Adjusting Geocoding

In my last post I mentioned how the ZP SQL web interface will automatically geocode a property prior to showing it on a map. Again this is done by passing a street address to the Google Mapping Server and getting back the latitude and longitude. It turns out that is not a very precise science. In other words, the geographic point that the latitude and longitude represent is not always exactly where you may think it should be when placed on the map. My understanding of this process is that the Mapping Server does not have an address to point database that it uses to return the geocode. Rather there is some estimating that occurs based on the address number and the range of addresses on the street. Of course, there are also issues where you don't have a complete address (a vacant lot perhaps) and therefor can't expect a very precise returned geocode. And of course there is also the issue of coming up with a single point to represent a much larger polygon of some kind. All of this led me to seek out an easy way to allow users to adjust the geocode setting for any given property. This option is now available from the Property page of the ZP SQL web interface. It opens a new page that shows a larger map of the property in satellite view so that you can see buildings and structures. You can then move the marker that represents the property to a new location on the map and then save that point as then new geocode representation for that property.