Welcome to the locr BATCH Tool!

With only a few steps you can create individual area and route maps, LOCALmaps and NAVImaps from your address database.

Click on the start pin to create a new project or to work on an existing one...

Welcome to the locr BATCH Tool!

The locr BATCH Tool’s main page gives an overview of your existing projects. All of your existing projects will be listed here. Double click on a project to open it. By selecting a project in the list, you can choose one of the activities below (select, delete or copy project).

The contact and the help button on the upper right hand side will be present on every page during the project creation process. Whenever you feel uncertain about a step in the locr BATCH Tool, click on the question mark button to open this manual. Or click on the envelope button to send your questions and comments directly to the locr team.

To start a new project, click ‘create project’.

Please note that the locr BATCH Tool is designed for smaller, simple projects. Processing addresses above 10k can cause massive queue time. If you have high volume or complex projects please contact the locr team—we’re looking forward to collaborate with you!

You will find small question mark buttons throughout the steps of the locr BATCH Tool. Click on a question mark button to get more information about the particular step.

Select project type

In the first step you will define what kind of maps you want to use for your project. The short summary below each map sample gives you an overview of the map’s features and recommended applications.

Choose between four different locr maps types:

NAVImaps with one route
Generate NAVImaps with one route from the recipient's (customer's) address to one destination location such as a store or other Point of Interest. Destination locations can either be allocated to recipients in the database or calculated automatically by travel time or distance.

NAVImaps with multiple routes
Generate NAVImaps with multiple routes from the recipient's address to up to five destinations. Destination locations can either be allocated to recipients in the database or calculated automatically by travel time or distance.

LOCALmaps with one location
Generate LOCALmaps to show the recipient's (customer's) address or any other Point of Interest. The location can be highlighted with various icons in different colors.

LOCALmaps with multiple locations
Generate LOCALmaps with up to five destination locations such as stores or other Points of Interest around the recipient's (customer's) address. Destination locations can either be assigned to recipients in the database or selected automatically based on travel time or distance.

Address Upload

If you chose a LOCALmap with one location, you will be asked to upload one address file only because the LOCALmap only displays one location per map. For all other project types two address files need to be uploaded—one for the recipient and one for the destination data. Click “browse…” to search for the appropriate file in your explorer.

The recipient and destination data files need to be CSV files containing the following address information in separate columns: ID, house number, street, city, postcode or ZIP and country (if more than one country is in the data file).

CSV files can be created in Excel or any other program capable of exporting a CSV file. Download a template CSV file here. Please follow the scheme in the template to avoid problems in the geocoding process.

If you are familiar with the locr BATCH Tool already, you can upload a manually designed configuration or choose one from a previous project.

Data Assignment

In the following two steps you can check if the columns of your recipient and destination address list contain the right headings. Please assign the appropriate categories to the columns of your uploaded address list.

If you already added the standard column names (id, street, house, postal, city, country), check the box ‘First line contains column headings’. The locr BATCH Tool will now identify them as column headings and not as address data.

If you have latitude and longitude available you can add them to the CSV file as well. If you add a column with the heading “shop_id” you can assign IDs for your destination locations beforehand. Otherwise the locr BATCH Tool will do this automatically during the project process.

First line contains column headings?

If your address file already contains column headings please check the box ‘first line contains column headings’. This setting fades out the first line which is then ignored in the further project process.

Please note that if the box is not checked (for files with column headings only) the first line will be considered as address data.

Select country

If the address file does not contain country names, and provided that all addresses are located in the same country, please select a country from the dropdown menu.

Please note that countries must be defined according to the standard ISO 3166-1 ALPHA-2 or ISO 3166-1 ALPHA-3 (codes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1).

Recipient and Destination ID

The recipient and destination ID helps the locr BATCH Tool to identify each address individually. The ID should be a unique value as it will be used for the file name of each map.

If you did not assign IDs to your recipient and/or destination addresses manually, the locr BATCH Tool will automatically generate IDs for each address.

To manually pre-assign one or more destinations to your recipient addresses just add a column titled “shop_id” to your recipient address file and assign a destination ID to each recipient address. This assignment can also be processed by the locr BATCH Tool which automatically assigns the nearest destination location to each recipient address.

