Q&A: ArcGIS Online Geocoders

Question 

What is the difference between all of the ArcGIS Online geocoders? (ArcGISOnlineBatchGeocoder, ArcGISOnlineFindAddressCandidate, Geocoder)

Answer 

Each of these geocoders use an ArcGIS Online account and require the use of credits. They slightly differ otherwise. 

ArcGISOnlineFindAddressCandidate

Similar to the safe.geocoder; however, it has the option to use the components of an address instead of only a single line address. If your data is already parsed into components, you would have to concatenate your variables appropriately using a delimiter such as a comma. This transformer is a custom transformer and can be edited when embedded in your workspace to use any of the additional parameters that you would like to use.

Safe.Geocoder

Similar to that of the AGOL FindAddressCandidate custom transformer; however, there is the option to use a token instead of a web service connection. This transformer only has the option for a single line address, but has the option to reverse geocode through a latitude and longitude (x, y coordinate). 

ArcGISOnlineBatchGeocoder

The largest difference with the AGOL BatchGeocoder is that there is the option to compute geocoding in batches of up to 1,000 instead of individually processing the individual features one at a time. This potentially saves lots of time in processing as there are much fewer HTTP calls. 

 

Additional Resources

• How to use the ArcGISOnlineFindAddressCandidate Transformer
• Find Address Candidate Esri Documentation.
• Batch Geocoder Esri Documentation
• Esri ArcGIS REST APIs documentation