Help with Geocode Appearance - ArcGIS World Geocoding Service (Incorrect & Incomplete Addresses)

[MayraHernandez]

Hello, 

I created a survey for Code Enforcement that allows users to report possible code violations. In the survey I added the geocode appearance (using the ArcGIS World Geocoding service) so that users can select an address.

The survey has been live on our website for a couple weeks now and we noticed that several surveys have incomplete or incorrect addresses.

Some survey submissions only have the name of the street "Vicentia Ave, Corona, California, 92882". Or an address that is listed in the auto complete drop down but is not a physical address that doesn't show up in Google or in our address data. Our team had no way of verifying the correct address because the users who submitted the survey wished to remain anonymous and left no contact information. 

Any advice on how to restrict users from only entering the street name? And is there a way to display correct addresses in the drop down menu? Is it best to create our own locator?

Thank you,

Mayra H

[BarbaraWebster1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Mayra,

Creating a view of the ArcGIS World Geocoding service and customizing the types of locations you want the service to return would probably be the best way to go. This way the suggestions list would only include the types of locations you want. You would then set your geocode question to that custom locator in the XLSForm.

You may also want to set a constraint on the geocode question to make sure only responses from the geocode service are allowed to be submitted. Without a constraint it is possible to submit the raw search text if the user doesn't get any suggestions and then hits enter. One approach to the constraint expression would be to test that the address returned from the geocode service is not null (see example).  

Thanks,
-Barbara

[MayraHernandez · Accepted solution]

Thank you so much @BarbaraWebster1 that was really helpful!