topic Re: ToolValidator code - script tool output type dataset force .dbf extension in Python Questions

ToolValidator code - script tool output type dataset force .dbf extension

curtvprice — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 14:27:13 GMT

I have a tool that takes a table view as input and outputs either a feature class or table, depending on the input. Of course the parameter data type is read only so I can't change that in the ToolValidator class

I set the input data type is "Table View" and the output data type to "Dataset", and this seems to work. The problem I'm having is that the validator always adds a .dbf extension for folder workspaces (the output still makes a shapefile and adds the shapefile feature class to the map).

I can change the path to .shp manually in the tool dialog and that seems to work fine. But I'd like it to go to .shp if the output workspace is a folder and the input is a feature layer.

Here is my validation code:

  def updateParameters(self):
    """Modify the values and properties of parameters before internal
    validation is performed.  This method is called whenever a parameter
    has been changed."""
    if self.params[0].value and self.params[1].value:
      ds =  self.params[0].value
      if arcpy.Describe(ds).dataType[:5] != "Table":
        out = str(self.params[1].value)
        if os.path.splitext(out)[1] == ".dbf":
          self.params[1].value = os.path.splitext(out)[0] + ".shp"
        # the above change does not "stick" - the internal validation
        # switches it back to .dbf
    return

  def updateMessages(self):
    """Modify the messages created by internal validation for each tool
    parameter.  This method is called after internal validation."""
    # I needed add this because the default validation
    # was not finding existing data and warning me.
    if self.params[1].value:
      if arcpy.Exists(self.params[1].value):
        self.params[1].setIDMessage("Error",1251)
    return

Screen shot: [ATTACH=CONFIG]30603[/ATTACH]

Re: ToolValidator code - script tool output type dataset force .dbf extension

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 19:39:09 GMT

No clue, but perhaps it interprets != "Table" as being true if a shapefile is the input, is there anyway you can check to see whether a *.shp or shapefile or featureclass is checked rather than a table? I tend to do this thing at the tool level in ArcToolbox rather than using validator scripts. There may be some order of prescedence on how things are run within Arctoolbox

Re: ToolValidator code - script tool output type dataset force .dbf extension

curtvprice — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 04:25:15 GMT

No clue, but perhaps it interprets != "Table" as being true if a shapefile is the input, is there anyway you can check to see whether a *.shp or shapefile or featureclass is checked rather than a table?

Yes, it's definitely seeing shapefiles as features.

>>> arcpy.Describe("polygon_Diss").dataType
u'FeatureLayer'
>>> arcpy.Describe(r"D:\Users\cprice\work\polygon_Diss.shp").dataType
u'ShapeFile'

When I debug the validation code, I can see that the path IS getting calcualted. The issue is with the internal validation of the output, which is changing the extension back from ".shp" to ".dbf" after I painstakingly change it!