What is the future of ArcCatalog in future Pro versions?

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02-10-2015 11:59 AM
RenatoSalvaleon
Occasional Contributor III


Unless I missed it, there's several Administration features in current ArcCatalog that are not available in Pro, specially the ones for geodatabases, e.g., Manage and Administer which is slightly different for each type of data objects.

81 Replies
KevinHibma
Esri Regular Contributor

I know there is some public facing bug site, but I dont know where it is.

Here is some copy/pasted info from the bug:

NIM101431 - New projects created from a project template have an extra folder connection that was the original project's home folder that shouldn't be present.

The steps inside (that dont make much sense to me, I work in this area of the software, but I didnt log the issue) are as follows:

1. Create a new project from one of the system project templates, e.g. Global Scene
2. In the new project that is created, there are two folder connections:
    - the new project's home folder
    - "Global Scene": in the popup the location evaluates to "..\..\..\ProjectTemplateProjects\Global Scene"

AndrewQuee
Occasional Contributor III

According to this (horribly outdated) Esri blog, you're doing it right.  I tried various searches of both Support and Geonet and couldn't find a comprehensive list of bugs and what their status is.  It's like Esri has wiped them out and doesn't want them searchable.  I find it amazing that the first thing Esri does is issue you a Nimbus bug ID, the second thing they do is make it all but impossible to track it online or discuss it.

/adjusts tinfoil fedora.

If you visit http://resources.arcgis.com/known-issues  you can see what they're working on now, but it's just a subset, and although NIMs are in there, they are not immediately shown or searchable as they're inside folded elements, not in page text.

Amusingly, clicking on 'Previous Known Issues' results in

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /content/previous-known-issues/10.0 on this server.

ArcWS/4.0.20 Server at resources.arcgis.com Port 80

I also found this nice listing for 10SP4, but can't find any way to navigate out or up to other lists

http://gisupdates.esri.com/IssuesAddressedLists/ArcGIS10sp4-issues.htm#desktop-sp4 

According to some other posters http://support.esri.com/en/bugs/nimbus/  used to track bugs but is now 404.

ShawnBeecher
Occasional Contributor

That has been a source of frustration for me.  I like my drives clean and to have to map to every folder I want to connect to has been a little cumbersome.  I would like to connect to the base folder.

LeoLadefian5
Occasional Contributor II

So now every Project I create copies all the connections to the folder... Makes a mess of the folder,  why not have a centralized location and have the map reference that?

DavidWheelock
Occasional Contributor III

Yes.  Like ArcCatalog.  Have you voted this idea up, yet?

Add Stand Alone Data Catalog Like ArcCatalog to ArcGIS Pro

TylerSchwartz2
Occasional Contributor II

I think Pro will get there in time.  

ArcMap as a 32-bit piece of software simply wont be sustainable in the long term.  Its obvious, as GIS continues to work with larger and larger datasets, that a 64-bit platform is long overdue, and will be essential in the future.

I like Pro, but its currently missing alot of functionality from ArcMap that is really needed to fully switch over (and is very buggy still).  Is Pro ready as it stands today? No.  Will it be in the next year or two? Perhaps.  The official narrative from ESRI is that its not a replacement for ArcMap, and nor should it be in its current form.  But I think that the writing is on the wall, and to think that ArcMap will continue in perpetuity as a 32-bit application, I really cant see that happening. Its clear to me that Pro will be the successor to ArcMap, but wont (and shouldnt) fully take over the reins until ESRI can get all the functionality of ArcMap (and Catalog) built into Pro.  That will clearly take some time and patience for those of us ready to make the switch to Pro right now, but until then, ESRI will support both, and we will have to use both.  I think its important as GIS users, to not get too 'married' to one version of software, and to be open to change with the caveat being that newer version of software must carry over functionality from prior software and not overly burden the user.

It will take some time, but Im confident by the time ArcMap has seen its last days, that Pro will be everything we need and more. Lets hope so at least

Robert_LeClair
Esri Notable Contributor

David - I will have to defer to Timothy Hales (timothy_hales@esri.com) as he is the GeoNet administrator and has better knowledge about how Ideas submitted are labeled "Under Consideration" and other values.  I'd recommend reaching out to him to see how priorities are placed.

MaribethPrice
Occasional Contributor

As I understand it, the management aspect of the Project pane is much curtailed (inability to delete something, for example).  I understood this as stemming from a different style application where nearly everything is a tool. So you run a tool to delete something (or to get basic stats on a field-grrr).  I agree, it is more of a pain and I miss the old functionality, but it IS consistent with the new philosophy. As I work with Pro, I am developing a new mind set and new workflows, and am reluctantly beginning to see some of the advantages.

For example, I can't count the number of times my students modified a data set coordinate system in ArcCatalog, thinking that they were changing its projection, when in fact they were sabotaging the data. (And I guarantee they had been warned at least 3 times not to.) With this function simply unavailable in the Project pane, the problem goes away, (and I simply have to continue my ever-vigilant campaign to help people understand the difference between the Project and Define Projection tools). Explaining that two tools are different is a bit easier than explaining why it is OK to change the coordinate system in the data frame properties in ArcMap but not OK to change the  data set properties in ArcCatalog (using a window that looks identical in both cases).

So sometimes you just have to think differently about what you want to do. For data management, for example, you might create a project named "ManageData" with all your folder links, for those times when you want to pop in and manage some things, instead of having to create a new project each time.

TimOrmsby
Esri Regular Contributor

Maribeth Price wrote:

As I work with Pro, I am developing a new mind set and new workflows, and am reluctantly beginning to see some of the advantages. 

Yup, that's what happens.

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DavidWheelock
Occasional Contributor III

Thanks Maribeth. 

If you're dealing with novice students and you want to restrict their ability to do certain activities, then putting them into a straight-jacket or confined environment that obstructs their ability to do certain things might be useful.  Like training wheels.

However, when you're talking about experienced, professional Geospatial DBA's and power-user GIS specialists whose primary job is managing and manipulating data as efficiently and quickly as possible, then that straight-jacket slows down the work process and costs money through reduced productivity.  That's the capability that hasn't been revealed in Pro, as of yet.