How to populate metadata title from alias name of feature class?

[StefanOffermann]

I have a SDE with a lot of feature classes. I want to populate the metadata of the feature classes mostly automatic. Can I update the metadata title of all feature classes by using the alias name of the feature class? I have used the geoprocessing tool "Synchronize Metadata", it is useful for bounding box, spatial reference, etc. but it wont update the metadata title.

[curtvprice]

I'm fairly certain this would require some scripting to edit the metadata record, either using the metadata toolkit or exporting to XML and and editing with python tools and re-importing. Would really like to see some arcpy functionality to edit the main item/description components easily! Please vote the idea up!

https://community.esri.com/ideas/4618‌

[StefanOffermann]

So I made a python script for automatic updates of all feature classes in a geodatabase (also in feature datasets), my be this is helpful to others.

import arcpy
import codecs
import os
import xml.dom.minidom

workspace = r'C:\data\geodatabase.gdb' # or path to sde-file
temporaryXmlFile = r'C:\temp\xmlMetadataTransferFile.xml'

def getAlias(featureClass):
    return arcpy.Describe(featureClass).aliasName

def createTemporaryXmlMetadataFile():
    with open(temporaryXmlFile, 'w') as theFile:
        theFile.write('<metadata />')

def writeAliasToTemporaryXmlMetadataFile(alias):
    xmlFile = open(temporaryXmlFile)
    dom = xml.dom.minidom.parse(xmlFile)
    titles = dom.getElementsByTagName("resTitle")
    for title in titles:
        title.firstChild.data = alias
        title.setAttribute('Sync', 'FALSE')
        with codecs.open(temporaryXmlFile, 'w', 'utf-8') as file2:
            dom.writexml(file2)
    
def doUpdate(path):
    arcpy.env.workspace = path
    fcList = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses()
    if fcList is None:
        print '- WARN: No feature classes found'
        return
    for fc in fcList:
        print '- Feature class: ' + fc
        alias = getAlias(fc)
        print '  Alias: ' + alias
        createTemporaryXmlMetadataFile()
        arcpy.SynchronizeMetadata_conversion(fc, "ALWAYS")
        arcpy.MetadataImporter_conversion(fc, temporaryXmlFile)
        writeAliasToTemporaryXmlMetadataFile(alias)
        arcpy.MetadataImporter_conversion(temporaryXmlFile, fc)
        arcpy.SynchronizeMetadata_conversion(fc, "ALWAYS")

print 'Set resource title to alias name of all feature classes'
doUpdate(workspace)
fdsList = arcpy.ListDatasets("*", "Feature")
if fdsList is None:
    print '- WARN: No feature datasets found'
else:
    for fds in fdsList:
        print 'Feature dataset: ' + fds
        path = os.path.join(workspace, fds)
        doUpdate(path)
                
print 'done.'
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