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What would be the best way to go about the following. A customer calls in to book an appointment. I enter their address and hit a button. That button searches ahead and lists the closest jobs that we have scheduled in the future.

I see that there is route optimization but it isn't really accomplishing my goal. You would have to select all jobs for that time period which isn't a problem but it then sends you to the method map page. At that point it only lists the addresses in order with no customer info. That will make us then have to go back and search the address for the customer thus taking even longer.

Hello thesolarguys,
    This is a great question and idea for further development.   You are basically wondering on what day and time to best put a job to optimize your worker's day.  Currently, you have to book appointments on the same day and let the map do the optimization.  You may have an appointment better suited for that day.
    It may be possible, but will get complex.  We don't have a built-in optimizer that does find the closest address to an address booked into a work order.  You would have to customize it.   
 
   Here is my idea.  There is an action called Plot Addresses that can Return Distances into an action result.  
1. Input the address you are looking to compare. Let's call it Point A. Most likely it will have to be put in an Action Result at the beginning.  Create an ActionResult called SmallestDistance
2. Loop through the work order table getting each incomplete work order individually and calculate the distance between Point A and the work order address.  Then compare the distance with the stored SmallestDistance value.  If the number is smaller, then you replace this distance into the SmallestDistance value.  You also would have to store at least the work orders RecordID.  Once you are done looping, the smallest distant work order is in the SmallestDistance value.  You would also have to keep track of at least RecordIDs.  This will allow you to go back and get the work order information.


Take a look at the FieldService_WorkOrderList screen.  Click Edit for the More actions… button and take a look at the actions for the Mapping event.  I don't believe there is a way for the customer name to show on the map.



Greg

Great suggestion. I am trying to get this to work and think I have come up with a logical way just not sure if it can work. I created a button that grabs a customer address. It then starts to L in the gridoop through the Activity grid. I want to use the plot address action and return distance for each checke marked customer. It will compare just the orginal address and the check address getting the distance between each (not like in the WorkOrderList where it returns all the distances combined together). It will then update a field I created in the Activity table with the distance in between. Once it has finished the loop it will refresh the grid and sort by sortest distance. The part I gcan't get to work is returning the distance between the customers address and each row individually in the activity grid. Can you please help me with the proper order of actions? Thanks

Hello thesolarguys,

   I checked the Plot Addresses and I found that the Return Distances function isn't working.  I'm going to put in a ticket for development to fix.  I don't have an ETA on when it will be done.

    I can give you what I was thinking in doing actions.  Take a look at my screenshot.   Each number in the following list corresponds to the actions in the screenshot.

1. Start Loop Through Grid - Go through your grid and only process checked rows.  I'll refer to a checked row's record address and the grid record's address.

2. Create an action result (mine is FullAddressInGrid) to store the address you are working with in the grid.  I populated it with BillAddressAddr1 to start.

3. Combine address fields to create an action result that holds the address for the grid record.  Here I am adding BillAddressAddr2 to the action result.  Join with commas.  You can add more actions to add more of the address fields together.  You will need the city and state which is not shown in my example.

4. Once you have your grid record address, you must combine it with the address you are comparing.  Join it with a line break.  You will need to store this value in an action result.

5. You need a Plot Addresses action.  Here, you take the action result and check off Return Distances and create an action result to store the distance number.

6. Put the distance into a custom field on the table.  This custom field will be the one you see on your grid that shows the distance.  This would be done with an Update Field In Table action.  You would find the record by getting the RecordID for the record you are processing in the loop.  I don't have a field to use so I don't have an example of this action.

7. End loop

Here is a sample of my join address values action for step 3.

Here is my sample for Step 4 where I combine both addresses

I hope this helps,

 Greg

Thank you for the detailed response. Please let me know when the Plot Address Distance function is working again. I think that was my main issue as I just assumed I had done somthing wrong.

Any updates on the Plot Address Distance function? It still doesn't seem to work.

Hello thesolarguys,

     The developers are still looking into the ticket. I currently do not have an ETA on when we can expect the fix.   I apologize for the inconvenience.

Greg