topic Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name? in Data Management Questions

Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

IB1 — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:26:29 GMT

I have editor tracking enabled on an SDE geodatabase.

The database has 3 users: joe, bob, and mike.

Each user is logged in as themselves and using their own version.

However when joe, bob, or mike makes an edit to a feature, it puts joe as the user who made the edits no matter what.

Even though each user is connected to the database with their own login name.

Any idea what's going on?

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

MichaelVolz — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:47:28 GMT

Might you be using operating system authentication for tracking and even though you have 3 users with different versions in SDE, they are all logged into the same computer with the same credentials which is what Editor Tracking is using?

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

IB1 — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:51:31 GMT

Might you be using operating system authentication for tracking and even though you have 3 users with different versions in SDE, they are all logged into the same computer with the same credentials which is what Editor Tracking is using?

No, it's definitely not windows authentication. We are all using our own laptops and using the user names I created for each person in SQL Server to login.

I'm using SQL Server 2012 and ArcGIS 10.2.

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

MichaelVolz — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 12:02:04 GMT

My organization tested Editor Tracking in Oracle 11g and it worked as expected. Maybe it is an issue with SQL Server 2012. I would log an incident with ESRI if no one using SQL Server 2012 responds to your post.

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

IB1 — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 12:42:36 GMT

My organization tested Editor Tracking in Oracle 11g and it worked as expected. Maybe it is an issue with SQL Server 2012. I would log an incident with ESRI if no one using SQL Server 2012 responds to your post.

I think I know how the problem started now, but I still don't understand why it's happening.

joe had the MXD the client sent us and was logged into his user name and resourced the data. He then saved the MXD and we all took copies of it. So, now, even though we are logged in as our user name, the MXD is still showing the data as being in joe's user name. I don't really understand how this is happening since we are not logged in as joe. Is the MXD actually saving his login information?

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

MichaelVolz — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 12:48:12 GMT

Unless the 2 other users changed the version in the mxd from joe's to their own, they will be making changes as joe. This is 1 reason why sharing an mxd that can edit SDE is dangerous as you are providing other users access to someone elses SDE version.

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

IB1 — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 12:55:16 GMT

Unless the 2 other users changed the version in the mxd from joe's to their own, they will be making changes as joe. This is 1 reason why sharing an mxd that can edit SDE is dangerous as you are providing other user's to someone's SDE version.

No this really doesn't have anything to do with the actual versions though. This is about the actual login name the user uses to connect to the database. That is what is used for the editor tracking, nothing to do with the versions.

When I open the MXD joe used and saved, even though I'm logged into the database as myself, it still shows joe's name as logged in when I check the properties of a feature class in ArcMap. So I'm assuming it's saving his username/password in the MXD, which I don't really like.

If I'm logged into the database as myself and the data is in the MXD is sourced to that database, it should show me as the user and not joe.

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

MichaelVolz — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 13:22:21 GMT

But did you create your own version to edit the data and replace that version in the mxd and save the mxd after making the version change. Unless you actually change the version in the mxd to your own, it will always use joe's SDE credentials.

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

IB1 — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 13:36:51 GMT

But did you create your own version to edit the data and replace that version in the mxd and save the mxd after making the version change. Unless you actually change the version in the mxd to your own, it will always use joe's SDE credentials.

Yeah, we each have our own versions that we use. It still is using joe's user name though.

My guess is that the MXD is saving the connection file within the actual MXD itself.

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

MichaelVolz — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 13:58:32 GMT

How about having each user create his own mxd using their own version of the layer you want to use Editor Tracking on? This should at least solve the problem of only joe being tracked. Make sure that the layer with joe's version is not copied into any of these new mxds because it would be carrying his credentials along.

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

IB1 — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 14:10:49 GMT

How about having each user create his own mxd using their own version of the layer you want to use Editor Tracking on? This should at least solve the problem of only joe being tracked. Make sure that the layer with joe's version is not copied into any of these new mxds because it would be carrying his credentials along.

Yeah, I've actually already fixed the problem.

I just gave everyone the original MXD from the client and then they resourced it themselves.

I guess I just wasn't aware that the MXD stored the actual connection file credentials inside. Good to know.

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The only reason we are using the clients MXD is for symbology purposes. Even when I grouped all the layers and created a layer file, it still saved the connection credentials inside the layer file when I added it to a blank ArcMap.

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

AsrujitSengupta — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 18:02:31 GMT

The behavior that you were observing is actually correct!!

When Joe resourced the MXD, he must have used his connection (connected as user 'Joe')....the MXD stores this user information along with other connection parameters...

The correct way would be for each user to create their own connections with their username/password and then resource their individual MXDs to point to these new connections (which I guess you already figured out).

Regards,

Re: Why is editor tracking putting the wrong user name?

IB1 — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 18:07:25 GMT

The behavior that you were observing is actually correct!!

When Joe resourced the MXD, he must have used his connection (connected as user 'Joe')....the MXD stores this user information along with other connection parameters...

The correct way would be for each user to create their own connections with their username/password and then resource their individual MXDs to point to these new connections (which I guess you already figured out).

Regards,

Yeah, it all makes sense now that I know the MXD stores the connection credentials. I wasn't aware of that. I always thought ArcMap just used whatever connection properties were set in ArcCatalog on that local computer.