Latest Contributions by TedKowal

This is one of the reason why I want to keep the personal MS Access geodatabase.... if it is an access database then treat the source as any other MS Access table for your mail merge....  at least that is how I do it.  (Plenty of examples of that out there in wild)      Can you not create an ODBC connection to the data store and have Word read that directly? ... View more

I have been looking at QGIS and have in some isolated instances been using it.  Yes your right and the learning curve is steep and it is still compared to the ESRI product limited.  I also have a PostGIS installation and have been playing around (no production) with it -- My impression, probably because I am still learning, is it is like an older Oracle database (what it use to be).  What initially brought me to ESRI was its openness to data --- give me your data from anywhere and we will work with it.....now it is turning into buy an SDE license and we will only allow you to work with this data....  I am just ranting, maybe it is just a better business model -- everyone has the right to make money? ... View more

I work for a toll way transportation authority (Something in between the State and the County Level).  The tollway operates under minimal staffing and consults everything out.  There is no data standardization possible, yet, I am still working on this (past 9 years).  The Authority does not store its own data, but relies on different consults to do their own independent data stuff, so our data can and does reside somewhere on the WAN in numerous "real" databases.  None which talk to each other, my challenge is to work with the existing system, there is no foreseeable change, to bring this data together.  Sometime there is only a spatial linkage that can relate this data together, this is where I use GIS.  Also, this is where "the little database that could" shines in its ability to reach out to all the other sources and bring them together.   Our procurement process does not allow to have this come under one roof so adopting EGDB is near impossible.  I have managed using the little database that could to link these disparaged sources together....the ability I  have in using GIS to relate them is GOD sent!  A file geodatabase cannot even approach this, nor can individually, SQL Server, Oracle or any other "REAL" database I have worked with do this without enormous extra cost and staffing.  The State of Florida employs your typical EGDB environment, I am local in Miami and use a lot of their data, they, FDOT, have paid me many visits to see how I grab and integrate their data, along with other consultant data and integrate them within our system with a staff of one person.  They have told me over and over that what I do is impossible....  my only trick is the little database that could!  Over the last nine years, I have seen Florida resorting more and more to MS Access as part of the solution due to its flexibility and compatibility with other applications and programs even with their integrated systems.  Now ESRI wants to take away that flexibility and replace it with models that require extra licensing to be of any use.  A file geodatabase is not a database where as MS Access is real close, and does contain most of the elements that define what a database should contain. A posible alternative to all of this is creating a proper fully compliant ODBC API for the file database.  Your current experimental one is too buggy and does not even contain a full SQL syntax. (I have been looking and playing with it as a possible alternative to MS Access) but alas not even MS access can recognize it much less other application that I use. ... View more

I wish I had a definitive answer for you --- I have ran across some libraries that can do it some what each have their own limitations and languages.  When working with geoJson "Multi" geometries were my nemesis.  So much that I just simply re-wrote everthing to accept WKT and left out all the json formats.  WKT's standard on the flip side is not well accepted and universal as well... so I simply was using SQL server's flavor of WKT's.  That said here are some of the libraries that I had some limited success with. GitHub - arthur-e/Wicket: A modest library for moving between Well-Known Text (WKT) and various framework geometries  GitHub - mapbox/wellknown: GeoJSON-emitting WKT parser for browsers and node  Convert GeoJSON to/from WKT in Python. #python #geojson #geometry · GitHub  ... View more

Xander  I do not disagree with you.  But many small to mid size organisations can hardly keep up paying for Licensing and Maintenance.  Like mine, I have tried to implement a larger scale environment, but do not have the support or funding necessary to do it, not only the software, hardware costs , there is the increase in staffing to support it.  My Web based mapping, to date is using Bing Maps and their api on which I overlay our GIS layers.  Since the number of hits to the app I created is below the threshold for licensing -- it is free to us.  In order to make that function-able, yes I had to create my own portal (really a service) to work with the GIS data.... again to automate the update process, I have created MS Access Scripts to update the SQL WKT fields from our GIS.  I had to overcome the limitations ESRI put on SQL (free version) will only re-write the GIS table, I am now able to read our GIS and update the SQL using my own code logic.  My org chose not to fund the upgrade in licensing for SQL server, and Arc Server..... In the end I still have a serviceable albeit not scale-able web map that users can search, even update in limited fashion some GIS elements -- all using the BING API and SQL Sever built-ins and some custom programming. ... View more

