Add DATE CREATED to ArcCatalog listings

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08-20-2013 05:26 AM
Status: Open
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RickIngle
New Contributor III
It would help me very much to have the date a feature class was created shown in the listing in ArcCatalog. The date created can tell me much about my data and whether it is still valid.
4 Comments
DuncanHornby
I agree it would be great if ArcCatalog natively displayed date created. It would make for much easier data management.

But then again that is what metadata is all about....

If you create your dataset with a standard geoprocessing tool (e.g. Create Featureclass) then the creation date is inserted into the metadata. This can be displayed in ArcCatalog by adding it to the list of metadata items you wish to be displayed in ArcCatalog.

Now you are going to tell me you've never gone into the ArcCatalog Options.... 😉

Well its in Customize > ArcCatalog Options > Contents
Click on the Add button under the metadata section. Set Caption to Date created and property to Esri/CreaDate, width to about 15. Click OK and make sure its ticked on.

Et voila!  You have a creation date displayed next to your dataset, OK its not a nice format but it is the date. Ideally Esri should be showing this as default.
RandyKreuziger
Not as useful as you'd think.  As the SDE administrator II weekly update feature classes using the delete features and append.  So some of these feature classes appear to be years old when in fact the data was updated over the weekend.
DuncanHornby
kreuzrsk, sounds like you are describing the modification of an existing FeatureClass? If so then the creation date would (obviously) never change. The modification date would and you tick that on in the standards column panel in the ArcCatalog Options.
RandyKreuziger
Hornbydd, the modification field is blank for every one of our SDE feature classes.  Yet at least 30 of our 200 feature classes are updated through the delete and append method.  Not sure if ESRI considers that a bug or not.