The ArcGIS platform includes a search widget, which is used widely throughout the apps and templates within ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS, to allow users to search for the location of interest against either the world geocoding service or their own locators.
Many of our customers have now started using their own locators, either served from Esri UK’s LocatorHub product or ArcGIS geocoding services.
A number of our customers have been asking us for a different way to search these locators which allows the user to drilldown through the hierarchy of streets and properties. For example; if a user enters “1 High Street” and there are several High Streets, the user is presented with a list of the High Streets to choose from before seeing the properties. Similarly, if the user selects a property that has a number of sub-properties e.g. flats, they will first choose the property and then the specific sub-property of interest.
To meet these requirements Esri UK have built a developer widget (the drilldown widget) which is available free of charge from GitHub.
See it live
To see for yourself the difference between the Esri Search widget and the Esri UK drilldown widget please visit our demo that shows both widgets in the same application, to allow you to compare the functionality.
Is it right for me?
The widget is only for you if want the drilldown capability, but there are also some prerequisites.
The widget is currently designed to work with the following LocatorHub Locators:
- LLPG
- AddressBase Premium (Epoch 39 and above which requires LocatorHub 5.4)
- One Scotland Gazetteer
- IDOX GMS locator (see here for configuration details)
- Merge and cascade locators using an appropriate standardised schema
This a developer widget, therefore you will need to host any applications that you use it within. Contact me if you are interested in using our application hosting environment (AppHub) to host your applications.
Start using it
To help developers use the widget we have added it to the Esri UK demo site. This site provides further information on why you might want to use the widget, what options are available and also has live demonstrations of the widget in use within a JavaScript application, a WebAppBuilder application and a customised version of one of the ArcGIS Online templates. The site also has detailed information (including code snippets) on how we built these demos.
Esri UK also offer services for hosting your applications. Please contact me if you would like more information about our hosting services.
How do I get hold of it?
The widget is available on GitHub. There are two versions of the widget available:
arcgis-dijit-drilldown – which you can use directly with the ArcGIS JavaScript API
wab-dijit-drilldown – which is for use with the ArcGIS WebAppBuilder and provides a ready built customer widget
Any questions?
If you have any feedback or would like further information please contact me.