We are pleased to present our 2015Q2.0 release. New in this release are:
- Search Improvements
- Data Enhancement Process
- Enhancement data set for ISO2 Administrative Areas for US, Argentina
- Enhancement data set for US Census data
- Sample Data
- Evaluation License Expiration Date Enforcement
- Platform Crash Fixes
Check out our 2015Q2.0 Release Webinar held on April 30th, 2015:
Please note, this video is no longer available. In this video, Loqate Director of Engineering Uma Ramamurthy and Product Manager Elie Challita take the time to discuss the new features of the Q2 release which include improvements to Search, the addition of enhancement data sets and sample data, the enforcement of an evaluation license expiration date and platform crash fixes.
This document describes these changes in greater detail along with things to be aware of and other helpful tips.
Local API Updates
Search Improvements
Loqate’s Search function depends on several algorithms that return results based on different criteria. Starting with Loqate’s 2015Q2.0 release, you will be able to know which algorithm generated your results, as well as be able to enable or disable processes and set a minimum accuracy level for Search.
NOTE: These options modify the behavior of both the Address Powersearch process and the regular Search process. AutoComplete only works with a Powersearch license and its associated data packs. If selected without these data packs installed, it will be automatically skipped and Search will jump to the next function.
Users are able to customize the Search function with the following server options. Also listed are the different values available for each server option:
- OutputSortType (AVC, Alphabetical, Similarity, default AVC): This allows you to set the output sort order. Alphabetical might be the most intuitive from a customer point of view.
- SearchAutocompleteIndexCheck (Yes, No, default Yes): Specifies whether or not to use the ‘autocomplete
index’ algorithm integral to Address Powersearch (this will not function if Address Powersearch is not installed). This algorithm returns a list of suggestions in record time for entries like ‘4916 eas’ in the US. For more information on Address Powersearch, please visit https://support.loqate.com/technology/search/. Related to this option is the AutocompleteIndexOnly option (Yes, No, default No) which will prevent other algorithms from being called. Because the autocomplete index algorithm is much faster than the other algorithms, this guarantees a faster response time in all situations.
- SearchLikeFieldCheck (Yes, No, default Yes): Specifies whether or not to use the ‘like field’ algorithm. This option looks for an exact field match in the address field which is useful for single items like postcodes, building names, organization names, etc.
- SimpleParse (Yes, No, default Yes): Specifies whether or not to use the ‘simple parse’ algorithm. This option looks for something like premise + street in the address field, but is not particularly tolerant of invalid input data.
- CombinedSearchMethods (Yes, No, default Yes): Specifies whether or not to use a word-based search algorithm similar to a web search engine approach.
A new field called SearchMethod has been added, and will let you know which algorithm was used to compute the specific result this field is attached to. Multiple Search results may be returned from different algorithms. This field can take the following values:
- AutoComplete (the ‘autocomplete index’ algorithm)
- LikeField (the ‘like field’ algorithm)
- SimpleParse (the ‘simple parse’ algorithm)
- NoParse (all component search, no address lines)
- Parsed (Search after Parse)
- UnableToParse (Search after failing to Parse)
Another new field called SearchSimilarity has also been added. Similarity gives the percentage of input characters which have been matched to the reference data for each search result. For example, a user types in ten characters and gets back multiple results. In the first result, all ten characters were matched to the reference data, and thus the result gets a Similarity score of 100. Conversely, if the algorithm used to generate that particular Search result was only able to match five of the ten input characters to the reference data, that result would get a similarity score of 50.
Users can set a minimum similarity threshold through an option that will be explained in the New Server Options section further down in this document.
Data Enhancement Process
In this release, we introduced a new feature that allows users to obtain additional attributes related to address fields via the API. This feature has an associated Loqate process called Enhance. The Enhance process will take the output from the Verify process and append the enriched data to one of its fields.
Enhance is designed to obtain additional attributes that relate to the address fields in the output resulting from the verification process. It requires presence of the enhancement data sets in the data folder. The process works by gathering all the enhancement data sets that are present in the data folder and inspecting each data set for presence of attributes that relate to one or more of the address output fields from the verification process, based on certain match rules that may be present in each of those enhancement data sets.
a) Enhancement data set for ISO2 Administrative Areas
In this release, one of the first data sets to be added is the ISO 3166-2 Administrative Area codes. This data set allows users to verify an input address and append ISO2 Administrative Area codes to the resulting Administrative Area from the verification process. Currently this data set has the ISO codes only for US and Argentina. This data set will be expanded to other countries in upcoming releases.
The ISO2 Administrative Area code can be obtained by looking up the lqtProcessResult for a field named AdministrativeAreaISO2. The field status for this field is output via field named AdministrativeAreaISO2Status.
