ArcGIS Server 10.9. I

ScottFedak2085 · ‎01-11-2023

@ShanaBritt, It would appear to be an enterprise version as the behavior was observed with locator published to v10.8.1. I plan to upgrade in the near future, but it's been on hold, I'll provide an update to this thread if I still observe the behavior after that upgrade.

IanMackenzie · ‎06-23-2021

Thanks for the posts @WrightKennedy and @JohnFix2 This worked for me. For others info: I have a composite locator which includes a point address type locator and a street type locator. The address type locator comes first in the cascade. Reverse geocoding was grabbing the point address locator even when the location was closest to the street because of a default search buffer of 500 m on the point address locator. From what I can tell this default can not be changed with the out-of-the-box tools, but I was able to change it by unpacking the loz file and changing it in the settings.json file.

acharko · ‎12-11-2020

We are trying to move our work from ArcMap to ArcPro but one of our workflows involves geocoding a list of addresses (collisions) to the street centreline. This allows us to tie the collision back to our street database so that we can report the number of collisions per segment. With the locator in PRO (we are on version 2.6.1), there is no option to geocode to the line. The automatic offset throws off our results. If a collision happens close to a corner, and the offset is applied, and we are forced to do a spatial join, the wrong street segment could be selected.

Any idea if/when this will be addressed?

ShanaBritt · ‎06-01-2022

@acharko In ArcGIS Pro 2.7 or later and Enterprise 10.9 or later support for adjusting the side and end offsets, as well as custom intersection connectors in the Locator Properties dialog. https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/data/geocoding/tips-for-improving-geocoding-quality.ht...