EZ-Locate Client for Windows 1. What is the EZ-Locate Client? The EZ-Locate Client is a fully functional program that enables you to perform real-time geocoding via Tele Atlas North America's Geocoding Server over the Internet. The EZ-Locate Client allows you to open a file of address records on your computer, send them to the Geocoding Server, and receive geocoded addresses, including locations, postal-standard addresses, and census codes back in real-time. For demonstration purposes, the EZ-Locate Client is preconfigured with a Guest account to allow you to geocode small batches of addresses. As Guest you are limited to jobs of 5 records or less and postal- standard addresses are not returned. 2. How do I install the EZ-Locate Client? If you are downloading EZ-Locate from the Internet: a) Download EZ-Locate.zip to your computer from the Tele Atlas North America, Inc. http://geocode.com website. b) Unzip the EZ-Locate.zip archive into a temporary directory. c) Run the setup.exe application from the archive. d) Follow the directions provided by the installer. If you are installing EZ-Locate from the demonstration CD: a) Find the EZ-Locate Windows client directory on the CD. b) Run the setup.exe application. c) Follow the directions provided by the installer. 3. I've installed EZ-Locate and now I want to geocode. What do I do? There are two steps involved in your first use of EZ-Locate: a) Set up a geocoding account b) Geocode Account Setup: EZ-Locate tracks geocoding usage through the use of a distinct account assigned to each user. Each user account is protected by a unique username/password combination. EZ-Locate comes pre-configured with a Guest account which allows batches of 5 or fewer addresses to be geocoded free of charge for evaluation purposes only. You can also register for 100 free geocodes or purchase geocodes in one of the following ways: 1) visit the Tele Atlas North America, Inc. geocoding website at http://www.geocode.com 2) email sales@na.teleatlas.com, or call Tele Atlas North America, Inc. sales at (800)765-0555. If you register and/or purchase geocodes, you will receive a unique username and password. To configure EZ-Locate to use your account, open the EZ-Locate software and go to the Configure/Account menu item to enter your account information. Type in your username and password in the boxes provided. Be careful to preserve upper and lowercase characters. If you check the "Store Password" box, you will not need to type in this information every time you run EZ-Locate. ( Try to "Get Acct Info" on the menu bar. If you are able to get this information you have established an internet connection. You are now ready to start geocoding. Geocoding: For the EZ-Locate Client to communicate with Tele Atlas North America's Geocoding Server, you will need to have a Winsock installed on your computer so that it can communicate using the Internet and TCP/IP. To start geocoding, make sure that your computer has an active connection to the Internet, either a direct connection such as an ISDN line, or an indirect connection through an Internet Service Provider. Next, open your address file using the Open command in the File menu. (To learn more about address file types that are supported by EZ-Locate, see the information below devoted to data formats). The first record of your file may contain either an address to be geocoded or else field names for the remaining records. EZ-Locate will attempt to read through your address file to insure that it is formatted correctly. Once read, EZ-Locate displays a window showing the first address to be geocoded. - For .txt files, EZ-Locate will ask whether the first record contains field names or an actual address to be geocoded. - For Access databases, the program will ask which fields in your file are to be used for geocoding, offering a selection menu displaying all fields of type Text, Memo, Integer, or Long Integer. EZ-Locate will make its best guess as to which fields in your database corresponds to street address, city, state, and ZIP code. Through the use of pull-down menus, EZ-Locate allows you to change these assignments. If your database has house numbers or ZIP Plus4 codes in separate fields, you can specify those as well. The EZ-Locate window will show you the contents of the first address to be sent to Tele Atlas North America's Geocoding Server. When you are happy with your selections, press the Geocode button to begin geocoding. You may stop the process at any time by clicking the Stop button. After the job is completed or has been stopped, you may save the results either as a delimited text file or as an Access database by using the "Save Results As..." command in the File menu. Do not hit the geocode button or it will start the process over and lose your results. All data present in your original file will be saved in the new file with geocoding data appended to each record. You may also save an ASCII statistics report for the most recent geocoding session. 4. What address record data formats can EZ-Locate import? Your data must fulfill the following requirements: a) Address records must be in either a delimited text file format or in a Microsoft Access database. b) Text delimiters must be Tab, Comma, or Pipe (|). c) Address records must have fields that represent the street address, city, state, and ZIP code. d) The state field must be either 2 characters or blank. e) The ZIP code field must conform to one of the following formats: 1) 5-digit ZIP code (ex: 60001) 2) xxxxx-yyyy format ZIP+4 (ex: 60001-1234) 3) xxxxxyyyy format ZIP+4 (ex: 600011234) 4) empty field NOTE: If you are using the optional Plus4 field, you must use the 5-digit ZIP code format as listed above. f) If you use Access format, the field types of your address fields must be Text, Memo, Integer, or Long Integer. The EZ-Locate Client will not allow you to transmit data from fields of other types. If the above requirements are not met, the record will be returned as a non-match. No attempt will be made to geocode the record and you will not be billed for that record. 