This data set will be available as a single worldwide data set under the product code DSEWWI. It is free of charge and available for download upon request. Please contact your account manager to obtain a license that will grant you access to this data set.
b) Enhancement data set for US Census data
Another major data set added to support the data enhancement feature is data from the US Census. This data set allows user to obtain various US Census related information for a Locality, Sub Administrative Area or Administrative Area in the output address from the verification process. For each US Census statistic available, the engine will return a value field containing the actual value as well as a status field confirming whether or not a value was returned. Please refer to the online documentation for more details on these output fields.
This data set will be available under the product code DSEUSAC. It is free of charge and available for download upon request. Please contact your account manager to obtain a license that will grant you access to this data set.
Sample Data
Starting with this release, Loqate will include a sample data set with every installation. The sample data set is a small subset of the larger US data pack and only includes reference data for Sacramento County, California. It will be installed as a folder named /data which will be installed in the Local API Installation folder. The /data folder contains one file for the US verification reference data as well as files for the lexicons and context rules.
In order to help test the sample data, we have provided a sample input file named sample.txt which will also be installed in the Local API Installation folder. The sample.txt input file contains addresses from the sample data set for your convenience. The runbatch script can be run to verify the addresses in the sample.txt input file. The Loqate API can be used as well to verify any address that is contained in the sample data set.
The sample data set is available on all platforms. It can be installed via console mode, GUI, or silent mode. The silent mode option SampleData should be set to Yes in order to install it (example: SampleData=yes). The following screenshot from the API Installer shows the presence of the “Sample US Data” option when the API Installer User Interface is run.
Evaluation License Expiration Date Enforcement
Starting with this release, the Loqate engine will start enforcing the expiration date for evaluation licenses. Once an evaluation license expires, its owner will no longer be able to verify addresses for the countries covered within that license.
For example, a user may have an evaluation license for Address Verify for Canada and the US (with product codes DSVCAN and DSVUSA). If the expiration date for DSVCAN has passed, any attempt to verify a Canadian address will result in a U00 in the AVC field as well as a process error. If DSVUSA is not expired, the user will still be able to verify US addresses. If a user tries to verify a batch file with addresses for multiple countries, addresses from the expired countries will return a U00 while addresses from the functional countries will be verified normally.
If your evaluation license has expired, we encourage you to contact your account manager and request for it to be renewed.
Platform Crash Fixes
We have resolved the issue where Java calls to our API via multiple threads would sometimes result in crashes on SPARC and SOLARIS or in other erroneous behavior. An update to our multithreaded libraries will remove this bug starting with this release and onward.
New Server Options
a) TransactionLogPath
This option allows the user to set the output path to which the transaction log files are written. If this option is not set, the files are written to the data folder.
b) TransactionLogFile
This option allows the user to set the prefix for the name of the transaction log file. If this option is not set, the default prefix “trlog” is used.
c) MinimumSimilarity
(0-100, default 70) This allows the user to set the threshold for results to be returned. The lower the threshold, the larger the number of input characters that do not need to exist in the output.
Other Local API Updates
Please visit https://support.loqate.com/support/releasenotes/2015q2cases for a list of cases resolved in this release. If you would like more details on any of the solved cases listed, please contact support@loqate.com for further information.
Cloud API Updates
The Loqate Cloud will be updated to 2015Q2.0 along with the general release. Please visit https://support.loqate.com/support/releasenotes/2015q2cases for a list of new features available through our Cloud APIs.
Country Updates
We are continually improving our country data and rules/lexicons to support them. Please visit https://support.loqate.com/support/releasenotes/2015q2cases for a list of cases involving improvements and enhancements for a particular country.
The table below shows which countries have been enhanced, and how, in this release.
