Geocoder

Database Type:  Geocoding, RESTful

Support: Read

Introduction

Geocoder is a web service that implements a geocoding process. This process is often used to convert input data such as addresses and convert them into location points (latitude and longitude). Reverse geocoding, on the other hand, converts locations to the name of a place or street address. Geocoding is, therefore, a task that involves many datasets to do this task. Thankfully there are many companies that provide this service. 

The VOGO Voice Geocoder connector provides easy access to execute the READ only function of geocoding and reverse geocoding using these 3rd party services.

Prerequisites

• API key authentication requirement is relatively dependent on the Geocoder provider selected. BYOK (Bring your own API Key)

Anatomy of Settings

Defining Settings values for Geocoder Connector

Name: It refers to the name assigned to the instance of the connector created.

Provider: Select from the drop-down list the specific geocoder provider whose Geocoding and Reverse Geocoding service is availed. The list is provided below for reference.

API Key: The API Key essentials are dependent on the geocoder provider service selected.

• agol – ArcGis Online Geocoding service. Supports geocoding and reverse geocoding and required API Key.
• datasciencetoolkit – DataScienceToolkitGeocoder. Supports IPv4 geocoding and address geocoding. Use options.host to specify a local instance.
• freegeoip – FreeGeoIP Geocoder supports IP geocoding.
• geocodio – Geocodio supports address geocoding and reverse geocoding (US only).
• google – Google Geocoder supports address geocoding and reverse geocoding. API Key is required.
• here – HERE Geocoder supports address geocoding and reverse geocoding. You must specify the API Key.
• locationiq – LocationIQ Geocoder supports address geocoding and reverse geocoding just like OpenStreetMap but does require LocationIQ API Key to be set.
• mapquest – MapQuest Geocoder. Supports address geocoding and reverse geocoding. Needs an API Key
• Opencage – OpenCage Geocoder. Aggregates many different open geocoder. Supports address and reverse geocoding. You need to specify the API Key which can be obtained at OpenCage.
• Opendatafrance – OpenData France Geocoder supports forward and reverse geocoding in France
• openmapquest : Open MapQuestGeocoder (based on OpenStreetMap Geocoder). Supports address geocoding and reverse geocoding. Needs an API Key
• openstreetmap – OpenStreetMap Geocoder. Supports address geocoding and reverse geocoding
• Nominatim – Same geocoder as OpenStreetMap, but queries the MapQuest servers. You need to specify the API Key
• Smartystreet – Smarty Street geocoder (US only)
• Teleport – Teleport supports city and urban area forward and reverse geocoding.
• Tomtom – TomTom Geocoder. Supports address geocoding. You need to specify the API Key
• Virtualearth – VirtualEarthGeocoder (Bing maps). Supports address geocoding. You need to specify options API Key
• Yandex – Supports address geocoding.

Disclaimer: The password/private information is encrypted when saved within the VOGO Voice platform for your security.

Connector Usage

Now that a connector is established it can now be used within any interaction flow. Each usage of the connector will allow different configurations to retrieve different results. Those settings can be either static or dynamic based on the needs.

Anatomy of Configuration

Defining Configuration Values for Geocoder Connector

Name: The name assigned to identify the connector and the results data. The assigned name is used every time the connector is called to action through the components in the interaction builder platform. 

Geocoder Type: Choose from the drop-down list the specific geocoding type based on the requirement. The two different types being Geocoding and Reverse Geocoding.  Geocoding is the process of converting street address or name of a place and returning numerical, spatial data (latitude/longitude), whereas Reverse Geocoding converts geographic coordinates to an addressable location.

• Geocoding:  
  Address: Street name or location address. 
                   For example, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield, OR

• Reverse Geocoding:
  Selecting the Reverse Geocoding will generate an additional section in the Configuration window titled Geometry which allows the provider to input geolocation values, for which choose data type as Number. The latitudinal and longitudinal points can either be hardcoded values or defined using the syntax geolocation.latitude and geolocation.longitude to capture the location of the device, for which choose the data type as Path.

To know more about different data types click here.

Limit: Set the limit to select the maximum number of data records that have to be retrieved from the queried table and returned in the result set.

Caching: To know about caching, click here.