Customize address locators in ArcGIS 10

AndreeaArgesanu · ‎02-04-2011

Hello everyone

I am experiencing some problems with customizing the address locator style in ArcGIS 10. I have to admit that I haven't done any customization before, so this would be my first time. The reason why I need to do this is that the address locator style doesn't match the UK style addresses.

The elements that I tried modifying are:
- Suffix types, Prefix types, Unit types, House numbers and Aliases (all these under the grammar section)
- I have also tried to add unit type, unit number and house name into the mapping schema and reference data styles (Single House Address only)

Before starting the work, I have read the ESRI Geocoding technical paper "Customizing Locators in ArcGIS 10", November 2010 and used it as a guide.

After finishing the modifications, I have copied the .lot.xml .xsd and .xslt files into the Locators folder (C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\Locators). Then, I tried creating a new address locator using the modified schema. I didn't get too far, as just after I clicked "My Address-Single House", ArcCatalog closed down without any warning or any error report.

I must have done something wrong, but I have no clue what or how I could validate the modified file and see my mistakes.

I have therefore attached the files that I have modified, hoping that there is someone here that could give me a hand with this.

Many thanks in advance

Andreea

CameronIrvine · ‎04-19-2011

Hi Andreea,

Did you ever make in headway with this? I am also trying to find a way to use the geocoding services that come out of the box from ESRI with UK addresses. You would have thought someone would have created a UK address locator by now!

Thanks
Cameron

AndreeaArgesanu · ‎04-30-2011

Hi Andreea,

Did you ever make in headway with this? I am also trying to find a way to use the geocoding services that come out of the box from ESRI with UK addresses. You would have thought someone would have created a UK address locator by now!

Thanks
Cameron

Hi Cameron

Sorry for this late reply. I haven't checked my emails for ages... Yes, you would have thought so, but the reality is different.

I spent lots of time on trying to create my own geocoding service and after loads of trial and error attempts, I have managed to get somewhere. I can proudly say (just because I didn't get any help from ESRI or anyone else and I did it all by myself) that I managed to get a pretty good address locator. It's not perfect and it needs more input, but it's a start. The trouble is that for the last 2 months or so I haven't had the time to look into it, as I had other priorities. We changed our gazetteer software and I need to wait until everything runs smoothly on that side before I spend more time on the locator, but I'm sure that its turn will come soon! 🙂

It's been a while now since I haven't touched it, but from what I can remember I've got to the stage where it finds all the addresses except from one particular situation, i.e.: when you're trying to search for a specific flat within a a block of flats, it returns as 100% matched all the flats within that block of flats. I'll probably need to look more into the scores, but I just couldn't find what exactly needs modifying.

I have also tried to create different locators which I can then merge into a composite locator. So...I managed to create a street locator taking the centre point of each street (it would have been great if there was an easy way to modify the one range or two range styles, but as I can see it, there is no easy way of doing it...); I have also created locators for postcodes and towns, which were ok. The postcode locator was a bit tricky, but in the end I managed to modify it so it now recognizes postcodes with or without a space in-between the two parts (e.g. KT17 3EH & KT173EH)

Now, it's only a matter of fixing the single house style so that it does exactly what I want it to. Also, once I finish this I want to look into the reverse geocoding as I haven't had the chance to do that at all. Anyway, if you think we can both work on any bit of this geocoding service and get somewhere (2 is always better than 1 🙂 ), please let me know.

Thanks
Andreea

CameronIrvine · ‎05-03-2011

Hi Cameron

Sorry for this late reply. I haven't checked my emails for ages... Yes, you would have thought so, but the reality is different.

I spent lots of time on trying to create my own geocoding service and after loads of trial and error attempts, I have managed to get somewhere. I can proudly say (just because I didn't get any help from ESRI or anyone else and I did it all by myself) that I managed to get a pretty good address locator. It's not perfect and it needs more input, but it's a start. The trouble is that for the last 2 months or so I haven't had the time to look into it, as I had other priorities. We changed our gazetteer software and I need to wait until everything runs smoothly on that side before I spend more time on the locator, but I'm sure that its turn will come soon! 🙂

It's been a while now since I haven't touched it, but from what I can remember I've got to the stage where it finds all the addresses except from one particular situation, i.e.: when you're trying to search for a specific flat within a a block of flats, it returns as 100% matched all the flats within that block of flats. I'll probably need to look more into the scores, but I just couldn't find what exactly needs modifying.

