How to populate metadata title from alias name of feature class?

Question

I have a SDE with a lot of feature classes. I want to populate the metadata of the feature classes mostly automatic. Can I update the metadata title of all feature classes by using the alias name of the feature class? I have used the geoprocessing tool "Synchronize Metadata", it is useful for bounding box, spatial reference, etc. but it wont update the metadata title.

StefanOffermann · Answer

So I made a python script for automatic updates of all feature classes in a geodatabase (also in feature datasets), my be this is helpful to others. import arcpy import codecs import os import xml.dom.minidom workspace = r'C:\data\geodatabase.gdb' # or path to sde-file temporaryXmlFile = r'C: emp\xmlMetadataTransferFile.xml' def getAlias(featureClass): return arcpy.Describe(featureClass).aliasName def createTemporaryXmlMetadataFile(): with open(temporaryXmlFile, 'w') as theFile: theFile.write('') def writeAliasToTemporaryXmlMetadataFile(alias): xmlFile = open(temporaryXmlFile) dom = xml.dom.minidom.parse(xmlFile) titles = dom.getElementsByTagName("resTitle") for title in titles: title.firstChild.data = alias title.setAttribute('Sync', 'FALSE') with codecs.open(temporaryXmlFile, 'w', 'utf-8') as file2: dom.writexml(file2) def doUpdate(path): arcpy.env.workspace = path fcList = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses() if fcList is None: print '- WARN: No feature classes found' return for fc in fcList: print '- Feature class: ' + fc alias = getAlias(fc) print ' Alias: ' + alias createTemporaryXmlMetadataFile() arcpy.SynchronizeMetadata_conversion(fc, "ALWAYS") arcpy.MetadataImporter_conversion(fc, temporaryXmlFile) writeAliasToTemporaryXmlMetadataFile(alias) arcpy.MetadataImporter_conversion(temporaryXmlFile, fc) arcpy.SynchronizeMetadata_conversion(fc, "ALWAYS") print 'Set resource title to alias name of all feature classes' doUpdate(workspace) fdsList = arcpy.ListDatasets("*", "Feature") if fdsList is None: print '- WARN: No feature datasets found' else: for fds in fdsList: print 'Feature dataset: ' + fds path = os.path.join(workspace, fds) doUpdate(path) print 'done.' ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

curtvprice · Answer

I'm fairly certain this would require some scripting to edit the metadata record, either using the metadata toolkit or exporting to XML and and editing with python tools and re-importing. Would really like to see some arcpy functionality to edit the main item/description components easily! Please vote the idea up!

https://community.esri.com/ideas/4618‌