Editing a feature class that is linked to several projects open at the same time

Question

I have a polyline feature class in a file gdb as a layer in several projects.  Sometimes some of these projects are open by different users at the same time and one user may need to edit the vertices of the line while the other user is just displaying it (but may need to eventually edit the vertices on a different part of the line) while working on something else in the project.  Because they both have the layer "active", I'm assuming that the person who opened their project first had put a lock file on it and the other person cannot edit it.  Is there a way around this or a work around so they can both work on their respective projects at the same time editing as needed.  It almost seems like the lock file should only execute when the feature class is being edited and then after saving the changes, the lock file releases so multiple people can make changes to it and not have to close ArcPro for the lock to release.  The feature class/gdb is on a shared network drive

BarryNorthey · Answer

ArcGIS Pro 3.1.1. I don't know if this will solve the multi-user fGDB editing problem but starting and stopping editing and controlling which layers can be edited can be controlled are explained as follows:

Enable and disable editing from the Edit tab

Disabling editing on the Edit tab disables editing tools and feature templates. By default, this setting is hidden.

To show this button, see https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/editing/enable-and-disable-editing.htm

Turn editing off by layer

Turning editing off by layer allows you to specify which layer can be edited. These settings apply to the current map or scene and do not change permissions granted at the data source.

To learn more, see https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/editing/specify-which-layers-can-be-edited.htm

Michele · Answer

I figured I was going to get the negative feedback on sharing a file gdb due to corruption potential issues.  This was set up originally for one user, but then others that aren't GIS experts and understand all of these kinds of problems, just started grabbing the original project and saving it off as something they could use since many of the layers they needed also were in there.

The problem with publishing it as a service is that they need the ability to edit the polyline, not just access it simultaneously.  I'm not talking about simultaneous editing like in google docs,sheets, although that would be ideal.  Just the capability for one person to edit while others are just viewing it as a layer in their project. Is there any way to do that?

I haven't seen anything about the old starting/stopping of an edit session being added to Pro, but I'm afraid it will cause the same issues as it did in ArcMap where it could cause corruption, and leave the lock file of another person on the dataset until you close out completely and restart the program.

jcarlson · Answer

Generally speaking, sharing a file geodatabase is a bad idea. I've seen many feature layers that end up corrupted that way. If you need multiple users to access the same feature layer at the same time, you really ought to use a feature class published to / hosted in a server somewhere.

If you don't want to deal with the web-connected stuff, you could also set up a spatial database using PostgreSQL and PostGIS and have your users connect to it locally.

All that said, if you really want to go the FGDB route, check your ArcGIS Pro settings. In a recent version, they added the ability to start and stop editing sessions in the style of ArcMap. I'm not certain, as this is not a feature we use, but manually starting and stopping edit sessions may make the lock file behavior more predictable.