Geocoding addresses

Often, SharePoint lists contain address data. You are probably familiar with finding places based on addresses, so it seems obvious that addresses correspond to particular locations on the earth's surface. Yet maps represent geographic space—locations on the earth's surface—using coordinate systems. This means that, for an address to be plotted on a map, the address must first be converted to a coordinate that corresponds to a location in a coordinate system. The process of finding the coordinate location of an address is called geocoding. Before a list of addresses can be drawn on a map, those addresses must first be geocoded.

ArcGIS for SharePoint provides the ArcGIS Geocoding workflow to find the geographic coordinates of addresses stored in SharePoint lists. Exposing this functionality as a SharePoint workflow provides an experience that is easy to use and familiar to many SharePoint users.

When the workflow is executed on a list that contains address data, it adds three new columns to the list:

Note:

ShapeX and ShapeY won't be created if you choose to use preexisting fields, but the values in these selected fields will be overwritten with the x- and y-coordinates.

The ShapeX and ShapeY fields store the geographic coordinate for the list item. The ArcGIS Location Field embeds an interactive map in each item's form, which allows you to easily view and manipulate an item's location.

Add the ArcGIS Geocoding Workflow to a list

1. Navigate to the list that contains the address data. From the list tab, click Add a Workflow from the Workflow Settings drop-down menu:
2. On the following page, choose ArcGIS Geocoding as the workflow template and give the workflow a name. Optionally, you can configure the task list, history list, and start options. Then click Next:
   Note:

   The two check boxes at the end of the page, Start this workflow when a new item is created and Start this workflow when an item is changed, allow you to have the locations of items automatically updated when changes are made to existing items or new items are added to the list.

   Once you click Next, a wizard loads for you to configure the geocoding operation. The Locator page is shown first.
3. Choose the service on the Locator page that you would like to use to perform the geocoding operation and click Next:
   Note:

   You can configure the available locator services by editing the ArcGIS Mapping Locators list. See Configuring locators for more information.

4. On the next page, choose the columns in the SharePoint list that correspond to the input parameters of the selected locator service. When you are done with this step, click Next:
5. As explained above, the ArcGIS Geocoding Workflow determines geographic coordinates for each item in the SharePoint list. On the Coordinate Fields page, you can specify the columns to store the coordinates in. If you choose to have the workflow create the fields automatically, it stores the longitude in a field called ShapeX and the latitude in a field called ShapeY. If you specify existing columns for the output, be aware that the values in these columns will be overwritten by the workflow with the latitude and longitude coordinates:
6. The ArcGIS Location Field displays the location of the list item on an interactive map within the item's display and edit forms. On the Map Options page, you can specify the zoom width and the search tolerance for the location field. Zoom Width determines the width of the extent shown in the location field. Search Tolerance specifies the radius to use for address lookup when you use the location field's Fix button. Map Width and Map Height determine the width and height of the map that appears in the display and edit forms:

7. On the last page of the wizard, you can specify options for starting and managing the workflow. If the Find locations for all list items now check box is checked, the entire list is geocoded immediately. If it is not checked, each item can be geocoded individually. For instructions on how to accomplish this, refer to the topic Geocoding a list item.

   Checking the Create tasks to review address match candidates check box will create a task for each item in the list. Tasks are created for items that return more than one address candidate. This task requires you to edit the item and choose one of the candidates from the list. For information on this process, see Selecting an address match candidate.

   Click OK to create the workflow:

No match candidates

Occasionally, the locator will return no candidates for an address. No tasks will be created for the item as is the case when only one candidate is found. It is a good idea to check your list items to make sure that each item has a valid location.

Whenever an address has no candidates, this is obvious after opening the editing dialog box. The Select button on the ribbon is not available, and no coordinates are displayed in the coordinate fields:

If you have a new address available for this location, you can correct this problem immediately:

1. Enter the new address in the address fields.
2. Click Update and click Save.