About sharing an address locator as a locator package

Locator packages (.gcpk) make it easy to share locators with others. A locator package may contain one locator or a composite locator along with its participating locators packaged into one convenient, portable file. The file size of the locator package is smaller than the locator as it is compressed and thus makes file transfer easier. Locator packages can be used for easy sharing of locators between colleagues in a work group, across departments in an organization, or with any other ArcGIS users via ArcGIS Online. Locator packages can also be used to create an archive of the locators.

Address locators and composite locators can be packaged and distributed by copying the locator package files to a disk or shared network.

Locator packages are not supported in ArcGIS 10.0 or earlier releases.

An address locator consists of multiple files in a file folder. When a locator is packaged and unpacked, the locator will be saved in a file folder.

Locators should be stored in a file folder so you take advantage of new features that are not supported for locators stored in geodatabases, such as performance improvements, multithreading capabilities, and suggestions support. ArcGIS 10.4 is the last release to support storing locators in geodatabases.

When an address locator is created, it is represented within the file folder as three separate files. The files are prefixed with the locator name and contain the following file extensions:

.loc—Contains the general information of the locator

.loc.xml—Contains the metadata, parsing syntax, and parameters for the specified properties of the locator

.lox—Contains the attributes and indexes of the reference data

A composite address locator consists of only two files:

.loc—Contains the reference to the participating address locators

.loc.xml—Contains the metadata and parameters for the specified properties for the composite locator

Creating a locator package is a process of copying and compressing the locators into a single file. A locator package has the file extension of .gcpk. A package can be created using the Locator Package dialog box in ArcCatalog or the Package Locator geoprocessing tool.

Learn more about creating a locator package

A locator package can be created for one locator at a time. The locator is copied and compressed into a package file.

Packaging a locator that contains a place-name alias table is not supported. You may remove the place-name alias table in the Address Locator Properties dialog box prior to packaging the locator.

The best way to package multiple locators in a locator package is to create a composite locator and package the composite locator. By default, the composite locator and each participating locator is copied and compressed into a package file. If the participating locator is a geocode service, the service connection, or URL, remains in the composite locator.

When you unpack a locator package, the locator or composite locator in the package is saved in a folder. You can use the unpacked locators for geocoding.

Learn more about unpacking a locator package