I love VB and lost the battle to have it remain within ArcGIS,  but when it comes to formatting keep in mind Dan Patterson‌ example with Python, it is magnitudes better in formatting than VB could ever be!  My solution is simply a hack! To make the above less ugly another old trick for leading zero's came back mind it is also useful in variant way with Nulls...... To force leading zeros on a string in VBSCRIPT    Right("00" & month(Now),2)  this could simplify some of the less than 10 tests.... Not forget the bonus null vb hack!  Say myTestString could be null and you do not want to deal separately for null values..... if  trim(myTestString & "") = "" then ......   <-- this appends a blank space to a null and now you can treat nulls in the strings as a space.....   PS... I have been using Python.Net in all my VB.Net for formatting functions -- it is that good! ... View more

Currently I have the best of both worlds in the personal geodatabase, I can store the attributes and work with geometry from the same data store from any program I choose to use.  My excel, project managment, asset modeling management tools, ms office, load rating application (structural analysis programs many of them), inventory applications...many many more such tools and apps directly read the same ms access database.  There is no intermediate steps I have to do or make in order to use the data;  ONE Singular datastore for both GIS work and Atrribute/Data Analysis/Retrieval/Storage  (Does not matter matter to me if the MS Access is slower).  This is why I refuse to use the File Database, because I first have to import in the geometry, work with it (Yes I know it is much more faster and robust than the ms variant), then export the work back into something else my myraid of apps can read, if I made a wrong guess, re-export the data back into a file geo-database and repeat over and over until I got the correct results.  The GIS portion is only a step/tool in organizing my data needs.  In addition, for other external data they may be stored in enterprise location in Oracle, Paradox, and SQL Sever, again MS Access serves me as a middle broker that can reach out simultaneously query all those stores in one query -- again a one stop shop.   I am a structural engineer and GIS is only a tool for my work with DATA. GIS use of data focuses on geometry, not the management and manipulation of data outside of geometry.  I do understand why thing like using stored procedures, user defined function ect are not exposed within ArcGIS and only limitly exposed in programming.  Why do I have to repeat and re-invent logic when it already resides in outside database and functions fine. -- Yes I can access stored procedures and pass paramater, and use user functions within Access -- File database does not.  And the final insult is some of the stuff I need to import to a file geodatabase, I first have to export to an old fashion shape file with to get the data into a file geodatabse, then deal with the data type, and field name limitations of the dbase III plus format (going both ways back and forth).     Sorry, about the wall text this was not the intent for a simple question asked by the OP.  For that I apologize for this slight hijacking . ... View more

Don't matter which version ESRI chooses to support.  The biggest benefit that Access  pocesses, which overcomes all limitations, is its compatibility with all MS products and myriads of other third party products.  That is a benefit the file geodatabase cannot come remotely close to matching.  Since the File Geodatabase is not compatible with any other other product on the market outside of ArcGIS, it is useless to me.  GIS is a tool for me to manipulate and extrapolate data,  maps and geometry are only a small set of tool for me to get at that data by different methodologies. ... View more

I am in the same predicament.  Please vote to re-enable MS Access personal geodatabses here Enable ArcGIS Pro to access ESRI Personal Geodatabases  My only current work around is not to use Pro and stick with ArcMap/ArcGIS as long as possible. ... View more

I don't believe there is a way within ArcGIS to do this. However, this is a good thing, as Vince noted, could be extremely dangerous.  So if you want to do this, you will have to resort to programming.  If you are doing this via programming, be ABSOLUTELY sure you know what you are doing. My personal use in using stored procedures 99% of the time is only in a read only context to extract data to make outside joins upon.  The other 1% is strictly for updating non geometric attributes. Have you looked at defining a "View". ... View more

That looked interesting.... I did like Fortran ... View more

Just like Perl!  Even though I respectfully disagree!  I find it to be an awful language...but who am I to say... the masses embraced it so in order to progress I have to deal with it! ... View more

😮   But it is so readable and understandable unlike Python  ... View more

Nice tip on using AddFieldDelimiters...... have to remember that!  Generally I have always used brute force in shaping the data prior to the SQL call. ... View more

Yes that works, however as a tip.... I would also test and deal with "NULL" values for the EXP_CST string.  Null values seem to ocasionally pop up and bite you when you least expect them. NOT "EXP_CST" IS NULL and EXTRACT(...) Your Extract, I believe might fail with a null value. Good Work! ... View more