Working with address locators

Summary ArcGIS Server for the Java Platform includes advanced geocoding functionality that allows you to integrate geocoding into your server applications. Geocoding is the process of finding a geographic location based on an address. This is done by assigning a location, usually in the form of coordinate values, to an address by comparing the descriptive location elements in the address to those present in the reference data.

In this topic

The GeocodeServer object

The GeocodeServer object is a coarse-grained server object that provides access to an address locator and methods for single address and batch geocoding. The GeocodeServer object is shown in the following diagram.
 

Geocoding

Geocoding is the process of finding an address based on a location as illustrated in the following graphic.
You can integrate geocoding into your server applications as a means of finding a location by a street address for use in mapping, as a stop in a network analysis, or as a location in a variety of geographic information system (GIS) analysis operations. These locations can be found by geocoding a single address or by geocoding a collection of addresses in batch.

The address locator

Addresses come in many forms, ranging from the common address format of house number followed by the street name and succeeding information to other location descriptions such as postal zone or census tract. In essence, an address includes any type of information that distinguishes a place. Geocoding rules are captured by creating an address locator based on a reference dataset—for example, a feature class representing a street network—and an address style. Elements of the address style (such as the street name, zone, and so forth) are associated with fields in the reference data. The address locator uses this information to generate an index that is used to locate addresses.
Address locators can be stored in a geodatabase or in the file-system. They are created and managed using the ArcCatalog desktop application. To exploit address locators and their geocoding capabilities through ArcGIS Server applications, ArcGIS Server includes a GeocodeServer server object. The GeocodeServer object provides access to an address locator and methods for performing single address and batch geocoding.

Creating a server application containing geocoding functionality

ArcGIS Server for the Java Platform includes Web controls for embedding geocoding functionality into your Web application. To create a server application or Web service that includes geocoding functionality, follow these steps:
  1. Use ArcCatalog to create an address locator based on your reference data.
  2. Use ArcCatalog or Manager to create a GeocodeServer server object based on the address locator you created in step 1.
  3. Using your integrated development environment (IDE), use the GeocodeServer object and Web controls to create your application or Web service.