Offline 10.3 GeocodeServer ranking suggestions

[Jay_Gregory]

I'm trying to create a simple (offline) city, state geocode service in Server 10.3.  I created the address locator (with suggestions enabled), specifying population field for ranking the results, and then changed the *.loc.xml "ranking" node from ascending to descending (so cities with higher populations will be ranked earlier not later).  I rebuilt the locator then published as a service.  However, the suggestions still return results in ascending order (those with lower populations).  So is the ranking feature available in the service, or only in the address locator when consumed in ArcMap?  Am I doing something wrong?

[BradNiemand]

Jay,

Try editing the *.lot.xml file in the "%ArcGIS_Install%\Locators" folder before creating the locator and then re-create your locator.

Brad

[Jay_Gregory]

I'm unclear which one to edit - I already edited the *.loc.xml file for my specific locator.  There are two *.lot.xml files, General.lot.xml and USAddresses.lot.xml.  If I change the ranking order node is one of those, will it affect all locators I create?  I only want this one specific locator to have a "descending" ranking, and I want to ensure those rankings are reflected in the "suggest" endpoint for Geocode services. 

Thanks!

[BradNiemand]

Jay,

You need to update the lot.xml file for which you built the locator (General -   or US Address - tells you which locator you used). You need to updated the .lot.xml file prior to building the locator in order for this to work.  You can always revert the changes once you are done.

Brad

[Jay_Gregory]

Thanks for the clarification.  I changed the "ranking" node in USAddress.lot.xml from ascending to descending and created the City, State locator, using Population as a ranking field.  When I checked the .loc.xml ranking node, it was already "descending" as expected.  However, when I created a service and checked the suggestion endpoing using "Springfield", it still returned the lowest populous cities first.  I am unable to check the locator within ArcMap, because it won't return any results without listing the state (e.g. Springfield won't return any results, but Springfield, MO will - however, that I have to specify the state makes it impossible to test).  Any suggestions?