Latitude Geographics is thrilled to release our major Instant Search feature, which enables a powerful new capability of Geocortex Essentials 4.
On the cusp of the Geocortex Essentials 4.0 release in February we had an important decision to make about the inclusion of our new Instant Search feature.
Shortly before our release date, beta customer installations highlighted a major, hard-to-pinpoint bug involving our search crawler. We had two options. We could delay our long-anticipated and biggest product release in years (that was otherwise ready to ship) for an unknown amount of time until the issue was resolved. Alternatively, we could ship 4.0 without Instant Search (and release it independently when the problem was solved).
Given it was simple to remove and could be dropped in cleanly when ready (i.e. without even requiring a Geocortex Essentials upgrade) we opted to proceed with an immediate 4.0 release with Instant Search to follow.
We think it was the right call. We originally estimated a two or three week timeframe to resolve the problem and ship Instant Search, but fixing and testing took a bit longer in the end.
Whatever the case, we’re happy to announce that Instant Search, which introduces a highly-scalable, extremely fast, indexed search engine, is now ready and available for you to download.
You can define and index attributes and geometry to provide fast and intuitive search capabilities across millions of features on your maps. As you type, search suggestions will be displayed instantly; when listed, the most relevant results are shown on top to quickly help you find what you’re looking for.
While we’ve been finalizing Instant Search, we’ve had the opportunity to make search-related usability improvements to our HTML5 and Silverlight viewers, which are now available in their 2.1 versions.
Instant Search and our HTML5/Silverlight 2.1 viewers work together by:
- Displaying pushpins on the map to show the location of search results;
- Enabling the ability to give precedence to search results in the current map extent; and
- Offering more intuitive auto-complete hints in the search text box.
A video demonstrating these feature enhancements will be available in the Geocortex Support Center very soon.
We aren’t done making improvements. Towards the end of April we will be releasing Geocortex Essentials 4.1, with 2.2 versions of our HTML5 and Silverlight viewers.
This leaves a number of options for you, depending on your preferences:
1. Get started with Instant Search, today, in your current environment.
Install Instant Search on top of your Geocortex Essentials 4.0/2.0 viewer environments. You can still upgrade to Geocortex Essentials 4.1 with our 2.2 viewers at the end of April to realize further usability improvements.
2. Upgrade your viewers and gain advanced access to the best user experience.
Install Instant Search on top of your current Geocortex Essentials 4.0, as well as upgrade your viewers to 2.1. Again, you can still have access to Geocortex Essentials 4.1 and our 2.2 viewers at the end of April.
3. Not in a rush and only want to perform one upgrade? Wait for both releases at the end of April.
Geocortex Essentials 4.1 and our HTML5 and Silverlight 2.2 viewers will be here in just over a month.
Whatever path you take, we’re confident you and your users will be excited by this significant addition to Geocortex Essentials. And this is just the first release of Instant Search… we’ve got big plans for the future of this major new product feature. Over time, we plan to steadily increase the intelligence of search and how we prioritize results.
Installers be downloaded from the Geocortex Support Center by licensees with an active maintenance agreement. If your account is handled by an authorized Geocortex reseller, please contact your local representative for access. If you’re not already a Geocortex Essentials licensee and want to learn more, please get in touch!
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