Disambiguation

[Robert Ashton]

We have a store locator type application, but for this question, works just
as well in the mappoint SDK.
If you choose in the left hand menu in the interactive SDK 'Find information
(advanced)'>'using different settings', the map defaults to US. In the search
box, in the 'where' field, type 'newport uk'. The disambiguation list
displays 2 identical items (10 altogether): 'newport, england, united
kingdom'. These are 2 different places (about 100 miles apart) yet the text
is identical.

Why are these 2 items not distinguished by county or some other text? This
we are finding is very confusing for our users. Any ideas??

[Derek Chan]

Robert,

It's a result of the yellowpage data contained in Virtual Earth. There
really isn't anything that can be done about this yet (all internal to
Microsoft), and I've found UK coverage a bit lacking when it comes to
geocoding. Please post any further VE questions in the VE forums at:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/vemapcontroldev/threads/ .

Hope to see you there,
--
Infusion Development
http://www.infusion.com

Post by Robert Ashton
We have a store locator type application, but for this question, works just
as well in the mappoint SDK.
If you choose in the left hand menu in the interactive SDK 'Find information
(advanced)'>'using different settings', the map defaults to US. In the search
box, in the 'where' field, type 'newport uk'. The disambiguation list
displays 2 identical items (10 altogether): 'newport, england, united
kingdom'. These are 2 different places (about 100 miles apart) yet the text
is identical.
Why are these 2 items not distinguished by county or some other text? This
we are finding is very confusing for our users. Any ideas??

[Derek Chan]

Fred,

A simple null check on the returnedLocations will determine if any address
was returned at all. I'd need to know what MWS call you made to get your
results back to be specific, but in general MWS can never guarantee that the
locations returned will be not be empty (null) so its best to account for it.


Hope that helps,
--
Infusion Development
http://www.infusion.com

Post by Robert Ashton
We have a store locator type application, but for this question, works just
as well in the mappoint SDK.
If you choose in the left hand menu in the interactive SDK 'Find information
(advanced)'>'using different settings', the map defaults to US. In the search
box, in the 'where' field, type 'newport uk'. The disambiguation list
displays 2 identical items (10 altogether): 'newport, england, united
kingdom'. These are 2 different places (about 100 miles apart) yet the text
is identical.
Why are these 2 items not distinguished by county or some other text? This
we are finding is very confusing for our users. Any ideas??