Developing Search Criteria
Before utilizing search tools available in
MapGuide, such as the Zoom Goto Tool, it is
beneficial to understand methods for developing search criteria that will
improve your desired result success rate. The
following recommendations provide insight into available methods.
If you are unsure of spelling or the exact designation of information in our
database you can usually achieve better search results by including only
part of a data string in your search. Truncating your input at
the right point will typically yield a pop-up window that lists all options
fitting the submitted criteria, allowing you to select the correct choice. If
you choose to include the entire data string and have data that does not
exactly match database entries you may receive deceptively
empty search responses. The guidelines for how to truncate data strings
varies for different searches. Some require the beginning portion of a string be
included while others provide valid results when using only a portion from the
middle of a string. The Zoom Goto Tips document
gives specific direction for the Zoom Goto tool's frequently used categories. It is
not necessary to use wild card characters when truncating data strings, however
certain Zoom Goto categories do provide the ability to generate a full list of
options when an solitary asterisk (*) is provided as search criteria. Those that
allow this specify so in the Zoom Goto tool category description pulldown.
When referencing streets, we recommend that you not include trailing
street types such as Avenue, Place, Way, Court, etc. because matching
the abbreviations for these is often a point of failure in address searches and,
when excluded, the resulting output lists which may include multiple street
types are typically small, allowing you to easily find and select the correct
street.
One item to keep in mind if your search becomes extremely
inclusive, such as only limiting your search to all addresses on
Speedway (Boulevard), is that output for some searches in
MapGuide are limited to one thousand lines. In the Speedway
example, because there are well over one thousand addresses, many East Speedway
addresses are not provided as options in the selection list. Also, even if an
option list only includes hundreds of entries, it may cumbersome to search
through that lengthy of a list and you may wish to use a more specific
search criteria.
Please be aware that zooming to a map feature
through a search does not necessarily activate data layers
associated with the chosen map feature. Because, in many of our MapGuide maps,
the parcel and street layers are automatically activated at certain
scales it may appear they were turned on because of the search criteria
when that is not the case. This may cause confusion when searches for
parks, libraries, or golf courses for example, do not automatically
activate data layers to highlight or label the map feature locations.
Desired data layers can be manually activated by placing a check next to the
correct data layer in the left legend window.
You can apply the previous search criteria recommendations when using the
Zoom Goto tool within MapGuide. The following tip topics provide information to
help you effectively use the Zoom Goto tool.
Both topics, as well as many others, are found
in our MapGuide Tips and Help document