How Do I Use Location Services In Laserfiche?

What are Location Services?

Location services, also known as geolocation, help identify the exact geographic location of a device, such as a cell phone, a person, or an object using data from various sources such as GPS, WiFi signals, or an IP addresses. 

Location services are used in a variety of different ways, including navigation, fraud prevention, and emergency services.

Every time you take a picture with your cell phone, turn on Maps in your car, or call 911, some form of geolocation is involved.

Laserfiche uses geolocation to allow Users to capture and associate that same geographic location data used in photos and maps, with documents and entries within the Laserfiche repository. 

Users can add map locations to documents or folders, which makes it possible to view the geographical context of the information stored.

Importing Photos into Laserfiche

When importing JPEG files, Laserfiche can extract geolocation information from the photo's EXIF data and automatically associate the location with the document. This is like when you look through your cell phone's photo gallery, and each picture from your trip to Disney World last year has a date, time, and location associated with it.

Location Services and Searching

Once a location has been set, Users can perform searches to find documents near a specific geographical location. This is particularly useful when managing maintenance requests or other location-specific documentation.

To use Location Services when Searching:

• • Click Search Filters > Add Filter and then select Location 
    
    

Ways to Search

You can use the Location filter to search for documents and folders within a specific radius of a map point, and by location description.

• • When specifying a map location, type the address into the address box.
  • Specify the distance from the map location in either miles, kilometres, or meters. This allows you to search for entries located near a particular point.
  • You can search based on a specific description if you want to find records associated with a particular address or location name, you can enter that description into the search criteria.
  • You can perform searches that combine both proximity to a location and the location description to refine your search results even further.

Use Cases

You could use geolocation searches when employees conduct site visits.

• They can fill out forms that include geolocation fields to automatically capture their current location. This would help track which sites have been visited and their statuses.

You can associate location data when managing maintenance requests.

•  This allows maintenance workers to search for all properties in a specific vicinity that have open requests, streamlining their workflow.

You can associate location information with specific documents. 

• This helps you find and view documents relevant to a particular location, such as legal documents, records, or reports that pertain to a specific geographic area.

Organizations often use geolocation to track events or incidents at specific locations and retrieve relevant documents associated with those incidents for review or action.

This article was written by Matthew Clooney.
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