Please note that the manual assignment can cause errors if the destination location could not be geocoded but was assigned to a recipient address. We therefore recommend to have this carried out by the locr BATCH Tool.

After completing this step, your address files will be uploaded to the locr BATCH Tool and you can go on to the next step to define the appearance of your personalized maps.

Address Validation


In this step, your uploaded address data will be checked for correctness and geocoded with latitudes and longitudes.

Click the button ‘Start address validation’ to commence the process. The ‘Total - Used/Uploaded’ amount shows the overall progress of the address validation process for the Recipient Addresses and also for the Destination addresses in the case of NAVImap projects. It may take a few minutes to process all the addresses.

The sub-totals below show the number of addresses that have been found at different levels of precision. The address validation process tries to locate and geocode all addresses at the highest precision - House level. If an address cannot be geocoded at House level, it attempts to find the Street, then the Postal or ZIP code and finally the City (or town). At the lower levels of precision the locations of addresses are more approximate.

Some addresses may not be found at all. This is often due to misspelling in the address. You can change this manually.
When the address validation process is complete, a green tick will appear in the tab at the top of the screen.

Selecting the Addresses to Use


To the right of the amount and percentage columns there is a slider control. You can use this to select the number of addresses for which maps will be created. The default level of precision is Street. This means that the total number of addresses that will be used is all those which have been geocoded at either House or Street level.

You can change the overall quantity to use by moving the slider. Moving it up will select only those which have been geocoded at House level - the highest level of precision. Moving it down will increase the quantity to use by including those which can only be geocoded at Postal/ZIP code or City level. The overall total of maps to use changes as you move the slider.

The recommended level of geocoding precision to use depends partly on the final scale of the maps. LOCALmaps showing a small area at a large scale will require greater precision. But NAVImaps, where the distances are greater, may still look fine at lower levels of geocoding precision because the icon that shows the recipient or destination address will itself cover a much larger area.


Updating Addresses Manually


In case not all of your addresses were located, click on ‘Show’ by the ‘Not found’ to view them. Now you can check if these addresses might contain a typo and correct them manually.

Click ‘show’ next to the total number of ‘used’ recipient or destination addresses to open a full list of all recipient or destination addresses. This gives you the chance to manually correct or change single addresses.

After making any manual changes to addresses, you will be prompted to re-run the address validation process. Only those addresses that have been changed will be geocoded again.

It is also possible to replace the entire address file in case you uploaded an incorrect file and have made changes offline. Click the ‘Replace’ button to start again.

To-Do List


The To-Do list gives an overview of all the steps of your project. You can run all the steps at once with your pre-defined settings by clicking ‘run all steps’. Run just one or two steps by making settings in the selected steps, check the corresponding boxes on the To-Do List and click ‘run all steps’.

Please note that address validation needs to be executed before the other two steps, destination assignment and map creation, can be started.

Red x

The red x indicates that a step has been manually stopped. Restart the step to process all address data correctly.

Exclamation point:

The exclamation point in the To-Do list suggests that one or more maps could not be generated. Please check if all destination addresses were geocoded. Errors may occur if the map size is too small proportionately to the icon size.

Green checkmark:

The process is complete.

Please note that the green checkmark suggests that a step has completely been processed for all addresses, but there may be addresses that weren’t found or assigned.

Recipient and Destination Fields


As the address validation is completed the Recipient and Destination Fields provide information about the address validation process.

In case not all of your addresses were located, click on ‘show’ to open a list of the addresses that were not found. Now you can check if these addresses might contain a typo and correct them manually.

After making changes in the address lists the address validation will start anew automatically so that the right address can be geocoded by our system.

It is still possible to replace the address file in case you uploaded an incorrect file and have made changes offline.

Click ‘show’ next to the total number of recipient or destination addresses to open a full list of all recipient or destination addresses. This gives you the chance to manually correct or change single addresses.

Configuration


Routing type: Start the configuration by selecting the routing type. You can choose between the fastest by car, shortest by car, or a pedestrian route.

Next, you can select a minimum and maximum number of destinations. Use the dropdown menu to choose the minimum number of destinations that should be assigned to each recipient address. Do the same thing for the maximum count.

