Attribute Assistant Field Trigger

[JoeBorgione]

The description of the field trigger states: "Updates a field to a specified value when the value of another field is updated"  I'd like to update a date field when another field is updated.  Is it possible to use a method (TIMESTAMP) as the specified value?

mmiller-esristaff‌

[MikeMillerGIS · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, no

[JoeBorgione]

Rats....

[deleted-user-pZlUMHhkW23Q]

You actually can do it but it's abit of a hack to get it to work.

1. Create a Field_Trigger on a feature to monitor a field, with a placeholder value in the ValueInfo section, something that is very unlikely to appear natively in your data like "11/11/1111". Give the Rule weight a value.
   1. Note: Dates like "1/1/1111" can cause problems cross systems due to differences in how the system time is set up so stick with 10+ for days and months.
2. Create an Expression on the same feature on the same field and make an If statement to look for the placeholder value "11/11/1111" then do what you like with the value, if you want the date use the vbExpression: "Date" to pull the current date. Make sure the rule weight is set to NULL, since rules with a weight of Null are always run last. 

Here's an example of the code:

OBJECTID *	Table Name	FIELDNAME	Value Method	Value Info	On Create	On change	On Change (Geometry)	Manual Only	Rule Weight	Comments
7896	UndergroundStructureArea	CONSTRUCTIONSTATUS	FIELD_TRIGGER	15|STATUSCHANGEDATE|11/11/1111	FALSE	TRUE	FALSE	FALSE	63
7893	UndergroundStructureArea	STATUSCHANGEDATE	EXPRESSION	IIF([STATUSCHANGEDATE]="11/11/1111" AND [CONSTRUCTIONSTATUS], Date, Null)	FALSE	TRUE	FALSE	FALSE	<Null>

[JoeBorgione]

Thanks Tristan- hack is my middle name...

tristanforward‌