Restricting use of data according to lat/long?

[JasonWong1]

Hi!

First time poster, and apologies if this is a stupid question. I've done my best to search the forums (and the old ones) and the answer wasn't immediately obvious.

I'm still a bit overwhelmed by extension development, but I was wondering if someone could guide me in the right direction in terms of wanting to restrict the use of spatial data to a specific region (possibly specified by lat/long). Would this even be possible?

I'm aware it's somewhat of an artificial restriction, as one would only have to modified their data to fit in the allowed region to overcome this, but nevertheless, I wonder if this can be done.

Thanks!
- Jason

[LeoDonahue]

What do you mean by "restrict the use of spatial data"?  Can you elaborate on that?

"use" = the user can't see it, can't edit it, can't something else?

[JasonWong1]

Sorry Idonahue, I should have been more specific.

I was thinking of the user not being able to display the data in my extension (with custom rendering).

Thanks again!
- Jason

[RichardWatson]

I am aware of customers who use the Oracle Labeling System in order to restrict access to information based on geography per user.  I suspect that implementing this is quite complex.

[LeoDonahue]

Jason, I'm not sure I'm following you.

If you mean you want to restrict what the user sees in ArcMap while using your extension, you also need to be able to restrict the attributes of the featurelayer as well, right?  You don't want your user to open the attribute table and see those attributes do you?  What if the user used another program to access this layer?  Such as ArcCatalog, or ArcExplorer?

Maybe your level of restriction would warrant two distinct layers?  One layer with the areas cut out and the other being the original layer?  And through SDE permissions, you grant who gets to see which layer.

[JasonWong1]

Thank you Leo and Richard for your insightful comments.

I suppose this discussion highlights the areas that I haven't really nutted out yet, and also how my very new knowledge of the whole system fits together. Here are some additional thoughts to help clarify my position.

Firstly, I'm still contemplating the most appropriate pathway, such as an add-in, extension, or stand alone interface using ArcEngine.

Secondly, the feature I want to implement is more of a visualisation tool. This will mean I will use a custom renderer to display some data in my own dockable window (current thinking anyway). At the very least, as long as I can access the lat/long info of the data, I should be able to restrict the display to datasets only in the allowed region in my own display window. At least, this is what I'm hoping.

Leo, you've raised some good points with the interplay with ArcMap, should I go down the extension to ArcObjects pathway. Perhaps this is enough reason to only consider the add-in or stand alone option for now. That is, unless you foresee other issues with these options?

[LeoDonahue]

It sounds like you want to geofence areas of your featureclass such that if a user is zooming to an area in the fence, or an area that intersects the fence, you don't want your users to see the data intersecting this geofence, right?

A standalone engine applicaton would be better.  That way you control what the user can click on to get information and you can hide the layer source location from your end users.

At this point, you could also just add a layer that is white polygons that represent the areas of your featureclasss you want to hide, and display it on top of the layer you want to hide.

Security through obscurity is not achieving much.

[JasonWong1]

Thanks again Leo.

Although I'm not exactly going for a geofence, but the principle is the same.

You've pointed me in the right direction in any case. 😄

Much appreciated.