5. I've installed EZ-Locate and I want to evaluate it without purchasing geocodes. What do I do? For evaluation purposes, EZ-Locate comes pre-configured with an account that allows the user to geocode batches of 5 or fewer addresses at no charge. You may use EZ-Locate in this manner for evaluation purposes only. This account will allow you to do geocode 20 records 4 connections at 5 records a time. ( The guest account username is Guest and the password is Guest case sensitive. Be careful this account will expire due to any abuse.) If you set up a 100 free account on our website only one account per household. When you are ready to geocode and have set up your own account remember to change this information. Jot down the username and password from the website or here, and then type it into the "Account" selection under the "Configure" Menu, making sure to preserve upper and lowercase characters. If you like what you see, purchase more geocodes from Tele Atlas North America's geocoding website at http://www.geocode.com, or contact our sales department directly by emailing sales@na.teleatlas.com or by calling (800)765-0555. 6. I've installed EZ-Locate and it won't geocode any addresses. What's the problem? There are several potential reasons why EZ-Locate may not work immediately. They are the following: a) User does not have a Winsock installed. b) User is not connected to the Internet. c) Incorrect username and password [remember, both are case sensitive]. d) User is attempting to connect to the Internet through a firewall. Before you can run EZ-Locate, you must have a Winsock installed so that your computer can communicate with Tele Atlas North America's Geocoding Server via the Internet and TCP/IP. The standard Windows Winsock is installed when you install Windows Networking. Secondly, you must be actively connected to the Internet, either through a direct connection or through an Internet Service Provider. If you have a firewall, you will need to take further steps to make sure that traffic between EZ-Locate Client and Tele Atlas North America's Geocoding Server is allowed to pass through the firewall. See the section below for more information concerning firewalls. 7. My company has a firewall. How do I get EZ-Locate to work with a firewall? Firewalls, usually maintained by system administrators, keep certain types of traffic from passing freely between your PC and the Internet. They may be either open or strict in the way they handle traffic between your PC and the outside world. To use EZ-Locate, your firewall needs to allow a TCP connection from your PC to Tele Atlas North America's Geocoding Server. Once EZ-Locate has been installed on your PC, running it initiates a TCP connection to the Tele Atlas North America Geocoding Server at IP address 63.79.58.34 on port 7173, both of which are pre-configured under the Configure/Server menu item. Do not change this information! If your firewall computer is running a SOCKS server, EZ-Locate can use a 3rd-party shareware product, SocksCap, as a replacement for the standard Winsock which comes with Windows to connect to Tele Atlas North America's Geocoding Server via a SOCKS proxy. Further information is available at http://www.socks.nec.com, along with the SOCKS software. There is no need to open the external interface of your firewall for incoming TCP connections since your EZ-Locate software always initiates the connection. Once your computer initiates a TCP connection with the EZ-Locate server, all communication during the geocoding session occurs over this single TCP connection. Please show this document to your system administrator if you need help. Otherwise, call Nicole Curtis at ezlocate@na.teleatlas.com (800)697-3232, x14 for support. 8. I like EZ-Locate and want to buy more geocodes. How do I do so? To check your account status, look under the Windows menu for "Get Account Info". Here you can check how many geocodes you have left in your account. If you want to buy more, go to Tele Atlas North america's geocoding website at http://www.geocode.com. There you can visit Tele Atlas North America's E-Commerce site and purchase more geocodes using your credit card. If you prefer, email us at sales@na.teleatlas.com, or call (800)765-0555. If you are a large volume geocoder, you may prefer paying by other means. Contact our sales staff at (800)765-0555 to work out other payment options. 9. Do I have to use all of the geocodes I purchase in one session? No. The beauty of EZ-Locate is that you can buy a large batch of geocodes and use them over as many sessions as you want. Your EZ-Locate account keeps track of how many geocodes you have purchased and how many you have used. The price of geocoding transactions drops with volume, so the more geocodes you purchase in advance, the lower your price per geocode. 