topic Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API in ArcGIS REST APIs and Services Questions

Relationships not showing up in REST API

AricMueller — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:47:32 GMT

We have ArcGIS Server 10.0 sp1 running on Windows (behavior exhibited in 2003 and 2008x64). The published MXD services have relates established in the MXD to Oracle tables. The tables are access via Oracle authentication. The related tables are not registered in the geodatabase or arcsde. In most cases, the tables are public synonyms of objects in another schema. The relates work fine in ArcMap but do not show up in the REST api once published. No errors or warnings are logged. Relates established to other featureclasses do show up. The behavior seems inconsistent as we have XP workstations with the exact same build of desktop and server which can make a relate to unregistered tables in another Oracle instance. Can anyone provide any insight on whether this is expected behavior? In other words, shouldn't any relationship (explicitly established as a relate in ArcMap) be visible to the REST api as long as there are no permissions issues (which there are not here)?

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

AricMueller — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 17:48:12 GMT

It appears to be related to joins. If I have a join on the featureclass, the relates disappear. If I remove the join, the relates show up. If anyone can confirm this as either a known bug or expected behavior I'd appreciate. thanks in advance.

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

ChrisHamilton1 — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:40:36 GMT

Hi, i was wondering if you have had any feedback on this issue?

I have the same issue. A parcels featureclass with two joined tables and one related table. All tables are loaded into the MXD but the relationships and joins are manual - not via a relationship class When i publish the map server the joins and related persist (i can check via the identify tool with the Map Service in Arccatalog). However the relationships do not show up in the REST API like it does in this sample: http://sampleserver3.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/SanFrancisco/311Incidents/MapServer/1 I don't even see the relationships: heading...

The tables are from an external SQL server database. Is there extra permissions that are required specifically for REST?

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

AricMueller — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:08:22 GMT

I haven't heard anything but am planning to submit it as a bug. I just haven't gotten a chance yet. I have confirmed the behavior on half a dozen systems. If you have a join on a layer, any relationships disappear in the REST API. I'm pretty much being forced to do spatial views to accomplish the joins so I can get at the relationships.

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

ar4 — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:29:23 GMT

While not the same issue I have a similar issue with layers not appearing in the REST ( or from SOAP API) where the mxd opens correctly with data in ArcMAP.

In my case it appears to the results of a data connection that is not successful (for as yet undetermined reasons) is that elements will not appear in the published service.

I suggest that you look for errors ( or clues ) in the server log . The log messages are not terribly helpful but that provide a starting point .

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

AricMueller — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:04:24 GMT

thanks for the feedback. Sadly, there are no errors thrown. I can remove the join, restart the service, and clear the rest cache and the relates appear just fine.

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

ChrisBeaudette — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:04:17 GMT

I'm having similar -- if not identical -- issues. My problem is complicated by the fact that I can't use spatial views since I need to edit features from a Flex Web client using a client-side FeatureLayer and a server-side FeatureServer.

I'm using AGS v10 SP2 and SDE v10 SP2 for Oracle and Oracle 10g on server that's remote from AGS.

At first I created a synonym to a table in another schema in the same Oracle instance, added the synonym to my ArcMap document, and created a join in my ArcMap document to the synonym. When I did so, if I browsed to the FeatureServer in the REST catalog then I got a 'server 500' error (per this thread). The MapServer didn't throw an error, but the attributes from the joined synonym didn't show up either. Admittedly I did this in v10 SP1 and haven't re-checked this configuration using v10 SP2.

Then after upgrading to v10 SP2 I:
- created synonyms in my SDE instance to the tables that I wanted to get attribute info from in the other schema (same Oracle instance)
- created a view (Oracle view, not a spatial view) to the synonym tables
- added the view to my ArcMap document
- created a join in ArcMap to the view

In ArcMap I can see all columns from the joined view just fine. My REST service no longer throws a server 500 error for the FeatureServer, but neither do I see the columns from my view in either the MapServer or the FeatureServer.

If I'm not mistaken, I can't use spatial views in lieu of my feature classes since you can't edit views. Nor can I use relationship classes as long as the tables I'm joining to are in another schema (since the tables at both ends of the relationship class must be registered in the geodb). Nor can I use on-the-fly relates in ArcMap since the related attributes aren't actually appended to the feature class attribute table (and from reading the rest of this thread it looks like relates are broken too when making the join).

Any thoughts on how I can get attribute data from other tables into my feature classes while also being able to edit my feature classes using the v10 REST APIs??

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

ChrisBeaudette — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:58:46 GMT

An update to this, using AGS v10 SP2, SDE v10 SP2 for Oracle and Oracle 10g:

I created a join in an ArcMap document to a local table, i.e. a table in ArcSDE (not registered) as opposed to a table in another schema. Again, in ArcMap I can view the attribute table fine and all columns are displayed.

