Geocoding in Map&Guide differs from xLocate 2

[Bernd Welter]

Hi there,

recently I've been approached by a customer with the following topic:
The geocoding output in Map&Guide Internet (MGI) differs from the xLocate 2 output:

Search for "Miteregg" in Austria. MGI / xlocate 1 returns hits including postcodes.

xLocate 2: The same input returns hits WITHOUT postcodes. They are all categorized as LOCALITY

The main reason for the difference in the behaviour of the two applications is the engine used in the background:

• MGI uses PTV xLocate Server (22.3.2021)
• XServer2 uses PTV xLocate Server2

The philosophy of xLocate 2 differs from the old approach and by entering a single town name or district does no longer return all postcodes in the area but just rough localities which represent the hit.
Furthermore the new engine does not provide the same number of confusing parameters as xLocate1 did (caused too many discussions, was too difficult to explain). XLocate 2 development simply reduces the number of parameters to a meaningful minimum.

From our perspective neither xLocate1 nor xLocate2 is wrong - they are just different.

Best regards,
Bernd

Update 10.1.2022: a sample request from MGI - you might want to play with CITY_RETURNALLCITY2 to get a more detailed response list in case of surficial input:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
      <soap:Body>
         <findAddressByText xmlns="http://types.xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">
            <String_1>Mitteregg</String_1>
            <String_2>AT</String_2>
            <ArrayOfSearchOptionBase_3>
               <SearchOptionBase xsi:type="SearchOption" value="False" param="STREET_RETURNALLHNR" xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com" />
               <SearchOptionBase xsi:type="SearchOption" value="100" param="MAX_RESULT" xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com" />
               <SearchOptionBase xsi:type="SearchOption" value="DEU" param="RESULT_LANGUAGE" xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com" />
               <SearchOptionBase xsi:type="SearchOption" value="6" param="COUNTRY_CODETYPE" xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com" />
               <SearchOptionBase xsi:type="SearchOption" value="true" param="SEARCH_BINARY" xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com" />
               <SearchOptionBase xsi:type="SearchOption" value="true" param="SEARCH_FUZZY" xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com" />
               <SearchOptionBase xsi:type="SearchOption" value="," param="SINGLE_FIELD_SEPARATORS" xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com" />
               <SearchOptionBase xsi:type="SearchOption" value="false" param="CITY_RETURNALLCITY2" xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com" />
               <SearchOptionBase xsi:type="NamedSearchOption" value="false" param="FREQUENCYFILTERING" xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com" />
               <SearchOptionBase xsi:type="NamedSearchOption" value="false" param="EXTENSIVESEARCH" xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com" />
            </ArrayOfSearchOptionBase_3>
            <ArrayOfSortOption_4 xsi:nil="true" />
            <ArrayOfResultField_5>
               <ResultField xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">POPULATION</ResultField>
               <ResultField xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">ADDRESS_CLASSIFICATION</ResultField>
               <ResultField xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">POSTCODE_CLASSIFICATION</ResultField>
               <ResultField xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">TOWN_CLASSIFICATION</ResultField>
               <ResultField xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">STREET_CLASSIFICATION</ResultField>
               <ResultField xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">HOUSENR_CLASSIFICATION</ResultField>
               <ResultField xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">LEVEL</ResultField>
               <ResultField xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">DETAILLEVEL</ResultField>
               <ResultField xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">ARTIFICIALTOWNCHARACTERIZATION</ResultField>
               <ResultField xmlns="http://xlocate.xserver.ptvag.com">STATE</ResultField>
            </ArrayOfResultField_5>
            <CallerContext_6 log2="">
               <wrappedProperties xmlns="http://baseservices.service.jabba.ptvag.com">
                  <CallerContextProperty key="CoordFormat" value="OG_GEODECIMAL" />
                  <CallerContextProperty key="ResponseGeometry" value="PLAIN" />
                  <CallerContextProperty key="ContextKey" value="" />
               </wrappedProperties>
            </CallerContext_6>
         </findAddressByText>
      </soap:Body>
   </soap:Envelope>

[Andreas Schönebeck]

I would like to add here that also our customers are used to receive a number of results with different postal codes when searching for an address, e.g. by entering a city, which contain many (or even all) of the existing postal codes in the searched city.

With XServer2 it is the case that only one result without postal code is returned for e.g. Dresden. At least the postal code can be determined by performing a reverse geocoding with the returned coordinate.

In any case, our customers are very irritated that the postal codes are no longer all listed and feel that this is a bug that needs to be fixed. Unfortunately, we have switched completely to Xserver2 and are now evaluating how to proceed.

[bocajo]

For this approach I would recommend the single field search of xLocate 2 (SearchByTextRequest). When using this you can enter e.g. "Dresden 0" and all postal codes starting with 0 of Dresden are listed.

[Bernd Welter]

Update: added a MGI sample request to the original post
Thanks to Dirk for the template!