Unable to Specify What Photo Fields in SDE Database for ArcPad 10.1 Data Manager

[KurtHassy]

When chekcing out an ArcPad Project using the ArcPad Data Manager 10.1, I am not able to specify which fields I want for my photos.  The only choice I get is None.  The feature classes I am using have a few relationships associated with them and are in an SDE geodatabase, but I don't think that would make a difference.  Has anyone else ran into this?

[JaneOnorati]

Kurt,

I had a problem selecting photo fields also, but not exactly the same as your's.  I have a file geodatabase axf that was created in ArcPad 8.  It uses a custom form for a layer with a related table, but I had to roll my own because related table forms were not availble then.

After installing ArcPad 10, I checked out the data again using the old ArcPad 8 axf as a template.  There were fields to select and I did select them, but when I used the form the fields you could select on the Picture page were not limited to the ones I had picked!

I found out that there are new xml elements for this functionality: <PICTUREPAGE> AND <PICTUREFIELD>.  I just added them to the xml for my layer inside my <EDITFORM> tags (see attached image).  It works as it should now, although I have not tried a new check-out yet using this axf with the as a template.

-Jane

[KurtHassy]

Jane,

Thank you.  I think this is what is happening to me.  I too, had to "roll my own" with a related table form and I am, also, using an ArcPad 8 .axf as my template.  Although, not the same errors, I will try to add the <PICTUREPAGE> AND <PICTUREFIELD>.

I will let you know if it works and works with checkout.

-Kurt

[KurtHassy]

Hi Jane,

I did this, and it still didn't work for checking the photos out in ArcPad Data Manager.

Come to find out, I am pretty sure it has to do with alias table names.  I have alias names for all of my feature classes that show up in the table of contents.  If I physically change the alias in the table of contents to the true table name, then ArcPad Data Manager works for checking photos out.  (i.e. I actually get a chance to choose what fields I want to use for my photos)  Must be a bug.

Kurt

[DeniseKing]

You might be running into CQ00312586; 'Changing the TOC layer name renders the list of available photo fields (in Check Out Wizard) empty' which is actively being investigated by ArcPad team. Possible workaround is to change the layer name back to original name and re-add to ArcMap map document, then perform data check out to ArcPad and the photo fields are available as expected.

If this is the behavior you are experiencing, please contact Esri Support Services via Esri Support site links for phone, email, webform, or chat http://support.esri.com/en to have your information added to the CQ. If you are experiencing other behavior and have current ArcPad maintenance, please feel free to submit your question to help troubleshoot this issue. Please include ArcPad  version, service pack or build information and provide screenshots of   errors or dialogs which illustrate behavior you are reporting.

Thank you,
Denise

[KenCarrier]

You are not going to believe what I just found out about photos. In trying to check out data with ArcPad 10.0.2 I could not get the check out wizard to recognize my picture field. I removed an underbar from my layer name and then tried the check out again and it worked!

Called ESRI Tech Support, they were able to reproduce the issue with some sample data. Current we know that periods "." and underscore/underbars "_" will not work. Other special characters work just not these 2 for our testing.

I have been banging my head on this for a while now and just figured I would stay on this one until I got the desired results. I hope and pray this post will save someone else the aggravation I have experienced.

[KenCarrier]

You might be running into CQ00312586; 'Changing the TOC layer name renders the list of available photo fields (in Check Out Wizard) empty' which is actively being investigated by ArcPad team. Possible workaround is to change the layer name back to original name and re-add to ArcMap map document, then perform data check out to ArcPad and the photo fields are available as expected.

If this is the behavior you are experiencing, please contact Esri Support Services via Esri Support site links for phone, email, webform, or chat http://support.esri.com/en to have your information added to the CQ. If you are experiencing other behavior and have current ArcPad maintenance, please feel free to submit your question to help troubleshoot this issue. Please include ArcPad  version, service pack or build information and provide screenshots of   errors or dialogs which illustrate behavior you are reporting.

Thank you,
Denise

Denise,

I do not think the issue arises with changing the name of the layer I think it has to do with how SDE featureclasses names are produced in ArcMap when adding a layer. For example, I am using Oracle so when I add a layer it might come in as OWNERNAME.FCNAME (GIS_ADMIN.WWMANHOLES)

Given what we just found with ESRI Tech Support, these 2 character "." and "_" are not supported when checking out data and trying to specify a photo field. Once I removed the underscore from the alias name in ArcMap TOC and just made it one text string "GPS" then I ran the check out again and it worked and recgonized my field "IMAGE" with no problems.

I would encourage ESRI to look into the bug more. So I think until the ArcPad Team figures out a workaround I would encourage users not to use special characters in the alias or simply rename your layer in the TOC without special characters. Hope this helps and I really hope this gets fixed in the next version.

[JohnGravois]

The two relevant tracking numbers in our system are as follows

CQ00312811 'Potential picture fields do not appear in Select Picture Options if layer name contains a space or underscore'
CQ00312586; 'Changing the TOC layer name renders the list of available photo fields (in Check Out Wizard) empty'

Both of these software defects refer to the behavior that the list of available photo fields is not populated when the layer name in ArcMap's table of contents doesn't match the feature class name in the geodatabase.

Underscores in the layer name are not problematic if they also appear in the feature class name, but any special characters (points, spaces, etc.) that are not supported in the feature class name are definitely going to cause problems.  Even supplying different text for the layer name in the Table of Contents without spaces will cause the behavior.

The ArcPad Team is aware of the problem and working to resolve it.  Luckily, the inability to specify specific fields when checking out data doesn't keep users from taking pictures in the field and associating them with the appropriate field.  If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact Esri Support Services.

[KenCarrier]

The two relevant tracking numbers in our system are as follows

CQ00312811 'Potential picture fields do not appear in Select Picture Options if layer name contains a space or underscore'
CQ00312586; 'Changing the TOC layer name renders the list of available photo fields (in Check Out Wizard) empty'

Both of these software defects refer to the behavior that the list of available photo fields is not populated when the layer name in ArcMap's table of contents doesn't match the feature class name in the geodatabase.

Underscores in the layer name are not problematic if they also appear in the feature class name, but any special characters (points, spaces, etc.) that are not supported in the feature class name are definitely going to cause problems.  Even supplying different text for the layer name in the Table of Contents without spaces will cause the behavior.

The ArcPad Team is aware of the problem and working to resolve it.  Luckily, the inability to specify specific fields when checking out data doesn't keep users from taking pictures in the field and associating them with the appropriate field.  If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact Esri Support Services.

John,

Thanks for helping me trouble shoot this issue the other day. I would have to disagree with "Even supplying different text for the layer name in the Table of Contents without spaces will cause the behavior.". If you remember with my example the layer name in SDE was "GIS_ADMIN.GPSD_Points", changing the layer name in the TOC to "GPSD" worked. So I removed the underscore and "Points" and OWNER information from the name in the TOC and got the desired result. Hopefully this helps.

I was also talking to one of my friends about a bug they experiencing with the image name not keeping the correct count on multiple checkouts. For example Checkout 1 they take 3 pics. The names of the images would be Image1,Image2,Image3. They check data back in, then do another Checkout, this time they take 3 more pics using the same FC, what they found is that image numbers start over again as Image1,Image2,Image3. The workaround is to specify a different folder each time as an output during the checkout process. When the images should be counting up Image1-Image6. This will cause a major issue because photos already taken would be overwritten each time you check data back in. Do you know of the bug and or tracking number for this. I figure if this post is going to outline all the issues with photos we might as well list all bug numbers here.