Geocoding

Post date: Mar 01, 2013 2:25:29 PM

When a street address is converted to a pair of latitude/longitude coordinates, this process is known as 'geocoding'.  In the SMCP program when a new order is saved, OR when a ship to address is modified and the order is then re-saved, the program makes a query to a Google server.  This query includes the ship to address, and normally the Google server responds with the corresponding latitude and longitude coordinates.  This typically takes a second or two, then that 'geocode' is recorded with the order.  These geocodes are displayed on the 'View Order Information' screen for each order.

If the ship to address is incomplete, or malformed, the Google server cannot determine the correct geocode.  In that case, the program records an error code in the geocode (typically something like 'NaN').  The error code indicates that an attempt was made, but that for whatever reason, no geocode could be determined.

Note that for the geocoding process to work, the web server running the SMCP needs to have reliable internet access.  If it can't connect to get the geocode, it will record an error code instead.  Also, any orders that were saved BEFORE the geocoding was implemented in the program will not have any geocodes.  We have developed some scripts that can be run periodically to update the missing geocodes (contact us for help), but Google (as of this writing) limits the number of geocode requests from a single source to about 2500 a day, so updating the blank ones could take weeks or months if you decide to do it.  In any case, to get the most use out of the 'List of Nearby Orders', it may be worth getting all the geocodes up to date.