topic Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant in State & Local Government Questions

Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

WestervilleGIS — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 19:05:58 GMT

I have never used the generate ID option on attribute assistant and I am having a hard time understanding what the values are in the 2 tables.

http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/localgovernment/10.1/index.html#/Generate_ID_table/028s0000009p000000/

Tells me what goes in the GenerateID table, but I am not completely sure on the explanations that it is giving.

Same thing with the Value Info for the DynamicValue table.

What I need to do is generate an ID starting at a certain number (say 35000) and then it increments by 1. I do not understand where I specify this start value of 35000. I realize that this should be simple and I am apparently over complicating it. Any help would be
great. Thanks!

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

JeffWard — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 14:18:35 GMT

Courtney,

In the GenerateID table you would create an entry with a name for your ID like AddressID in the Sequence Name field, then you would put 3500 in the sequence counter field. Then in your Dynamic Value table you would put the name of your layer (actual name not the name in the TOC) in the Table Name field, then the ID field name in the Field Name field and GENERATE_ID in the Value Method field. Then in the Value Info field you need to put the name of your ID value you created in the GenerateID table for example AddressID that I mentioned earlier.

The value in the sequence counter field of the Generate ID is the next value that will go into your ID field of your layer.

I blogged about some of my experience with the Attribute Assistant here.

Hope that helps.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

JeffWard — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 14:32:56 GMT

Shoot, I should have used your values from your image as an example.

So in your case you want to change the value in the Sequence Counter field to 3499 (the field contains the last value assigned, so 3500 will be the next id to go to the new feature, I was wrong in my first post). If you wanted your first ID to be 1 you would enter 0 in the Sequence Counter field.

Then in the Dynamic Value table for your LBRSADDRESSPOINTS_FRA entry all you need to change in your Value Info field is the name of the sequence, in your case - ADDR_ID_SEQ. Those other things in brackets are optional and are used to add zeros or text portions to the ID, like if you were creating manholes you could use those optional parts to create MH-0025. But where you are just incrementing integers, all you need in the Value Info field is ADDR_ID_SEQ.

Here is a link to the Generate ID value method. And here is a link to all of the value methods.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

WestervilleGIS — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 14:35:56 GMT

Thanks for the reply. I did find your link prior to submitting to this forum and I tried to use it along with a couple of other and I still can not get it to work. See the attachement to view all parts.

I have the layer properties there so you can see that the feature class name that = the Table Name in the DynamicValue table.

The table for that feature class is open to show that the Addr_ID is still null on the new one I created with the setting in that GenerateID and DynamicValue tables that are visible.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

JeffWard — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 14:41:42 GMT

I would change your entry in the Dynamic Value table in the Table Name field to match your layer's name exactly. So I would change it to be LBRSaddresspoints_Fra to match the Feature Class name exactly.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

WestervilleGIS — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 14:47:10 GMT

Unfortunately that doesn't make a difference. The other methods work just fine, just not this one. I have been waiting a few hours for tech support to call me back about something else, maybe I can ask about this too. 🙂 Thanks for trying

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

JeffWard — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 15:05:08 GMT

You might also have problems because you are trying to use the ADDR_ID field to calculate your ADDR_UNIQ field. The Attribute Assistant runs the value methods in order they are in the table, so in your case it is attempting to create your ADDR_UNIQ field value based on your ADDR_ID field which it hasn't created yet. In 10.2 there is another field added to Dynamic Value table called Run Order where you can specify which order the value methods are executed.

Also, make sure the field names are exact the way they show up in the layer properties dialog on the fields tab. You need the actual names of the fields, not the alias.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

JeffWard — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 15:09:16 GMT

Another thing with the Attribute Assistant, after you save edits in your Dynamic Value or GenerateID tables, you need to stop and start the Attribute Assistant. It will re-read the dynamic value table.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

WestervilleGIS — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 15:13:11 GMT

I tried to reorder the table so that the Generate ADDR_ID was at the top and also to stop the attribute and restart the attribute assistant. Still nothing.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

JeffWard — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 15:16:31 GMT

Do you have the log file option turned on?

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

WestervilleGIS — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 15:16:51 GMT

Here is the info for my field to show that it is correct.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

WestervilleGIS — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 15:18:11 GMT

I do not think so.....

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

JeffWard — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 15:18:56 GMT

It may be that you are trying to put an integer in a double field.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

WestervilleGIS — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 15:21:41 GMT

does the generate id only work with integers?

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

JeffWard — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 15:24:57 GMT

I think it actually needs a string field so it can add the constant prefixes like I mentioned in an earlier post. Like MH-00025. I was assuming it entered an integer because that's essentially what mine are, but the field is actually a string field.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

WestervilleGIS — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 15:42:57 GMT

And that is where I get lost. This is what I put into it.

ADDR_ID_SEQ|7|[seq].0

7 is the length of the number that I am using (it is predetermined because I have a valid range of 3,500,000-3,999,999)

If I need to make it a double, then I added the .0

I do not want to take any more of your time and I appreciate all of your help, but am I not understanding it correctly? I can contact tech support.

Re: Using Generate ID with Attribute Assistant

JeffWard — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 18:28:37 GMT

I would enable the log file and see what it says. Here is a link that describes how to turn on the log file and where it is located. But if you are using 10.1, here is a link showing how to turn on the log file and configure the AA for 10.1.

I am assuming that you are unable to change the field types, or add intermediary fields that you could use to construct your ID? For example, you could create a string field called PRE_ADD_ID, have the GenerateID populate that one, then have another entry in the DynamicValue table that used the Expression value method to convert that string to a double. With the Expression value method you can use a VB expression to populate the field.

You could set up another copy of the feature class that would allow you to add intermediary fields, use them to populate the original field after it is converted to the correct type, then append the features to the original feature class.