What's new for geocoding in ArcGIS 10.1
Locator packages
Locator packages (.gcpk) make it easy to share locators with others. A locator package may contain one locator or a composite locator along with its participating locators packaged into one convenient, portable file. The file size of the locator package is smaller than the locator as it is compressed and thus makes file transfer easier. Locator packages can be used for easy sharing of locators between colleagues in a work group, across departments in an organization, or with any other ArcGIS users via ArcGIS Online. Locator packages can also be used to create an archive of the locators.
Locator packages can be created by right-clicking a locator or composite locator in the Catalog window and choosing Share As > Locator Package. Then you can create the package using the Locator Package dialog box.
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Learn more about sharing your address locator as a locator package
Publishing geocode services
ArcGIS 10.1 introduces a unified publishing experience for publishing GIS resources such as maps, tools, and locators to an ArcGIS Server.
The publishing of services to an on-premises or cloud-based ArcGIS Server can be invoked directly from the main menu in ArcGIS for Desktop or by right-clicking a locator or composite locator in the Catalog window and choosing Share As > Geocode Service.
Learn more about sharing your address locator as a geocode service
Address Locator Properties dialog box
ArcGIS 10.1 introduces the Address Locator Properties dialog box, which allows you to modify the settings of a locator and easily fine-tune the locator. The properties are listed in groups.
To view or modify a locator's settings, right-click the address locator you want to modify in the Catalog window and click Properties to open the Address Locator Properties dialog box.
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New locator properties
Several new properties have been added to locator styles that allow you to do the following:
- For street or point address locator styles, geocode addresses without house numbers or zones.
- Add more information to a locator, such as display extent, specific street ID, and rank of feature.
- Control geocoding performance.
Searching for locations in current map extent
In ArcMap, a new option, Use Map Extent, is added to the Geocoding toolbar and the Find dialog box. If you want to search for locations that are relevant only to the area on the map, the Use Map Extent option allows you to limit the search for candidates within the current map extent.
New address locator styles
The US Address—Street Name locator style is an additional style for creating address locators that support finding addresses without house numbers. The US Address—City State style allows you to create a locator for geocoding city and state names in the United States. See Commonly used address locator styles for more information about locator styles.
Geocoding geoprocessing tools
Two new geocoding tools are in the Geocoding toolbox:
- Consolidate Locator—Consolidates a locator or composite locator by copying all locators in a single folder
- Package Locator—Packages a locator or composite locator to create a single compressed .gcpk file
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