Latest Contributions by MarcoBoeringa

My understanding is that at 10.1 you can only read and run VBA code, but you cannot edit or create new VBA code.  At 10.2 it should be gone if ESRI follows through with the game plan they laid out over 3 years ago.  VBA is deprecated because Microsoft abandoned it and won't sell any more licenses.  ESRI is using up licenses they purchased years ago (probably when they partnered with Microsoft for a time). That plan certainly has changed. The recently modified deprecation plans for ArcGIS now even explicitly list extension for VBA in 10.2 as the last release. http://downloads2.esri.com/support/TechArticles/W26496_W25918_DEPRECATION_PLAN_FOR_ARCGIS_101_and_102_FINAL_050713.pdf "ArcGIS 10.2 will be the last major release including Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) compatibility." "[Correction February 15, 2013] Support for Microsoft VBA has been extended to ArcGIS 10.2" ... View more

Nick, One thing that is vital with Direct Connect is to have the proper database client installed. It needs to be a 32-bit client, as ArcGIS for Desktop and ArcGIS Explorer Desktop are still 32-bit applications. This may well be the cause of your issues. Install a proper database client and see if you can connect. ... View more

John, I agree with most of what you write, but I do think there are pros and cons to the approach ESRI chose: pro: - You only need to worry about a single "Feature Service" type of connection when interacting with your data in the development process. No plethora of different connection or datasource types to worry about as supported by ArcGIS. The Map Package and Runtime hide the complexity. This simplifies the development process. - You can do all the basic preparatory work with all the advanced tools of ArcGIS, meaning an almost unlimited set of possibilities for authoring the maps. con: - You may find, like you are stating, the ArcGIS a bloated addition to the web application development platform. Alas, but not many people run a pure Engine environment like you, and most organizations have the necessary licences and skills to do the preparatory work and author the maps and export to a Map Package. I agree it is likely there will be more options in the future... ... View more

Tamer, I was not suggesting the fact that CAD maintained data is part of your geodatabase by itself is a problem. The problem is that some features may have errors / be invalid, at least as considered by ArcGIS. Think of a polygon with just two vertices to define its outer boundaries, you need a minimum of three vertices (a triangle) to enclose an area. Two vertices can only define a line... These geometries are INVALID and should not be in your dataset. Unfortunately, CAD datasets quite often contain problematic geometries, as the data may be less stricly maintained (no topology checks). I already pointed out the tools you need to check if any geometrie is invalid in post no. 4 in this thread ... View more

thank you for u reply , what did u mean about : you should certainly confirm that all non-Esri geometries pass both Oracle and Esri geometry tests . Vince means any geometries / features not initiallly created in ArcGIS. E.g. data created and maintained in AutoCAD and stored in SDO_Geometrry / Oracle Spatial. This data may not confirm to ArcSDE standards for valid geometry, as it has not been created by ArcGIS. This is an often encountered cause of compatibility issues between ArcGIS and SDO_Geometry maintained by CAD or imported from CAD sources/drawings. ... View more

The instructions for connecting are here: http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/2500//en/add_geodatabase_data.htm ... View more

John, You may wish to have a look at this video: http://resources.arcgis.com/en/communities/runtime-java/video1668.htm Move to 33:30 for the start of the topic about editing. You need to create a Map Package containing the data referencing your SDE database. I think you won't be able to circumvent running at least one Desktop licence to author these... You can than consume this Map Package in Runtime and edit, but Simple Features only! And see this page for a nice compact introduction about Runtime and how it functions: http://esriaustraliatechblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/a-bit-more-on-arcgis-runtime-for-windows-and-linux/ Essentially, as the ESRI Australia blog explains, Runtime acts like a mini local web server ("...uses an embedded web server to create/communicate with worker processes that do things like draw map..."). You interact with this embedded web server's Feature Services based on your SDE connections (or whatever datasource you have, e.g. shapefile) via SOAP, not with the data "directly". ... View more

Thanks Vince. I am able to make the connection now 🙂 Good to hear you got it running. Would welcome the any steps & tips on this 🙂 There was a nice extension for extracting much of the Geodatabase's schema details in the times of 8.x and 9.x: The Geodatabase Reporter by Richie Carmichael of ESRI: http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=13508 It created very nice HTML reports showing detailed info about Feature Datasets, Feature Classes, Relationships Classes, Domains etc, even including user info if I remember well. Since you're running legacy 8.x, you might try and install it and see if you can get it working. Should be of real help in getting a good overview of the Geodatabase's schema. Marco, Thanks for the comments. But let's not discuss the sensitive data/policies of company. May be my mistake of publishing non-required things here. Sorry, just couldn't help notice it and it made me smile... I know I can be a bit direct in these issues. Good luck with the project and migration! ... View more

This really sounds like a geometry problem, with invalid geometries in the specific layer with problems, since you can access the other database layers normally. ArcGIS includes two tools for dealing with that. The Help for 9.3.1 lists them here: Check Geometry and Repair Geometry. However, I am not sure if they also exist at plain 9.3, or were introduced only at 9.3.1. If you can't find them, they were probably introduced at 9.3.1, and you need to run the ArcSDE Command Line tools instead. You can find more information on this in the document here: http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/geodatabase/pdf/admincmd.pdf You probably need to use the "sdelayer" command. Vince can undoubtedly further guide you on the exact syntax to be used in your case if using the ArcSDE Command Line tools for checking the validity of the geometries. Your alternative is using SQL*Plus and the SDO_GEOM.VALIDATE_LAYER command. Be aware though, that what Oracle considers a valid geometry, isn't 100% compatible with what ArcSDE considers a valid geometry, there are a few minor idiosyncrasies between the systems. Nonetheless, checking will be useful as well. To be 100% sure there aren't "ArcSDE invalid" shapes in the database, you really need to run the ArcGIS / ArcSDE tools though... ... View more

