Calculation Rule- auto populate a point's coordinates into an existing row

[V1212]

Hi, 

I was wondering if it's possible to auto populate the coordinates of a created point feature into an existing row rather than a new row. 

Thanks!

[JohannesLindner]

So you want to do something like this?

• Click on Create Features, choose the point template
• Click into the map
• but instead of creating a new feature, the coordinates of an existing point are updated

This could be kinda possible (you'd end up with a feature without geometry, so you wouldn't see it on the map). But, questions:

• What's your use case?
• Why not use the edit tools to edit the existing point?
• How would you decide which existing point to edit?
• Coordinates as in numeric fields in the table or as in the actual point geometry?

[V1212]

Thanks for your reply, 

So you want to do something like this?

• Click on Create Features, choose the point template
• Click into the map
• but instead of creating a new feature, the coordinates of an existing point are updated

I want to add a new point feature that populates the coordinates into empty lat/long fields in an existing row in my table.

I want an editor to add coordinates to places that have wrong attribute info so the data can be fixed downstream using the updated coordinates. I want as little manual editing done as possible so I thought this could be a good solution (no copy/pasting correct coordinates into lat/long fields). We don’t edit existing data, just update new corresponding fields. 

Hope I answered all your questions!

[JohannesLindner · Accepted solution]

Something like this could do what you want:

• create a point feature class, add GlobalID
• create a field in that fc that will work as a foreign key to the table you wish to edit
• edit and add this attribute rule

// Calculation Attribute Rule on your point FC
// Field: empty
// Triggers: Insert
// Exclude from application evaluation

// get the rows that will be updated
var key = $feature.KeyField
var table = FeatureSetByName($datastore, "Database.Dataowner.TableYouWantToEdit", ["GlobalID", "KeyField"], false)
var rows = Filter(table, "KeyField = @key")

// create and fill the update array
var lat_long_attributes = {"LAT": Geometry($feature).y, "LONG": Geometry($feature).x}
var updates = []
for(var row in rows) {
    Push(updates, {"globalID": row.GlobalID, "attributes": lat_long_attributes}
}

// tell ArcGIS to edit the table
return {
    "edit" [{
        "className": "Database.Dataowner.TableYouWantToEdit",
        "updates": updates
    }]
}

The workflow for this would be

• copy the key of the feature you want to edit
• create point feature --> paste key into the feature template, create the point in the correct location
• the attribute rule will trigger and write the coordinates of the  new point into the lat/long fields of the row(s) you specified with the key

[V1212]

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

[V1212]

Thanks again!

[JohannesLindner]

Are you sure that you're creating it on the right feature class? This behavior sounds like you create the rule on the class you want to update.

[V1212]

Thanks again!

[JohannesLindner]

Yeah, as I thought.

You're adding the rule to the feature class you want to update. That means that you create a point, and then the rule triggers and edits a point in the same class.

The rule is meant to be created on a different point feature class that you use to edit the "real" feature class.

[HusseinNasser2]

Here is a filegdb example which a calculation rule updates the X and Y fields with the point's geometry coordinates on insert and update. We assign the field as empty so we can update multiple fields in one shot. The rule is simple

var g = Geometry($feature);
var x = g.x;
var y = g.y;
return {
	"result": {
		"attributes": {
			"x": x,
			"y": y
		}
	}
}

the rule