- Reference Data = 6 countries
- Lexicons = 19 countries
- Context Rules = 2 countries
| Country Name | ISO Code | Context Rules | Lexicons | Reference Data | Address Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AFGHANISTAN | AF | ||||
| ÅLAND ISLANDS | AX | ||||
| ALBANIA | AL | ||||
| ALGERIA | DZ | ||||
| AMERICAN SAMOA | AS | ||||
| ANDORRA | AD | ||||
| ANGOLA | AO | ||||
| ANGUILLA | AI | ||||
| ANTARCTICA | AQ | ||||
| ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA | AG | ||||
| ARGENTINA | AR | x | |||
| ARMENIA | AM | ||||
| ARUBA | AW | ||||
| AUSTRALIA | AU | ||||
| AUSTRIA | AT | ||||
| AZERBAIJAN | AZ | ||||
| BAHAMAS | BS | ||||
| BAHRAIN | BH | ||||
| BANGLADESH | BD | ||||
| BARBADOS | BB | ||||
| BELARUS | BY | ||||
| BELGIUM | BE | ||||
| BELIZE | BZ | ||||
| BENIN | BJ | ||||
| BERMUDA | BM | ||||
| BHUTAN | BT | ||||
| BOLIVIA, PLURINATIONAL STATE OF | BO | ||||
| BONAIRE, SINT EUSTATIUS AND SABA | BQ | ||||
| BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA | BA | ||||
| BOTSWANA | BW | ||||
| BOUVET ISLAND | BV | ||||
| BRAZIL | BR | x | |||
| BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY | IO | ||||
| BRUNEI DARUSSALAM | BN | ||||
| BULGARIA | BG | ||||
| BURKINA FASO | BF | ||||
| BURUNDI | BI | ||||
| CAMBODIA | KH | ||||
| CAMEROON | CM | ||||
| CANADA | CA | x | |||
| CAPE VERDE | CV | ||||
| CAYMAN ISLANDS | KY | ||||
| CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC | CF | ||||
| CHAD | TD | ||||
| CHILE | CL | ||||
| CHINA | CN | x | x |
x |
|
| CHRISTMAS ISLAND | CX | ||||
| COCOS (KEELING) ISLANDS | CC | ||||
| COLOMBIA | CO | ||||
| COMOROS | KM | ||||
| CONGO | CG | ||||
| CONGO, THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE | CD | ||||
| COOK ISLANDS | CK | ||||
| COSTA RICA | CR | ||||
| CÔTE D’IVOIRE | CI | ||||
| CROATIA | HR | ||||
| CUBA | CU | ||||
| CURAÇAO | CW | ||||
| CYPRUS | CY | ||||
| CZECH REPUBLIC | CZ | ||||
| DENMARK | DK | x | |||
| DJIBOUTI | DJ | ||||
| DOMINICA | DM | ||||
| DOMINICAN REPUBLIC | DO | ||||
| ECUADOR | EC | x |
x |
||
| EGYPT | EG | ||||
| EL SALVADOR | SV | ||||
| EQUATORIAL GUINEA | GQ | ||||
| ERITREA | ER | ||||
| ESTONIA | EE | ||||
| ETHIOPIA | ET | ||||
| FALKLAND ISLANDS (MALVINAS) | FK | ||||
| FAROE ISLANDS | FO | ||||
| FIJI | FJ | ||||
| FINLAND | FI | ||||
| FRANCE | FR | x | |||
| FRENCH GUIANA | GF | ||||
| FRENCH POLYNESIA | PF | ||||
| FRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES | TF | ||||
| GABON | GA | ||||
| GAMBIA | GM | ||||
| GEORGIA | GE | ||||
| GERMANY | DE | x | |||
| GHANA | GH | ||||
| GIBRALTAR | GI | ||||
| GREECE | GR | ||||
| GREENLAND | GL |
x |
|||
| GRENADA | GD | ||||
| GUADELOUPE | GP | ||||
| GUAM | GU | ||||
| GUATEMALA | GT | ||||
| GUERNSEY | GG | ||||
| GUINEA | GN | ||||
| GUINEA-BISSAU | GW | ||||
| GUYANA | GY | ||||
| HAITI | HT | ||||
| HEARD ISLAND AND MCDONALD ISLANDS | HM | ||||
| HOLY SEE (VATICAN CITY STATE) | VA | ||||
| HONDURAS | HN | ||||
| HONG KONG | HK | ||||
| HUNGARY | HU | ||||
| ICELAND | IS | ||||
| INDIA | IN | x | |||
| INDONESIA | ID | ||||
| IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF | IR | ||||
| IRAQ | IQ |
x |
|||
| IRELAND | IE | ||||
| ISLE OF MAN | IM | ||||
| ISRAEL | IL | ||||
| ITALY | IT | x | |||
| JAMAICA | JM | ||||
| JAPAN | JP | ||||
| JERSEY | JE | ||||
| JORDAN | JO | ||||
| KAZAKHSTAN | KZ | ||||
| KENYA | KE | ||||
| KIRIBATI | KI | ||||
| KOREA, DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF | KP | ||||
| KOREA, REPUBLIC OF | KR | x | |||
| KUWAIT | KW | ||||
| KYRGYZSTAN | KG | ||||
| LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC | LA | ||||
| LATVIA | LV | ||||
| LEBANON | LB | ||||
| LESOTHO | LS | ||||
| LIBERIA | LR | ||||
| LIBYA | LY | ||||
| LIECHTENSTEIN | LI | ||||
| LITHUANIA | LT | ||||