I have also tried to create different locators which I can then merge into a composite locator. So...I managed to create a street locator taking the centre point of each street (it would have been great if there was an easy way to modify the one range or two range styles, but as I can see it, there is no easy way of doing it...); I have also created locators for postcodes and towns, which were ok. The postcode locator was a bit tricky, but in the end I managed to modify it so it now recognizes postcodes with or without a space in-between the two parts (e.g. KT17 3EH & KT173EH)

Now, it's only a matter of fixing the single house style so that it does exactly what I want it to. Also, once I finish this I want to look into the reverse geocoding as I haven't had the chance to do that at all. Anyway, if you think we can both work on any bit of this geocoding service and get somewhere (2 is always better than 1 🙂 ), please let me know.

Thanks
Andreea

Hi Andreea,

That's impressive! I have looked at this so many times when I have had a spare 30 mins or so and got no where. When I talk to ESRI UK they suggest i spend a ridiculous amount of money on Locator Hub which isn't going to happen in this economic climate.

I am interested in all of the address locators you have talked about if you are willing to share information with me. Then if I make any progress I can share it with you.

How does that sound?

Thanks
Cameron

DanielVoisey · ‎05-19-2011

Andreea

Have you built an ESRI locator that works with Ordnance Survey Addresspoint?

If you so you are to be congratulated!

Would you be willing to share the style file?

Danny

AndreeaArgesanu · ‎05-23-2011

Hi Danny & Cameron

Sorry, I haven't had much time recently to work on this. If I do manage to progress with it, I will post back here.
If it helps, I haven't used OS Addresspoint, but our own gazetteer, as I was told that the first one is not too accurate.

Andreea

AndreeaArgesanu · ‎08-31-2011

Hi Danny & Cameron

Sorry, I haven't had much time recently to work on this. If I do manage to progress with it, I will post back here.
If it helps, I haven't used OS Addresspoint, but our own gazetteer, as I was told that the first one is not too accurate.

Andreea

Hi everyone

I'm back with some good news. I managed to make the style file work with our UK gazetteer addresses (I have no idea if it works with the OS address point, but it might be worth trying). It's not perfect and it might need some adjusting to your needs, but If anyone is still interested in this, please let me know.

Andreea

BruceHarold · ‎09-01-2011

Andreea et alia

Please try the attached. A UK style is still in progress.

Regards

AndreeaArgesanu · ‎09-02-2011

Hi Bruce,

Thank you for sharing your work. I had a look at your styles, and the 'UKOrdnanceSurveyAddressPoint' matches our address type better than the 'UKAddress-SingleHouse'. The only issue is that I get an error message when creating the locator: 'Failed to create the address locator' and couldn't see how the locator works.

Though, Brad Niemand has given me a similar style in a different thread (see attachment) which worked, but the locator itself doesn't find addresses as I was expecting it to. An additional field would need to be added: SubBuilding Number and, also, I find that splitting the street name into name, prefix and suffix helps finding the addresses better.

I have attached my modified style, which I find to best fit our geocoding needs. It has a small issue, though, that i couldn't fix: searching for <streetname 'whitespace' town> wouldn't return any addresses, but when searching for <streetname 'comma'/'point'/'or any other defined separators' town> addresses are returned successfully. I tried everything and still couldn't find a way to make it work with an white space. Maybe you could help with this...

And one more thing: do you have any idea why when publishing the locator to a geocode service on ArcGIS Server 10, searches that are successful in ArcMap aren't successful on the web service? For example, when searching for a postcode in ArcMap, addresses that include that specific postcode are returned as 100% matched, but on the web service none is returned.

Many thanks,
Andreea

JeffersonFerreira_Ferreira · ‎12-05-2011

Hi all;

I apologize if this is not the appropriate place for may question, but I'm looking for a answer for days on that.
I'm trying to customize a Brazilian address locator style for a specific propose, but my locator doesn't return any field in the Field Map in Create Address Locator window.
Looks like my style doesn't require any field, so when I put my reference data a error message appear saying "Too many reference data tables for this style". Moreover, i can't set the inserted reference data as "primary table". The only option is "alias table".

I'll attach the XML here. If someone could give a hand on this little question I would be grateful.
Best regards

Jefferson Ferreira Ferreira