Addressing what's next

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As most of you are aware, LocatorHub is retiring in December 2023. This blog will collate the resources we have made available, and go through our plans for UK Data Loader and Connector for OS Places API, to address some concerns over the retirement of LocatorHub. 

Where can I find the information? 

We have a made variety of resources available which you can review or re-watch: 

  • Addressing LocatorHub’s Retirement Plans webinar

  • Benefits of ArcGIS Locators for finding places blog 

  • LocatorHub Retirement Reminder blog  

  • GB Addressing website 

  • Idox's Aligned Assets Gazetteer Management System webpage for more information on their solution 

  • Functionality Matrix to aid your decision making 

  • FAQ document to answer other questions you might have 

For any further information, please speak to the addressing team at Esri UK or your CSM. 

What’s next? 

We received lots of great feedback after the webinar about ‘Addressing LocatorHub’s Retirement plans’. We have worked hard with partners and customers to try and address as many of the issues raised as possible. We are now actively developing the next release of UK Data Loader (UKDL) and continuing to develop the Connector for OS Places API. So what does the roadmap look like? 

UK Data Loader  

We have recently released UKDL 7.0 which was mainly focused on the OS Transport layer. Note: UKDL 7.0 or higher is now only supported on ArcGIS Pro 3.0 or higher. 

We are also going to release UKDL 7.1 which is due on 19th July 2023. This will be a big update for UKDL with significant enhancements for addressing. We have included the following in the UKDL 7.1 release: 

  • Support for OS AddressBase Premium Islands – allowing you to import the AddressBase Premium Islands data as well as create locators from this data. As OS AddressBase Premium Islands is now included as part of the PSGA, we hope that this will be an exciting addition. 

  • Postcode locator – allowing you to now search for an address by just its postcode. This will be created by default for you when you create any of our locators whether that is LLPG or AddressBase Core. We have ensured it is available to everyone as we know this is a huge requirement.  

  • Street locator – allowing you to now search for a street, by a street. Again, this will be created by default with all our locators. This will return the information about that street when you search for a street name. 

  • Updated documentation – the documentation now clarifies which versions are required for creating UKDL locators. This includes using ArcGIS Pro 3.0 or higher when using UKDL and publishing locators to ArcGIS Enterprise or stand-alone ArcGIS Server. There is also a minimum specification for ArcGIS Server of 10.8.1 or higher and ArcGIS Enterprise of 10.9.1 or higher.  

  • Enhancements to locator fields – we are making enhancements to the fields available to view as part of the locator. This is based on feedback we have received and will allow for better integration with 3rd parties and other applications.  

The additional fields will depend on the source data but may include: 

  • Local custodian code  

  • Parent UPRN  

  • Multiple occupancy  

  • Ward code 

  • Postally addressable 

  • BLPU state 

We have also made plans for UKDL 7.2 which is scheduled for release at the end of October 2023. This will include further enhancements to locators, and more details will be available nearer the time. The main planned enhancement in this release is another street locator which will allow you to search for a street and return all the addresses along that street.  

Connector for OS Places API by Esri UK 

In May we released some new functionality that allows you to filter based on local custodian code(s), country code(s) and logical status code(s). More information on this release can be found on our Filtering arrives to the Connector for OS places API blog.  

Also on our roadmap for the Connector for OS Places API is a major enhancement to improve the experience when searching just by postcode.  This enhancement will be scheduled for release by late September.