Understanding How Resource Searches Are Sorted
When searching for resources you may choose to sort your search results Alphabetically or by Proximity. After you complete a resource search in iCarol, a radio button appears above your search results allowing you to choose either of the following:
- Sort alphabetically (faster)
- Sort by proximity
If your organization enters a Physical Address within resource records, then when you choose to 'Sort by proximity', the following data entered is used to generate your search results:
- the location entered in your geographic filters when searching for resources, and
- the latitude and longitude coordinates for the physical location of resources, so long as the City or Zip Code fields have data entered in them; the latitude and longitude associated with 'Address Line 1' can be calculated, but that information isn't required; the latitude and longitude can't be calculated when just the Country, State, or County fields have data
When you choose to 'Sort by proximity', resources closest to the location entered in your geographic filters will appear first in the list, and resources farthest away will appear last.
Troubleshooting: Inaccurate Resource Proximity
When sorting resources by proximity, sometimes you may notice a resource proximity is appearing inaccurately. This is likely because the Latitude and Longitude coordinates need to be updated. The Latitude and Longitude coordinates are only updated when a resource editor clicks the 'Look Up' button that appears under the Location section of the resource record, next to the Zip/Postal Code field.
When you click this 'Look Up' button, it will look to all address fields under the the Location section of the resource record and update the Latitude and Longitude coordinates accordingly.
So, if you update the 'Address Line 1' for a resource and forget to click the 'Look Up' button, then the location of the resource is being calculated using the old latitude and longitude, therefore causing the proximity to inaccurately appear.
For example, if you currently have the following entered in the Location fields:
Address Line 1:123 Abc Street
City: Beverly Hills
County/Region: Los Angeles
State/Province: CA
Country: United States
Zip/Postal Code: 90210
Latitude: 34.1030032
Longitude: -118.4126571
And you only update the Address Line 1 to '42 Wallaby Way', then you still need to click the 'Look Up' button next to the Zip/Postal Code field in order to update the Latitude and Longitude according to the new address.
Note, most organizations choose to set the 'Latitude' and 'Longitude' fields to not visible when editing and viewing your resource records. This means you can't see the fields update when you click 'Lookup' but it's still important you remember to do so. Otherwise, if you don't click 'Lookup', the fields won't update which results in calculating inaccurate proximity for your search results.
Troubleshooting: Resources in a different location (county, city, zip/postal code) appear in the search results as being closer in proximity than resources within the location entered in the geographic filters
When sorting resources by proximity, sometimes you may notice a resource in a different location (county, city, zip/postal code) appear in the search results as being closer in proximity than records within the location entered in the geographic filters.
First complete the steps in the help article Troubleshooting: Inaccurate Resource Proximity, and the if the resource in a different zip code is still listed in the search results as being closer than records within the same zip code entered in the geographic filters, then iCarol is working as expected for the reasons explained below.
First we must understand when a location other than a street address is entered in iCarol, the proximity is calculated based off the approximate center of that location. For example, if you enter a zip code in the Geographic Filters, iCarol will calculate the proximity of resources from that zip code, based on the approximate center of that location.
Depending on the zip code entered, there may be resources in your database located in a different neighboring zip code, but the physical location of that resource is closer in proximity to the approximate center of the zip code entered in the Geographic Filter.
The same is also true if you have just a city or county entered in your Geographic Filter; sometimes there may be a resource in your database located in a different neighboring city or county, but the physical location of that resource is closer in proximity to the approximate center of the city or county entered in the Geographic Filter.