topic Re: broken links in MXD files as data in new server in Data Management Questions

broken links in MXD files as data in new server

jackwalker — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 18:43:47 GMT

Hi guys ,

i am not sure if this is in the right section to post , this , i m struggling with the new set up here , But maybe some one can give me some help.

So i am working as map technian and i am in charge of my departments maps. My company has a base in a couple of different countires and we have been sharing some folders on the same server.

Recently the other country moved one folder to a new server without telling my country. So all of the links for these maps are broken . There is a lot. i have been trying to find some information about updating the links , i know that you can manually go into the MXD and then repair the link . But i have over 2000 , in lots of differet sub folders.

my data people here say that becuase its a server change , then its not possible to use a script to change the links automatically is this correct .

i was just looking for anyone who might have some insight in to this , thanks a lot

Re: broken links in MXD files as data in new server

BrandonColeman — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 20:15:11 GMT

You might want to look into the arcpy.mapping package and sections about either repairing broken data sources or by finding and replacing data sources. That is off the top of my head.

I have in the past used arcpy.mapping for a find/replace option on my sources within my map document. Basically, I said if the source equaled ("C:\data") then change it to ("S:\data").

It might get tricky depending on the structure change and what you mean by server change.

What I described above is based on using a network server that has shared drives. However, if you are talking about changing the server like a new ArcGIS Server instance, then I am not sure.

However, I would still recommend looking into the arcpy.mapping package as it should have some of the tools to rectify this.

Re: broken links in MXD files as data in new server

Mapperzmap — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 20:19:19 GMT

You can fix some using the Map Path Editor

ArcGIS Server Help‌

Re: broken links in MXD files as data in new server

jackwalker — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 21:13:06 GMT

hi map ,

thanks for the post . i will try this but this looks a little bit manually ideally i m looking a way of automatic putting something in place rather than copy and pasting each link

Re: broken links in MXD files as data in new server

jackwalker — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 21:14:26 GMT

Hi Brandon ,

i am not sure about the server specifics , but i think its on another system server as in changing from a windows one to a unix one .So i m not sure if this would effect the process

Re: broken links in MXD files as data in new server

AnthonyGiles — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 21:19:40 GMT

Jack,

have a look at this post:

Python script for mass find and replace of workspace path?‌

Re: broken links in MXD files as data in new server

Anonymous User — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:55:43 GMT

Hi Jack,

Here are a couple of links to the Help resources regarding using Arcpy to repair data sources for multiple layers. Hope this helps!

Sarah

Using Arcpy to Repair Data Sources for Multiple Datasets: ArcGIS Help 10.1‌

and

Additional info for using Arcpy to Repair Data SourcesArcGIS Help 10.1‌