Is there a limit on locators in a mmpk?

[SeanSmith111]

Hi all, 

Is there a limit to the number of locators that I can package in a mmpk? I have three, and when I add the fourth, I no longer get suggestions or search results. I removed one of the locators and it started working again.

Any suggestions?

BTW, these are all POI locators from different layers.

Cheers, 
Sean

[MichaelBranscomb]

Hi,

As far as I know there's no limit to the number of locators you reference when creating a mmpk, but the packaging process will consolidate these into a single Composite Locator within the mmpk. 

Questions:

• Does it matter which of the 4 you remove?
• What's the value of the property LocatorInfo.isSupportsSuggestions?
• If you first create a Composite Locator in ArcGIS Pro then reference that when creating the mmpk do you get a difference?

[SeanSmith111]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your prompt response! I have not dug into the code to try the isSupportsSuggestions bit (yet!), but in ArcGIS Pro, the suggestions do work.

I've tried the composite locator and the behaviour is identical. I do get a crash, so I will try and get to the bottom of that. The strange thing is that this map package is a lot smaller in filesize and a lot less points in the locator, so I am somewhat baffled by that. Also, it doesn't seem to make a difference with which locator is removed. All four are POI locators with just a placename and a custom field added. I thought that the custom field might need to be added to each layer, but it did not appear to make a difference.

Cheers and thanks again!

Sean

[MichaelBranscomb]

Hi Sean,

I've had to ask a colleague for more advice on this one.

Question: are you able to open the mmpk in ArcGIS Pro, specify/use the locator within the mmpk, and still get suggestions?

Knowing this could help determine if the issue is with the Qt SDK correctly honoring what's in the mmpk or the issue is with ArcGIS Pro consolidating/packaging the locators initially.

Thanks   

[MichaelBranscomb]

@SeanSmith111 some more info from the geocoding team...

The best practice recommendation is to combine the four datasets into one prior to building the locator and then building a single POI locator.

This is documented here: Combine multiple data layers into a single locator—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

And here's a tutorial: Tutorial: Create a locator with more than one dataset of the same role—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Doing this will ensure optimal quality of suggestions/results and performance.

Having said that, what you've encountered here is unexpected and we'll investigate further internally - potentially there's a bug lurking in this issue somewhere.

It would still be great to know the answer to this question if you have time: 

Question: are you able to open the mmpk in ArcGIS Pro, specify/use the locator within the mmpk, and still get suggestions?

[SeanSmith111]

Hi @MichaelBranscomb ,

Thanks again for the advice, and apologies for the delay in responding - was travelling. I created a new project and opened the mmpk in there. I was able to get suggestions for all selected locators.

Combining the data into a single layer was my next port of call, so thanks for the links... I will have a read and try that out now. I'll add my findings in this forum post. At work (here) I am on v2.9.5 and will also try at home where I have the latest version...just to see if there is a difference.

I've also had one 'testing' time trying to build my mmpk. After literally hundreds of crashes over a couple of months, I found that where layers were coming from multiple feature datasets, I simply could not get the package to complete. It either crashed or gave me the 999999 error. I moved the layers into a single FD and all seems to be ok now. Whether that was the cause, or it was something else remains a mystery.

Thanks again!

Sean