Geocoding
With the 2014 release we added a geocoding facility to our software. This is integrated with the Address Book (street address) and Jobs (site address) modules . Our geo-coder only works if you have an Internet connection, because it uses a web service. We currently use the Google geocoding service, which is limited to 2,500 free geo-code accesses per user per day. (In a normal day most sites will have less than ten accesses. But you need to keep this limit in mind if you are using our housekeeping facilities to retrospectively geo-code existing jobs or clients - which is obviously a great thing to do.)
How it Works
When you finish typing in a street or site address (including house number), our geocoding facility quickly sends this to the web server, which processes it and sends specially encoded information back to our software. This encoded information contains the correct street address (with typos, formatting, and perhaps the suburb fixed), street post code, and GPS (WGS84) latitude and longitude. Our software handles this returned information as follows:
- If the web service was able to match what you typed to a unique street address, then our software goes ahead and populates the appropriate extra data fields with the returned information
- If the web service was not able to match what you typed to a unique street address, it returns a list of street addresses from all around the country (and world in some cases) that potentially match what you typed. Our software presents this to you in a list on-screen, and asks you to select the one that you intended. It then populates the relevant extra data fields with the returned information for the location you selected.
Address Book
If the geocoding facility is turned on for the Address Book, click on the "Geo-coder" button when you finish filling in a street address (in the "Details" page). The software will feed this address to the geo-coder which processes it as described in the previous section ("How it works"). If the street address is empty, the software checks the postal address. If that seems to be a street address (rather than PO Box), then it will pass this "postal" address to the geo-coder.
You can click on the "Geo-coder" button for an existing client that has not previously been geo-coded. There is also a facility to systematically geo-code existing clients - which is obviously very useful in the early days after activating the geocoding facility. (See the "Geo-code older Clients" menu option from the "Other" button at the bottom-left of the "Address Book" flow-chart page tab.)
Jobs Module
In the Job configuration settings you now have an option (tick box) to "Automatically Geo-code new Job names and street addresses". If you tend to include the street address in the Job Name (when entering a new job in the "Job Details" page tab), then turn this facility on. (If you don't, then it is better to leave this configuration setting un-ticked, and use the "Geo-coder" button (at the bottom left of the Jobs window) when you have finished entering the site address in the relevant "User Defined Fields" page tab.)
- If the new configuration setting is turned on (ticked), then the software will check a new Job Name that you have just typed (or edited). If it seems to contain the site's street address (even one that is turned inside-out - i.e. town / suburb first, followed by street name and house number last), the software will do its best to strip out any other text (such as Job Type description), pass the site address to the geo-coder, and then populate both the site address and geocoding data fields (on the relevant "User Defined Fields" page tab).
- If the new configuration setting is not turned on (not ticked), then the software will not do anything when you type in the Job Name for a new Job (or edit the Job Name of an existing job). You will need to fill in the site address fields (on the relevant "User Defined Fields" page tab), and then click the "Geo-coder" button once you are ready to pass this site address to the geocoding facility (which will validate the address you typed, and populate the geocoding data fields).
- In both cases, the geocoding facility will validate the address you typed, and pop-up a selection list if it does not obtain a unique match for it.
- With the Jobs module, if you have also defined standard extra fields for generic Latitude & Longitude (WGS84 in degrees, minutes, & seconds rather than the GPS representation which is in decimals of a degree), NZGD2000, NZTM2000, or NZMG, then these will be automatically calculated from the GPS coordinates, and populated for you.
Our software can create and use special standard extra data fields for land parcel information
(CT Reference, appellation, etc.) and survey information such as
area and polynomial coordinates. For New Zealand based Land Surveyors
and any other professions that require it, our software can use the
geo-coded GPS coordinates to automatically obtain this additional
information from the LINZ data services back-end (web server API), and populate
the relevant data fields for you for the job you have just entered (or are
currently viewing).
The LINZ data tends to be very up-to-date.
(Click here to read more about LINZ Data
Services.)
For New Zealand based users who also run QuickMap, our software can use the Land Parcel information to query the QuickMap databases, obtain QuickMap's NZMG coordinates for the same site, and automatically add the Job into the special "Adminsoft Layer" that we automatically build and maintain for use by QuickMap. (This special layer allows you to easily view the locations of all jobs that you have done previously in a particular area of interest.) You are able to launch QuickMap from within our software (it comes up sitting on the site address for the job that you were viewing on-screen). You can also still return Parcel information from QuickMap to Adminsoft via the Windows Clipboard as previously (before 2014), but this should no longer be necessary now that such information is obtained automatically from LINZ Data Services.