ArcGIS Mobile equivalent of ArcPad Edit Form

[JimMeuse]

I have a bit of experience with ArcPad and ArcSudio, but am new to ArcGIS Mobile.  In ArcPad, a user in the field can click on a parcel and an edit form will appear which will allow the user to enter data for various attribute fields of the parcels layer.  It is easy to design the form, data entry controls can be laid out logically, entries can be validated, ect.

In the out-of-the-box ArcGIS Mobile application, a user can edit attributes by:
Tasks >> Identify (then click a parcel) >> Edit Attributes, which brings up a list of attribute fields, any of which can be selected to edit their values.  I note that a list of possible attribute values appears for fields where domains have been created.

My question is: is it possible to create an ArcGIS Mobile application where a user clicks a parcel and an edit form appears where all of the data required to be updated is shown on a single form, as it is in ArcPad?  (I do understand that in ArcGIS Mobile, edits are recorded to the Map Cache to be reconciled with the geodatabase later.)

Background: using ArcGIS Mobile 10, applications to be deployed on two YUMA tablet PCs, field crews will be in two completely different locations.

Thank you.

James Meuse

[ErikBachmann]

I too am interested in this. I know this post is old but I can't figure out why this would not have been answered by at least a moderator. For those of us with ArcPad studio experience and are trying to make the switch to mobile, this seems like a gross downgrade in workflow. PLEASE let us know, it seems like from what I have found you need to be able to use scripting language in SDK to do this? Why make it so difficult when arcpad studio was relatively easy to learn?

[KierenTinning1]

Yes, in 10 it really is a question of development. You can do what you are looking to accomplish but will need to do the work in Visual Studio using either VB.NET or C# coding to accomplish what you are probably looking to do.

The transition from ArcPad is rather stark, fully agreed. But if you have a development background ArcGIS Mobile is quite powerful though it's not the most straightforward to get into working with

[AkhilParujanwala]

I agree with entombedtrader.

There are three things to consider.
1. ArcPad has a great form for filling data for users. This kind of functionality can be brought into ArcGIS Mobile and can be custom tailored.
2. ArcGIS Mobile has two options in terms of how it can be used. The out-of-the-box solution where you don't have to write any code. You just follow the instruction using Help, create the project in Project Centre and then you are ready to go.
3. The second option of ArcGIS Mobile is broken into two parts, you can customize the out-of-the-box solution with your own code. This way you can use the existing interface and forms. Or you can create your own application from scratch and build your own interface and forms. This can take a lot of time to build.

In the Mobile Project Center you can actually chose which fields can be display on the form when using the out-of-the-box solution. There is and Edit form and a View form. You will want to modify the Edit form to show only the fields you want your users/operators to modify. The same can be done in code.

All the functionality users/developers want are capable with ArcGIS Mobile, it does take time, skill, patience, and a lot of testing.

There are many good people here on the forums and some decent sample applications where you can learn and understand how to program your own application.

I can say from my experience that using the WPF out-of-the-box solution was good, but most of my computers are slow when running a graphic heavy interface. Whereas my WinForms test applications seem to work much faster, but requires more code and time upfront to complete a project.

One way I look at ArcPad and ArcGIS Mobile, is that ArcPad is made for more GIS knowledgeable users and ArcGIS Mobile is geared more to users with little to no knowledge in GIS. Meaning anyone can pick it up and use. That is how I designed my ArcGIS Mobile application, that anyone should be able to pick it up and perform data collection. Once again, it takes time to develop the application to be user-friendly enough and to meet the use cases (features) that you or your client wants.

Sorry for the long post, but feel free to ask questions.


Regards,

Akhil P.