Minimum number of Destinations: Select the minimum number of destinations that you want assigned to each recipient. If the selected minimum number of destinations cannot be found within the maximum specified distance for any addresses, these particular addresses will be excluded from the project. For example, if you want no less than 5 destinations assigned to each recipient address, choose 5 for the minimum number of destinations. Now all recipient addresses that can’t be assigned to 5 destinations will be excluded.

Maximum number of Destinations: Select the maximum number of destinations that you want assigned to each recipient. If there are more than 5 destinations that are within the maximum specified distance, only the 5 nearest destinations will be taken into account. For example, if you want no more than 3 destinations assigned to each recipient, chose 3 for the maximum number of destinations.

Maximal distance to destination: Specify the maximum distance allowed between a recipient address and a destination location. If there are no locations within the search distance then no route will be calculated.

Destination Assignment


Here you will find all the information about the assignment process.

Addresses can have errors for a number of reasons. Common causes of failure include Post Office boxes instead of street addresses, incorrect address data and destinations that are unreachable by the chosen method, such as driving directions to an address in a car-free zone. Click ‘show’ to see a list of all addresses that could not be assigned to a destination location.

Configuration


Start with defining the size, border, maps style and scale of your maps. Locr maps style 3 is our standard maps style and the most popular style for direct mail purposes.

Learn more about the locr maps styles on our website: http://maps.locr.com/en/products-services/personalized-maps

Routing


You can choose how the route highlighted in your personalized map will look. Choose the color, width and transparency that fit your purposes best. The routing width is defined in pixels.

Recipient and destination icon


Choose from various icons or have your own custom logo or icon added to your personalized maps. Just send us your logo in PNG format along with your account information to support@locr.com. Your custom content will be uploaded by locr and assigned to your account. It then will be available for your projects. Please ensure that your logos and icons are the right size for print with a resolution of 300 dpi.

Expert tip:


If you’re familiar with the locr BATCH Tool already you can assign destination addresses to different groups. This is useful when your destination address file contains different types of locations (like supermarkets, bank branches, pharmacies etc.). Just add a column with the heading “type” to your CSV destination file and group the addresses by assigning a number to each address of a destination group (e.g. 1 for all supermarkets and 2 for all bank branches). Then you can choose different icons for the various destination types.

Replacement graphic


In case there are any addresses our locr BATCH Tool could not find positions for (even after manual correction), you can upload a replacement JPG graphic for this address to instead of a personalized map.

Incorrect maps


In case the destination locations have been pre-assigned, please make sure the IDs for the shop are identical in both the shop list and the assignment lists.

Errors may also occur if shops could not be geocoded due to incorrect addresses. Please ensure the ID that has been assigned to the shops is valid for all accounts.

If all IDs are correct and all locations have been geocoded, there may be an intern server error.

Please contact the locr support for further advice! info@locr.com

Test run


Before starting the fee-based download you can process a test run. Click ‘start’ in the map creation step and select the test run in the window that opens up. Now 20 maps with your project settings will be downloaded for you to check and approve them. The test run is free of charge.

Fee-based download


The number of map licenses used will be debited from your account. Addresses which are not valid and for which it is not possible to create a map are credited back to your account after the process. Once the geocoding process has started the costs of the production run will be incurred and cannot be refunded. The maps can be downloaded later and will not incur any further charges. The process of address validation and address assignment is free of charge.

In this last step of your project you will find an overview of all the geo-information in the project.

If you made any changes to address data you can download the updated address file here.

Click on a row and then click download or double click on a row. Doing so, another window opens up and gives you the options of a test run which is free of charge or the fee-based download.

Production process with costs


Here you will start the complete production process using all uploaded addresses. The number of maps generated will be charged of your account. Addresses which are not geocodable and for which are no maps created will be credited back to your account after the process.
Once production has started, it is not possible to cancel the process and your account will be charged for the volume of maps created. Your account will also be charged if only the geocoding was executed. By executing the geocoding, which is chargeable, there are no additional costs for creating the associated maps that follow the same routings.

In the “account” area you can see an overview of your project status. Finished projects are shown with the creation date and volume created so you can understand the mapping charges. You also can see the status of your remaining map licenses so you will know if you need to purchase additional licenses for your next project.

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