| LUXEMBOURG | LU | ||||
| MACAO | MO | ||||
| MACEDONIA, THE FORMER YUGOSLAVREPUBLIC OF | MK | ||||
| MADAGASCAR | MG | ||||
| MALAWI | MW | ||||
| MALAYSIA | MY | ||||
| MALDIVES | MV | ||||
| MALI | ML | ||||
| MALTA | MT | ||||
| MARSHALL ISLANDS | MH | ||||
| MARTINIQUE | MQ | ||||
| MAURITANIA | MR | ||||
| MAURITIUS | MU | ||||
| MAYOTTE | YT | ||||
| MEXICO | MX | ||||
| MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF | FM | ||||
| MOLDOVA, REPUBLIC OF | MD | ||||
| MONACO | MC | ||||
| MONGOLIA | MN | ||||
| MONTENEGRO | ME | ||||
| MONTSERRAT | MS | ||||
| MOROCCO | MA | ||||
| MOZAMBIQUE | MZ | ||||
| MYANMAR | MM | ||||
| NAMIBIA | NA | ||||
| NAURU | NR | ||||
| NEPAL | NP | ||||
| NETHERLANDS | NL | ||||
| NEW CALEDONIA | NC | ||||
| NEW ZEALAND | NZ | x | |||
| NICARAGUA | NI | ||||
| NIGER | NE | ||||
| NIGERIA | NG | ||||
| NIUE | NU | ||||
| NORFOLK ISLAND | NF | ||||
| NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS | MP | ||||
| NORWAY | NO | x | |||
| OMAN | OM | ||||
| PAKISTAN | PK | ||||
| PALAU | PW | ||||
| PALESTINIAN TERRITORY, OCCUPIED | PS | ||||
| PANAMA | PA | ||||
| PAPUA NEW GUINEA | PG | ||||
| PARAGUAY | PY | ||||
| PERU | PE | ||||
| PHILIPPINES | PH | ||||
| PITCAIRN | PN | ||||
| POLAND | PL | x | |||
| PORTUGAL | PT | x | |||
| PUERTO RICO | PR |
x |
|||
| QATAR | QA | x |
x |
||
| RÉUNION | RE | ||||
| ROMANIA | RO | ||||
| RUSSIAN FEDERATION | RU | ||||
| RWANDA | RW | ||||
| SAINT BARTHÉLEMY | BL | ||||
| SAINT HELENA, ASCENSION AND TRISTANDA CUNHA | SH | ||||
| SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS | KN | ||||
| SAINT LUCIA | LC | ||||
| SAINT MARTIN (FRENCH PART) | MF | ||||
| SAINT PIERRE AND MIQUELON | PM | ||||
| SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES | VC | ||||
| SAMOA | WS | ||||
| SAN MARINO | SM | ||||
| SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE | ST | ||||
| SAUDI ARABIA | SA | ||||
| SENEGAL | SN | ||||
| SERBIA | RS | ||||
| SEYCHELLES | SC | ||||
| SIERRA LEONE | SL | ||||
| SINGAPORE | SG | ||||
| SINT MAARTEN (DUTCH PART) | SX | ||||
| SLOVAKIA | SK | ||||
| SLOVENIA | SI | ||||
| SOLOMON ISLANDS | SB | ||||
| SOMALIA | SO | ||||
| SOUTH AFRICA | ZA | ||||
| SOUTH GEORGIA AND THE SOUTH SANDWICHISLANDS | GS | ||||
| SOUTH SUDAN | SS | ||||
| SPAIN | ES | x | |||
| SRI LANKA | LK | ||||
| SUDAN | SD | ||||
| SURINAME | SR | ||||
| SVALBARD AND JAN MAYEN | SJ | ||||
| SWAZILAND | SZ | ||||
| SWEDEN | SE | ||||
| SWITZERLAND | CH | ||||
| SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC | SY | ||||
| TAIWAN, PROVINCE OF CHINA | TW | x | |||
| TAJIKISTAN | TJ | ||||
| TANZANIA, UNITED REPUBLIC OF | TZ | ||||
| THAILAND | TH | ||||
| TIMOR-LESTE | TL | ||||
| TOGO | TG | ||||
| TOKELAU | TK | ||||
| TONGA | TO | ||||
| TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO | TT | ||||
| TUNISIA | TN | ||||
| TURKEY | TR | ||||
| TURKMENISTAN | TM | ||||
| TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS | TC | ||||
| TUVALU | TV | ||||
| UGANDA | UG | ||||
| UKRAINE | UA | ||||
| UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | AE | ||||
| UNITED KINGDOM | GB | x | |||
| UNITED STATES | US | x | |||
| UNITED STATES MINOR OUTLYING ISLANDS | UM | ||||
| URUGUAY | UY | ||||
| UZBEKISTAN | UZ | ||||
| VANUATU | VU | ||||
| VENEZUELA, BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF | VE | ||||
| VIET NAM | VN | ||||
| VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH | VG | ||||
| VIRGIN ISLANDS, U.S. | VI | ||||
| WALLIS AND FUTUNA | WF | ||||
| WESTERN SAHARA | EH | ||||
| YEMEN | YE | ||||
| ZAMBIA | ZM | ||||
| ZIMBABWE | ZW |
If you still have questions, please contact Loqate Support at support@loqate.com or your account manager.
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