Geocode
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Geocode allows you to find addresses and places that you can visualize on a map, insert as stops for a route, and load as input for spatial analysis. ArcGIS Online includes geosearch and geocoding:
- Geosearch—Locate a feature or point of interest and have the map zoom to that location. The result might be displayed on the map, but the result is not stored in any way for later use. Geosearch is available to anyone who accesses the map viewer or a public app that includes a location search on a map. It does not require an organizational account or consume credits (but you are limited to using 1 million geosearches per month).
- Geocoding—Convert an address to an x,y coordinate and append the result to an existing record in a database. Mapping is not always involved, but placing the results on a map may be part of a workflow. Batch geocoding falls into this category. An organizational account with the geocoding privilege is required to access World Geocoding for batch geocoding.
By default, ArcGIS Online uses World Geocoding to find addresses, cities, landmarks, business names, and postal codes in over 100 countries around the world. Additionally, World Geocoding is used to find the location of x,y coordinates when they are entered in the format <longitude>,<latitude>, such as -119.031,37.642. Your organization can also configure custom geocode services for geosearch, geocoding, or both.
Requirements for configuring custom geocode services
You might want to configure your organization to use custom geocode services if your organization needs to geocode addresses or places based on your own data. For example, an oil organization could add locators to search their oil wells or a city could add a locator to find their fire hydrants. If you add additional geocoding services, members see an arrow in the geocode search box and can choose which geocoder to use.
ArcGIS Online supports geocode services running on ArcGIS Server 10.0 and later as custom geocoders for geosearch. When used for geosearch, the geocode services can be internal or external. Internal geocode services only work for geosearch when the map viewer or other ArcGIS Online clients have access to those internal geocode services. For example, if your organization shares apps with the public, only users who have access to your internal geocode services will be able to find places with those apps.
ArcGIS Online also supports geocode services running on ArcGIS Server 10.1 and later as custom geocoders for batch geocoding. Unlike geosearch, external geocode services that are hosted outside your firewall are required for batch geocoding. This is because ArcGIS Online needs to access the geocodeAddresses operation on your geocode service to perform batch geocoding. If your external geocode service is secure, you need to first create a secure service item in ArcGIS Online that stores the credentials required to access your geocode service. You can then configure the service URL provided by the secure service item as a custom geocoder.
When you configure a custom geocoder for batch geocoding, you should provision sufficient compute resources for your geocode services. ArcGIS Online submits many concurrent requests when performing batch geocoding to improve performance, so your own geocode services should have sufficient compute resources to handle concurrent requests without severely affecting processing times for the requests.
ArcGIS Online supports single-field geocode services from ArcGIS Server 10.0 and later. Geocode services from ArcGIS Server 10.0 and internal geocode services can be used to find places, but not to batch geocode. External geocode services from ArcGIS Server 10.1 or later are required to perform batch geocoding. Internal geocode services only work for place-finding when the map viewer or other ArcGIS Online clients have access to those internal geocode services. For example, if your organization shares apps with the public, only users who have access to your internal geocode services will be able to find places with those apps. ArcGIS Online secure service items are not currently supported in ArcGIS Desktop. In order to batch geocode, your geocode service needs to be hosted outside your firewall so ArcGIS Online can access the geocodeAddresses operation on your geocode service to perform batch geocoding.