Not an entire update of the existing document, but instead a new document as a supplement to the existing one. I made this supplementary document to account for the recently announced deprecation plans for ArcGIS 10.2. Since these changes affect the ESRI Geodatabase Framework as well, I decided to make a document with a couple of new diagrams that highlight these changes to make them more understandable. Especially notable is the announced deprecation of the ArcSDE Application Server and ArcSDE Command Line tools after 10.2. In addition, I have included the new Spatial Framework for Hadoop, as this extents the ESRI Geodatabase Framework with an entirely new option many people may not yet be familiar with: to store and parallel process "Big Data". I included a small "Big Data" glossary in the document, to make the jargon more understandable for the traditional GIS user. Marco ... View more

But then if i go with "esri_sde 5151/tcp" port then will it be possible to gain the connection? And what about the other impact? at which other part should I do these changes? Or else for temporary purpose I can uncomment this port and then after exporting the metadata i can restore this port? is that okay? Also is this a only thing or any other steps i need to do? Thanks for your quick responses.... There isn't any impact of uncommenting the "esri_sde 5151/tcp" port line in the Windows service, other than opening up the TCP/IP port on your local PC for a possible communication from your locally installed ArcGIS to your remote ArcSDE Application Server ** if it is running ** and accessible from your local PC. So try it, and see if you can create a connection from ArcCatalog 8.3. If not, most likely the ArcSDE Application Server isn't running, or using a non-default TCP/IP port number (so other than 5151). You may find this thread and the document I posted there of some use for better understanding the ArcSDE Application Server versus Direct Connect: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/83644-quot-The-ESRI-Geodatabase-Framework-quot-PDF?p=295462&viewfull=1#post295462 ... View more

Sandip, I can't even fathom why the Dutch KPN telecommunications giant (yes, I noticed the Dutch "ptt.nl" postfix on the Host name, and since I live in the Netherlands, I am well aware the PTT company being the ancestor of the modern day KPN) wants to extract metadata from a 10 year old, maybe even non-functional, legacy database, but if you really have so little experience to tackle such an issue, I would definitely point the client to ESRI Netherlands, instead of trying to have the work done across half the globe...: www.esri.nl If anyone can help them out, it is them. ESRI Netherlands (I am not working for them) provides extensive support services to many Dutch companies and governmental organizations, and has experienced support staff... Communication will be far easier as well... It may save you and your client major headaches. Anyway, if I understand it well, you just need to get access to 1) XML metadata, and NOT geometric data / Feature Classes, or 2) the Geodatabase schema?? If 1) is the case, I wouldn't even bother with trying to establish a connection using ArcCatalog. The data for all of this is stored in the Geodatabase System tables, and if you can access the Oracle instance, I guess you should be able to extract the data using standard Oracle tools. If I remember well, XML metadata was stored in some binary column, Vince undoubtedly can tell. You may be able to extract the data using XPath and some programming language. If 2), much of the schema is again stored in the Geodatabase System tables. You should be able to read much of the most important schema information from them using ODBC. Be aware that the Geodatabase System tables underwent a major change in structure in ArcGIS 10. Much of the information you will find for 10 won't be of any use for understanding 8 structure, the 9.x documents may still be of some help though. These old ESRI ArcGIS 8 and 9 PDFs may be of some help: Understanding ArcSDE (ArcGIS 😎 http://downloads.esri.com/support/documentation/sde_/706Understanding_ArcSDE.pdf ArcSDE Configuration and Tuning Guide (ArcGIS 😎 http://downloads.esri.com/support/downloads/ims_/sdeupdate_arcims_downloads/config_tuning_guide_oracle.pdf Administering ArcSDE for Microsoft SQL Server (ArcGIS 9) http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/geodatabase/pdf/mssql.pdf ... View more

Jamal, Maybe others will join-in with more concrete recommendations, but in general, questions like these can be hard to answer without detailed knowledge of the type of data and services you would like implement. One thing though, I can imagine the two server setup with data for the webservices being directly accessed from another server, causing issues with network traffic. You may wish to replicate the database to a second child database on the webserver. In general though, having a two server setup, with one server being "production", and a second server doing the task of the "webserver", this last one best located within a so-called "demilitarized zone" inbetween two - preferably hardware based - firewalls, is a recommended approach. You may find the resources on this ESRI page useful though in making strategic decisions about your system design: System Design Strategies Preface http://wiki.gis.com/wiki/index.php/System_Design_Strategies_Preface ... View more

Good to hear you managed to find a working "work-around" and get to use the Versioned View for your purpose. ... View more

Brad, I don't know if this is part of your issue, but you may wish to read the section "Example projected editing scenario and results"  and "Editing features in a geodatabase topology" about topologies and projections on this Help page: About editing data in a different projection (projecting on the fly) In all cases, as recommended on that page, it is best to set the Data Frame's coordinate system to the one used by the Topology. This will avoid unexpected results. Another possible issue, and why you aren't seeing similar issues with a FGDB, may have to do with the set "X,Y" resolution and whether the data is high precision, or legacy low precision. Feature coordinates in an ArcSDE enterprise geodatabase won't be more precise than the set X,Y resolution (e.g. meters, centimeters, millimeters), meaning vertices will be "snapped" to these coordinate values when editing and moving. ... View more