Message notification direction in relationship classes: pratically useless?

[RobertoRossi]

ArcGIS for Desktop Help tells us that, using Relationship classes in Geodatabase, we can use a Message notification direction in order to manage "...actions that require an update of one feature to trigger an update in its related features": for example "When you update a feature, you want an attribute in a related feature to update automatically".

To manage this kind of behaviors we can set a Message notification direction to 4 different directions (None, Forward, Backward, Both).

In fact everytime we create a relationship class we have to chose one of the 4 direction... but...

The strange thing is that, unlike the other ArcGIS desktop tools, which normally are "Ready to use", in this case, this operation needs a "custom programming", and the choise of the message notification direction is pratically useless!

Is there any "Almost-Ready to use" add-on which can help non-programming user to achieve the objective?

Roberto Rossi

Padua University

[PatrickDenny]

Found this when wondering about message direction myself. There is a table outlining all the built-in message direction functionalities in the Message Notification Direction section of ESRI's Relationship Class Properties documentation page.

Here's the table:

Direction	Effect on simple relationships	Effect on composite relationships
Forward	No effect unless customized with programming	Deleting origin deletes destination Moving or rotating origin moves or rotates destination No other effect unless custom behavior is programmed
Backward	No effect unless customized with programming	Deleting origin deletes destination No other effect unless custom behavior is programmed
Both	No effect unless customized with programming	Deleting origin deletes destination Moving or rotating origin moves or rotates destination No other effect unless custom behavior is programmed
None	Prevents messages from being sent, slightly improving performance	Deleting origin deletes destination Prevents other messages from being sent, improving performance slightly

[DavidRichey]

I am wondering if there are examples of the custom programming necessary. I have not been able to find them myself, and would like to experiment. I found my way to the table Patrick displays above, but nothing further. I am also wondering if this functionality transfers to ArcGIS Online for automation of related features.

[TLandrum]

Has anyone discovered how or where one can "program custom behavior"? I'm at a loss just like the others on this message.