However when viewing the layer in the REST catalog, e.g. http://servername/ArcGIS/rest/services/servicename/MapServer/0 and .../FeatureServer/0, I see the following:
* .../servicename/MapServer: Layer shows up under 'Layers' label and joined table shows up under 'Tables' label
* .../servicename/MapServer/0: layer displays fine *and* all attributes -- including those from the joined table -- are shown in the Fields section
* .../servicename/FeatureServer: Layer does *not* show up under 'Layers' label, but table shows up under 'Tables' label
* .../servicename/FeatureServer/0 throws "An unexpected error occurred processing the request", as one would expect since it doesn't show up under Layers
* .../servicename/FeatureServer/1: shows table details, including all Fields

When restarting the AGS service, the following errors are reported (my map layer in ArcMap is called 'All Sites'):

<Msg time='2011-06-22T10:37:14' type='INFO3' code='17002' target=servicename.MapServer' methodName='GraphicFeatureLayer.InitByLayer' machine='machinename' process='4444' thread='3088'>Error in generating Renderer Specific Information for All Sites.</Msg>
<Msg time='2011-06-22T10:37:14' type='ERROR' code='17000' target='servicename.MapServer' methodName='GraphicFeatureServer.InitializeLayers' machine='machinename' process='4444' thread='3088'>Initialization of Layer: All Sites failed.</Msg>

No errors are reported for servicename.FeatureServer. Logging is set to 'Verbose'.

I get the exact same behavior in all respects if I register the table with the geodatabase.

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

ChrisBeaudette — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:50:07 GMT

Followed up w/ ESRI Support. They consider this 'as designed'.

BUG LOGGED AGAINST IT (rejected since 'as designed'):
NIM062309: When a Feature Service's source map document contains a layer that participates in an ArcMap table join, that layer's attribute fields will not be listed when viewing that layer's properties in ArcGIS Services Directory.

Status: Rejected
This is actually by design - we don't support joins.
A geodatabase relationship class where you query related records has been provided with feature services to support this case. You will need to make sure that the table and the feature class in the relationship are in the map when they publish.

WORKAROUND:
NIM069615: Request to allow the viewing and/or editing of attributes in a Feature Service that are from an ArcMap table join in the source map document.

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

RaviNarayanan — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:59:48 GMT

This could be the bug that Aric is referring to:
NIM061963: Query Related Records does not work if there is both a join and relate on the same feature (http://support.esri.com/en/bugs/nimbus/TklNMDYxOTYz)

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

AricMueller — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 02:12:02 GMT

That is the bug! I'm surprised it's not a bigger issue withing the AGS community but thank you all for taking the time to respond. This is actually a pretty big deal for our clients because I'm having to create spatial views all over the place (rather than ArcMap joins). There are obviously potential upsides to the spatial view approach but it significantly complicates system maintenance. Thank you forum community!

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

ar4 — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 11:17:25 GMT

@Chris

Did they mention if the real bug might be the fact that the log did not actual reflect the design?

ie If Arcmap joins are not supported then why does the log not say " Layer X contains unsupported joins" or something similar.

The fact this does not happen is a bug IMO.

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

ChrisBeaudette — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:27:46 GMT

@Chris

Did they mention if the real bug might be the fact that the log did not actual reflect the design?

ie If Arcmap joins are not supported then why does the log not say " Layer X contains unsupported joins" or something similar.

No, ESRI Support did not mention that this is considered a bug in logging.

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

JohnLove — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:34:54 GMT

I am experiancing the same issue with one very important difference. I am running SQL Server 2008 64 bit and creating spatial views using sde commands is not supported (see SDE documentation page ArcGIS\ArcSDE\Documentation\Admin_Cmd_Ref\Support_files\admincmdref.htm ) so, if developing a web mapping solution using the ArcGIS API for silverlight (uses REST), it is not possible to display data unless it is in one big gigantic feature class containing all of the attributes that you might want to associate with a feature.

Is this by design? If so, I think it is a terrible design!

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

Mohammad_AgusSalim — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:06:28 GMT

I have the same problem and I'm confused why ESRI consider this as by design? its definitely a bug. Attribute of related layer can be retrieved in REST map service but why it cannot be retrieved from feature service? Anyone has a workaround on this? If not, means that I have to put the table that shared among other features on each feature layer then. Everything will be duplicated, hard to maintain and there is no point of using geodatabase. This is really bad design.

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

KathrynJones — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 23:14:01 GMT

Thanks so much for this thread. I was tearing my hair out trying to work out why my relationship wasn't showing up in my REST end point. After reading this, I simply added the related tables to my MXD and re-published to server, and now the relationship is visible. Thank you!

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

JasonSweet — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:36:48 GMT

I'm displaying features based on an attribute stored in a related table, using a join to accomplish that. I can view the table that is joined, but not tables related to that joined table. Same issue? If so, I'm thinking I'll duplicate the feature classes and related tables in the table of contents using the join for the symbology, group the orginals together and give the group whatever name, then use the duplicates (transparent) for the Identify, Query, whatever. Innefficent, but might be a workaround?

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

JasonSweet — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:20:49 GMT

No go. Removed the joins to see if I could see the related to related tables in the service, nope.

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

LukeBehling — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:23:02 GMT

There is an idea on ArcGIS Ideas that is related to this problem. I've experienced the same thing. This is something should just work, without a series of complex workarounds.

Title : REST API - relationships missing originPrimaryKey, destinationPrimaryKey, ... and the link is : http://ideas.arcgis.com/ideaView?id=087300000008FVF

Re: Relationships not showing up in REST API

GaryMacDougall — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:18:27 GMT

In 10.0 attribute relationship classes are not supported with feature services. In 10.1, we have added support. To include the attributed relationship class with your service make sure to add it to the map before publishing. The layer and table resources in REST also include information about the relationship classes including the primary and foreign keys as well as the cardinality.

thanks
Gary