Editing a table in ArcGIS Mobile

[KennethLohr]

Hello.  I'm developing a geodatabase for a local government Street Sign Inventory.  I've based the geodatabase around the concept of using a point feature class to store each sign "fixture" and then storing all the sign "panels" in a table, with a relationship class tying the panels to a fixture through a common fixtureID field.

I know that any data intended to be edited with ArcGIS mobile must have GlobalIDs assigned to it. The problem comes in when I cannot assign GlobalIDs to a geodatabase table, it appears you can only assign them to feature classes?

Obviously this creates a problem where fixtures could be added/edited via ArcGIS Mobile, but sign panels (stored in the table) could not. 

Can anyone suggest a way to make this work?  Maybe I've got the wrong approach?

[Anonymous User]

You may have to register the table with the GeoDatabase first. In ArcCatalog, right click the table then select "Register with GeoDatabase".

[KennethLohr]

You may have to register the table with the GeoDatabase first. In ArcCatalog, right click the table then select "Register with GeoDatabase".

The table was created inside the geodatabase originally, so I'd assume it'd already be registered.  I wasn't aware of this function anyway, so I went to try it and it was greyed out.

Someone suggested to me a parent/child type relationship between the panels and the fixtures, but I'm not sure how to implement such a relationship.

[AnthonyFarndon]

I believe ArcGIS mobile does still not currently support relationship or standalone tables (COTS app or sdk).

You might have to go down the route of adding a featureclass with null geometry, but even then there is no way to relate on the device.

[MelindaFrost]

tony.farndon is correct that mobile SDK does not support relationship classes or standalone tables. i keep pestering ESRI about it but don't think it's planned even for 10.1 you have to either do the workaround of null geometry or create a local database and a web service to manage the syncing- which is what we did for one of our clients sign retroflectivity inventory app- check out our project showcase and look for City of Appleton, WI.
http://showcase.gisinc.com/

[CiprianLazar]

I am looking for a best practice when working with stand alone tables on a mobile application. Some tables are just some lookup tables that may be transformed into domains (though some are very large - a street names list for example), while other tables are just keeping some needed info. The app is for working on windows mobile 6.5 devices.
Using the null geometry column gets the table on the cache of the device, but then I will have some limitations regarding the SQL I can use (inner select, sorting, grouping etc). So using a local database for the stand alone tables might be a better ideea. What database should I chose? I will have to synchronize it with a SDE database. What will be the performance implications?
Has anyone dealt with large stand alone tables on a windows mobile device?
Melinda, what local database did you use on the City of Appleton app?

[MelindaFrost]

Our app is running on a tablet so I used SQL Server Express. But mobile devices will only handle SQL Server Compact

[KennethLohr]

Thanks to everyone who has responded, it's given me a few new ideas.  I'm intrigued by the solution of editing a local database and using a web service to sync back to the geodatabase.    Melinda, I realize that you all have created a customized service, but could you go into just a little more detail about how that works?

Just before I revisited this thread, I had the idea of editing an Excel file on whatever device and then manually loading that into the geodatabase, but I think I'm looking for a solution that's just a little more elegant.  

Pursuing the track of editing a local database with SQL Server Express or similar, I don't think SQL Server Management Studio is the right tool for field workers.  What interface would users have to edit this local database?

Also, does anyone think ArcPad would be a viable solution to this problem?