Latest Contributions by BrianOevermann

Anthony, Please share what you did to get this to work!  While I do not have an immediate need for the information, I can think of some future scenarios that will likely cause me to work through this in Python scripting and not needing to reinvent the wheel will be a bonus. ... View more

Brian, Would my response to this post give you any ideas? http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/46777-Hyperlinking-local-files ... View more

I may be misinterpreting exactly what you want to do, but here is what I do to link scanned pdf's of our parcel plat documents. I don't think you can get around having a URL for each, but I've made it less painful to maintain over time. I'll be generalizing the names... All of the scanned plat pdf's (photos, in your case) are in a folder (or subfolder within...) on the network that the soc user has read access to. In IIS I created a virtual directory that points to the scanned pdf folder and simply named the virtual directory 'plats'. It doesn't matter what the actual file structure is since you are pointing the virtual directory to that location (i.e. my plats are in \\myserver\department\files\stored\here\scanned_plats). In my parcel layer I have three fields: PlatRoot, PlatFileName, PlatURL I globally populate the PlatRoot field with 'http://myCity.com/plats/' (no quotes but ensure the trailing '/'). The PlatFileName contains just the pdf name (including any subfolder structure--i.e. 'someplat.pdf' or 'downtown/someplat.pdf'). To populate the filename I used a "file lister" application to dump the contents of my folder (and subfolders) into a text editor.  Then I replaced the '\' delimiters with '/' and simply copy/pasted the filenames into the relevant records within ArcGIS (I have a plat name field, so I simply selected records based on the plat name, then populated all of the records with the pdf filename). I then concatenate the PlatRoot and PlatFileName fields into PlatURL using the field calculator in the attribute table window.  (i.e. [PlatRoot] & [PlatFileName])  If I ever need/want to change the virtual directory name or structure, it's simple to re-populate the PlatRoot field and then re-concatenate, hence the separate fields. I use the excellent enhanced Identify widget from Mr. Scheitlin, so I just point the hyperlink field for the parcel layer to PlatURL and the user has a direct link to the plat documents! In effect, each pdf now has a distinct URL. Admittedly, if your photos are scattered all over, this technique won't work very well. You would need to decide if it makes more sense to aggregate your photos into one location. There are probably more elegant techniques... Brian ... View more

Sargent, I am going to defer your questions to Brad (or other knowledgeable folk).  We are not yet using alias tables so I have no way to test. Question for Brad:  I may butcher this due to my limited knowledge regarding aliases tables, but what is the difference between creating an alternate name/alias table joined via a join ID and adding code to the style like Sargent has?  Is one method preferred over the other?  Or am I confusing two different concepts/uses?  We are headed in this direction so I would like to fill in the gaps of my knowledge. Brian ... View more

Lorinda, While I have not done what you are attempting to do in Python, I'll share some thoughts. I agree that the composite locator should just "work".  After all, when you create the composite locator, internally it knows which locators are participating.  But when I use a composite locator in my web apps, I must make sure that I not only publish the composite locator but also all of the constituent locators the composite uses.  Maybe there is a requirement with Python to instantiate the individual locators used in the composite? In the ArcIMS days (b.c.l. - before composite locators) I accomplished the same fall-back processing of addresses via an If-Then-Else construct, re-matching the address against each subsequent locator until I achieved success.  Maybe ESRI programmers envisioned that one would not use a composite locator and instead use a custom logical workflow such as this?  Regardless of what ESRI may have envisioned, you could still achieve the functionality you want in your tool by processing and evaluating the results against each locator in the way I described above. ... View more

Jeremy, I'm at a loss.  The only difference I noticed is that the map service you are using has your layer ID 2 as part of a group layer.  Admittedly this is a very thin hypothesis, but maybe there is a quirky sort of bug related to group layers and definition expressions? Ben's example is not directly using a layer within a group layer, but his service contains group layers. Robert's example is using a service that has no group layers present.  My example also has no group layers present.  I'm not sure if there is any merit to the idea, and I don't have the time available to exhaustively test this, but maybe you do have the time? As an exercise, I copy/pasted your code block into the v2.4 viewer I am upgrading to.  I did change the value from 'BIA' to 'FS' because I know that we have U.S. Forest Service lands in reasonable proximity to our city.  I kept zooming out and noted that there are other labels (part of the map service group layer) that indicate features that the definition expression is eliminating, so your code appears to be working correctly for me.  See the attached screen shot.  There goes the group layer bug theory! [maybe] It probably goes without saying, but you are using this tag against API 2.4 and not an earlier version, correct?  Just trying to cover the possibilities... ... View more

Jeremy, Can you post the config code that isn't working?  Like Robert, I have been able to get this to work.  My example is below.  I used a service whose feature class has a joined table, so I needed to fully qualify my field name.  Since you are able to query successfully via the REST dialog you have probably taken care of that if it is necessary.             <layer label="General Data" type="dynamic" visible="true" alpha="0.4"                    url="http://myServer/ArcGIS/rest/services/General_Mapservices/general/MapServer">                    <sublayer id="0" definitionexpression="myDB.COI.SiteAddress.BusinessName='TARGET'"/>             </layer> ... View more