10. What data does EZ-Locate return to my file? The following data fields are appended to your address records by EZ-Locate: STANDARDIZED ADDRESS STD_ADDR standardized street address STD_CITY standardized city STD_ST standardized state STD_ZIP standardized 5-digit ZIP code STD_P4 standardized ZIP +4 code STD_CR standardized carrier route MATCHED ADDRESS MAT_ADDR matched street address MAT_CITY matched city MAT_ST matched state MAT_ST_P % contribution of predominant matched state for vicinity matches. Blank for street segment matches or 100% predominance. MAT_ZIP matched 5-digit ZIP code COORDINATES (If a street segment match is found, lat/long is interpolated within the segment. If a vicinity match is found, lat/long is the weighted center of the matching ZIP centroid area.) MAT_LAT latitude (NAD27) - 6 digits after decimal point MAT_LON longitude (NAD27) - 6 digits after decimal point MATCH QUALITY MAT_TYPE Match Accuracy MAT_SOURCE P = Tele Atlas MultiNet (USA), T = TIGER, blank = ZIP centroid CENSUS CODES (For street segment matches, census codes come from the matched street segment. For vicinity matches, census codes are the predominant ones found in the corresponding ZIP code area and % fields are included to indicate degree of predominance.) FIPS_CTY FIPS county code: state abbreviation (2 characters) , FIPS county code (3 characters) FIPS_CTY_P % contribution of predominant FIPS county code for vicinity matches. Blank for street segment matches or 100% predominance. CEN_TRCT census tract code: state abbreviation (2 characters), FIPS county code (3 characters), census tract code (6 characters) CEN_TRCT_P % contribution of predominant census tract for vicinity matches. Blank for street segment matches or 100% predominance. CEN_BLKG census block group code: state abbreviation (2 characters), FIPS county code (3 characters), census tract (6 characters), census block group (1 character) CEN_BLKG_P % contribution of predominant census block group for vicinity matches. Blank for street segment matches or 100% predominance. CEN_MCD census minor civil division code: state abbreviation (2 characters), FIPS county code (3 characters), census MCD (3 characters) CEN_MCD_P % contribution of predominant census MCD for vicinity matches. Blank for street segment matches or 100% predominance. CEN_PLC census place code: state abbreviation (2 characters), census place code (4 characters) CEN_PLC_P % contribution of predominant census place for vicinity matches. Blank for street segment matches or 100% predominance. Match Type code values: 0 - non-match 1 - block face - match is to within a unique intersection OR match is within a single side of a single street block 2 - near match - match is to a single street block but the correct side of street and correct placement within block are not known 3 - Zip+2 centroid - match to a ZIP+2 vicinity 4 - 5-digit ZIP centroid - match to a 5-digit ZIP vicinity 5 - 3-digit SCF centroid - match is to a 3-digit SCF vicinity 6 - ambiguous match - match is to multiple street segments 11. When I view EZ-Locate geocoded addresses on a map, my geocodes do not land on my streets. What is the problem? EZ-Locate is designed for optimal performance with Tele Atlas MultiNet (USA), Tele Atlas North America's high-end, positionally-accurate street database. If you are geocoding addresses using EZ-Locate and displaying these geocodes on a non-Tele Atlas street database, there is a possibility that the geocodes will not be positioned perfectly on the third-party street data due to its lack of positional accuracy. For best results, use EZ-Locate with Tele Atlas MultiNet (USA). To learn more about Tele Atlas MultiNet (USA) and Tele Atlas' other street database products, visit our website at http://www.teleatlas.com, email info@na.teleatlas.com, or call our sales department at (800)765-0555. 12. When I view EZ-Locate geocoded addresses on an Tele Atlas map, my geocodes still do not always land on my streets. What is the problem? EZ-Locate accesses a variety of sources to insure the highest geocoding match rates possible. Some of these sources do not produce geocodes which fall on road segments in Tele Atlas North America's positionally-accurate street database. Examples of these alternative sources are TIGER, the US Census Bureau street database, and ZIPcode centroids, which are formed by combining all known streets in a given ZIP area into a single point. The data source and the match accuracy are returned as part of the geocoding information for each input address. You many want to refer to these fields in order to better understand why a particular geocode is placed where it is. 13. I've read the answers to these questions and still can't get EZ-Locate to work. What do I do? We look forward to helping you. Contact us: Duane Snell Email: ezlocate@na.teleatlas.com Phone: (800)697-3232 X15 14. What's new in EZ-Locate? The current version of the EZ-Locate Client is Version 1.51, last updated: April 2001. Here is the version history for previous versions of the EZ-Locate Client: Version 1.51 - Minor updates - New Installer Version 1.50 - support for win98 - support for new output field (CENSUS_UAC) Version 1.45 - bug fix for HouseNumber or ZIP4 being first DBField Version 1.44 - bug fix for slow connections - bug fix for files sometimes being left temp directory Version 1.43 - will attempt to automatically reconnect if for some reason a session times out or a connection is dropped - cancel button handled properly for save dialogs Version 1.42 - support Access 2.0 file format Version 1.41 - renamed Eagle Internet Geocoder to EZ-Locate - increased throughput on low-bandwidth connections Version 1.4 - new license agreement - ability to save summary report - zip+4's handled as separate DB field or as 5-4 format - update to readme to reflect the proper ordering of fields - improved server's handling of malformed addresses - server can now make use of provided zip+4 information