1. Administering Oracle Field Service
  2. How Geocoding Works in Oracle Field Service

How Geocoding Works in Oracle Field Service

Oracle Field Service tries to geocode a location using the address data provided when the activity is created.

The application uses these fields when attempting to geocode the location:

  • Address (caddress)

  • City (ccity)

  • State (cstate)

  • Zip/Postal Code (czip)

  • Country (country_code)

Data provided in these fields are submitted to the geocoding service without any modification or manipulation. When the geocoding service resolves a location, it returns a response with an accuracy level. In understandable terms it is accurate up to the address, accurate up to the street, and accurate up to the city. The location is resolved based on the selection made in the Ignore coordinates with accuracy less than setting on the Business Rules page. For example:

  • If the value for Ignore coordinates with accuracy less than is Address, and the geocoding service returns Accurate up to the Intersection, the location is not resolved, because the lowest acceptable level based on the configuration is Address.

  • If the value for Ignore coordinates with accuracy less than is Intersection and the geocoding service returns Accurate up to the Address, the location is resolved, as it exceeds the lowest acceptable level based on the configuration of Intersection.

Ignore coordinates with accuracy less than includes these options in descending order:

  • Address: Indicates an accuracy level of the exact premise. Usually requires an exact match of the address (including house number, street name, street type/suffix/prefix), city, state, zip, and country.

  • Intersection: Indicates an accuracy level of a major intersection, usually of two major roads.

  • Street: Indicates an accuracy level of a street.

  • Route: Indicates a named route (such as US 101). This may not apply to all countries.

  • Zip: Indicates an accuracy level of the zip/postal code. May also require a city name and country match.

  • City: Indicates an accuracy level of the city. May also require the country name to be matched.

  • County: Indicates an accuracy level at the county level. This type may indicate a minor civil administrative level. Not all countries have this type of administrative levels.

  • State: Indicates an accuracy level at the state level. Within the United States, these administrative levels are states. Not all countries have this type of administrative levels.

  • Country: Indicates an accuracy level of the country. If you update an existing activity (with resolved coordinates) with a new country_code, the coordinates for the activity are reset to zero (acoord_x=0, acoord_y=0).

The better the data quality, the more likely the location is resolved. For example - if you submit “10 Henr St Chartley, MA 02712”, the accuracy level will most likely result in something less then an accuracy level of Address, because Henry is misspelled. Other items to watch out for are extra characters or spaces in the fields, missing or wrong address prefix or suffix, abbreviations that don't match postal guidelines, a new address that is not in any geocoding service, wrong data (wrong zip/post code or street name), and partial data. Any of these items can cause challenges with resolving an address.

Best practices

  • We strongly recommend that you send us the geo-coordinates when you create activities. This ensures that the coordinates are available for use in the application. Send the values using Coordinate X (acoord_x) and Coordinate Y (acoord_y).

  • For the activities associated with the Activity Types that have the Calculate travel option selected, we encourage you add and populate address fields. This helps the application use the information to make the best possible decision.

  • We recommend setting the Ignore coordinates with accuracy less than to Zip. Any other settings may result in fewer locations being resolved or too many locations resolved with a low level of accuracy.

  • don't include additional address elements in the Address (caddress) field. The element includes but is not limited a business name, unit, flat, suite, floor number, and so on.

  • Avoid uncommon abbreviations, or abbreviations that are part of a defined standard used by the postal authority. It is possible that “Ave”, “Ave.” and “Avenue” can lead to different accuracy resolutions.

  • You may have to experiment to find the best way to send address data to Oracle Field Service.