Ben, Aside from the attribute value quoting, it appears that you simply haven't "closed" the layer tag, although you may have simply not included it in your code sample. <operationallayers>      <layer label="Tacoma M7.1" type="dynamic" visible="true" alpha="0.75" preload="open"                    url="http://140.160.114.190/ArcGIS/rest/services/Seismic/Tacoma/MapServer">       <sublayer id="1" definitionexpression="countyname = 'King'" popupconfig="popups/PopUp_DBs_EF_CareFlty.xml"/>      <sublayer id="2" popupconfig="popups/PopUp_DBs_UTIL_OilFlty.xml"/>             </layer> ... View more

Brad, I am not seeing the fractional field in your edit of my style.  Is it possible that you attached your version of the style to the post instead? ... View more

Thanks, Brad.  I had guessed that the explanation would not be short and sweet--geocoding styles don't really lend themselves to nice, short explanations. Final question: Does the latest fix require v10 SP2 to work properly or will it function in v10 SP1 as well?  We are still rolling over to SP2 so I want to be aware of any "gotchas". Thanks again for your time in answering questions/tweaking styles.  I know you are a busy person. ... View more

Brad, For my education, can you tell me where I went astray?  If you can explain things without writing a book I would appreciate knowing what I need to look out for in the future if I am modifying a style. Also, thank you for taking a look at my version of the style and taking the time to make the corrections! Any chance this style and yours could be included in the next version of ArcGIS? It is long overdue... ... View more

Is the fraction in a separate field?  It looks like there are two reasons that BrianO needed to add fractional types of addresses. 1. It looks like there was a need to support house numbers like 100 A1/2 main st.  Do you also require support for alpha characters in front of the fraction?  If not, the style should handle addresses like 100 1/2 main st. 2. It looks like the reference data that was being used had the fractional house number in a separate field as well which needed to be added to the style OR concatenation to the house number before the locator is built. I just want to clarify our address structure. Regarding item #1, we don't have alpha character in front of the fraction but we do have alpha characters in our fractional field. (i.e. we may have a 100 A main st or a 100 1/2 main st, with the "A" or the "1/2" located in our fractional field). Brad is correct on item #2.  We have a separate field which contains the fractional house number (the "A" or the "1/2") and I needed to add it to the style to get it recognized. Sargent, your experience with the "W" vs. "West" is what I see as well, so it doesn't seem to be your data in particular.  My hypothesis was that the locator ideally wants all of the fields filled in when it does a match and knocks off a few points of confidence for each field that isn't present.  If the code blocks between my version and Brad's version are the same, I wonder if adding the fraction field upset some nuance of operation?  Maybe Brad's trained eye could take a quick look at my style and see if something is immediately at issue? Brad, you say that your SingleHouseWithUnits style should support fractional house numbers.  Is that only if I first concatenate my house number and fractional fields?  If I recall, I couldn't get it to match with my fractionals before. ... View more

Brad, Thank you for the latest style sample.  It definitely filled in the gaps that the customization white paper fails to cover.  My functional style file is attached.  It honors fractional address fields as well as separate unit type and unit number fields.  I hope folks find it useful if their data is structured in a similar way!  Share it far and wide and please, ESRI, polish it and include it as a default in 10.1!  I never want to have the need to do this customization again! You need to place this style file in the locator directory of your ArcGIS install.  The default location is: C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\Locators Our site address data layer uses the following fields: Address Address Fractional (i.e. the "A" or "1/2" in "80 A Main St" or "80 1/2 Main St") Prefix Direction Street Name Street Type Suffix Direction Unit Type (i.e. Unit, Ste, #) Unit Number City ZIP Code State The style has not been tested in any other configurations. EDIT:  We are currently on SP1--no testing with SP2 has been done! Enjoy, Brian ... View more

Brad, I used the White Paper to create my own locator .lot file for units as well as my address fractional field. I have some questions that I hope you can answer. Overall, when I use a locator built on this .lot, it returns all of the valid addresses (i.e. ALL of the unit points within the apartment complex). This also happens with the successful matches with addresses having a fractional (i.e. 80A N Main St).  How do I "force" the locator to push the record with the actual unit or fractional match I am searching for to the very top? Also, regarding the fractional field, I have been unable to match a "half" address (i.e. 440 1/2 N Main St).  If I simply locate 440 N Main St, the system returns the "half" record.  I think I am missing something really basic in the formatting but I'm stumped. I compared my .lot with the version you posted and mine gets around the persistent "#" sign by using our UnitType (unit, ste, #) field along with the UnitNumber field.  But I realize not everyone maintains their data in this way. I am running SP1 at the moment, and I've attached my .lot. Thanks for any insight, Brian ... View more