Geocoding

Geocoding is the process of converting addresses (like a street address) into geographic coordinates (like latitude and longitude). Reverse geocoding converts latitude and longitude into an address. You can use Woodford for geocoding user records according to their addresses – this means that the address information of the records can be translated into raw GPS data, which the mobile application needs to display records properly on the Map.

Resco uses a third-party tool, Bing Maps, for geocoding. To use the maps, you need a Bing Maps Key.

GPS coordinates are needed if you need to display multiple locations on the map. If you only want to display a single location, street address can be used.

Retrieving data

1. Select Geocoding from the Administration menu in Woodford.
2. Enter the Bing Map Key.
3. Select an entity. Geocoding only makes sense for entities which include address information.
4. Select which fields of the entity should be used as street, city, state, postal code, and country. For example, choose Address1_city as CITY, Address1_zip as POSTAL CODE, etc.
5. Check Set additional street fields if the entity has multiple fields for street that you want to use. You can also set their order by adjusting the {1} {0} {2} string parameter (e.g. {2} {1} {0})
6. As Latitude and Longitude select the fields where geographic coordinates should be saved.
7. Click Fetch data.
8. Check Find position by query if your data is incomplete, for example missing city. Bing will use a different algorithm to find the location.
9. Optionally, use filter to limit the amount of fetched data.

Working with records and saving changes

Do one of the following:

• Click Find Position to use address data of the records to find latitude and longitude.
• Click Find Address to use latitude and longitude for finding address data.

Once you have the records, you can filter them:

• All – shows all records
• New – shows records which received the GPS coordinates after geocoding and didn't have any prior GPS information (green color)
• Changed – shows records that had their GPS coordinates updated – they had GPS information prior to geocoding (blue color)
• Failed – records which have failed geocoding (red color)
• Empty Lat/Lon – records which had no GPS data prior to geocoding (red color)
• Modified – ?

To manually edit a record, use the detail view.

• Click the [i] button in a record to access the detail view.
• Here you can type location information, drag the pin on the map to correct GPS coordinates, or perform a manual search.
• If you want to keep your manual changes, select Location and/or Address and click Confirm.

When you are done with geocoding, click Save to save any changes.

See also

This article describes how admins can manage addresses/GPS coordinates in bulk. For information about how field users of Resco mobile apps can set the address and/or GPS coordinates of a record to their current position, see Different uses for Update Address command.