Hi Angel,
1) Managing the ArcGIS Runtime & local Feature Services:
- Yes, the ArcGIS Runtime does run services on the local machine which are broadly equivalent to ArcGIS Server services. This means, when we talk about feature services, those feature services could be hosted by an ArcGIS Server or in the ArcGIS Runtime, often referred to as "online" or "local".
- The only limitation is that there are some datatypes / types of geometry which cannot be edited outside of an edit session or which need to be versioned, for example feature classes which participate in a geometric network. In this case, currently (Beta 1), these cannot be edited via local feature services with the ArcGIS Runtime without a connection to the source ArcSDE Geodatabase. In this case - the Map Package must be created referencing the ArcSDE GDB.
2) Disconnected editing:
** The following steps are true for Beta 1 through to the first release. After the first release we aim to add a synchronization framework allowing for a more seamless disconnected enterprise editing workflow. **
The basic process is to use ArcMap (ArcGIS for Desktop 10.1 Beta 1) to create a Map Package (MPK) in which you can edit data using a local feature service provided by the ArcGIS Runtime then check those edits back into your ArcSDe GDB:
a) Open ArcMap - ArcGIS for Desktop 10.1 (Beta 1) - and add the layers you wish to edit from your ArcSDE GDB.
b) Create a checkout/checkin replica of these layers - this must be in a File GDB.
c) Ensure the File GDB is being created in the required folder (e.g. your deployment folder)
d) The checkout process can switch your Map to point to the new;y checked-out data or open a new ArcMap session and add the Feature Classes within the File GDB then symbolize as required.
e) Ensure that ArcMap is set to use relative paths within ArcMap Document properties (off the File menu).
f) Go to Customize > ArcMap Options and select the Sharing tab. Ensure that the Enable ArcGIS Runtime Tools option is checked.
g) Open the Map Packaging dialog by using the File > Share As... > Map Package option within ArcMap.
h) Ensure the "Make ArcGIS Runtime compatible" option is checked and that the option beneath this is also checked - to "Reference all data" and that the MPK is going to sit alongside the File GDB you created (so that the relative paths work).
i) Then click Share - this will create a small Map Package (.MPK) which references the File GDB containing the replica.
j) This MPK and File GDB should be deployed to the deployment machine when you deploy your application. The ArcGIS Runtime can also use relative paths (e.g. ..\..\Data\MyEditLayers.MPK).
k) Now you can create a LocalFeatureService using the ArcGIS Runtime WPF API, based on that MPK and create one or more LocalFeatureLayers based on layers within that MPK (i.e. as you would with layers within an ArcGIS Server FeatureService).
l) Develop an editing UI e.g. using the Template Picker or Editor with the Toolkit library.
m) Once your edits are done - to reintegrate the edits to your ArcSDE GDB you need to grab the File GDB that you deployed and use ArcGIS for Desktop 10.1 (Beta 1) to checkin the edits. Alternatively you could explore using Geoprocessing tools for this purpose.
I hope this helps - if you have any more questions, please keep posting - feedback is very important to us during the beta process for both product functionality and as a guide for areas in which we need more documentation.
Cheers
Mike
