Latest Contributions by RonnieRichards

In Pro 2.0 it does not appear it is possible to create a new map within the project. Please consider adding a method to the ArcGISProject object with the ability to create a new map with a name from arcpy. Alternatively a copy map method on the existing Map object would be a workable alternative  You can copy/paste maps manually in a project so this functionality seems like a necessary addition for additional project automation.  ... View more

Hosted Feature Services in Portal/AGOL seem to create feature records without respecting the data model behind the feature class. Please fix this functionality so the platform does not commit a database record unless all constraints are dealt with by the user. At this time both Portal and AGOL platform's allow the creation of feature records when NOT NULL constraints exist. This defeats the purpose of data integrity and the very reason we want to set NOT NULL constraints. Feature Class definition - prior to publish Hosted Feature Layer The current experience is ArcGIS Online will prompt the user for fields which are NOT NULL with an exclamation icon indicating the value is required, however the user can just close the window and the record is saved. The result is a "space" is saved in the NOT NULL field. This goes around the entire data model and is not desirable as it leads to messy data collections and allowing users to by pass required fields. Granted they could type a space in as well but the platform should not do this by default. The experience is the same in Portal 10.5 except it does not show the exclamation point to the user in the fields window. Tracing the activity in Portal shows the record is actually created in the database once geometry is defined (applyEdits) and then an edit window pops up for the end user which then passes another applyEdits. Querying the hosted feature service rest end point shows the records are being created with spaces in the NOT NULL fields even if the user does not interact with the feature.  Please fix this so no records are saved in the database unless a user has completed entering values, do not bypass NOT NULL fields with automatic space values which by passes the feature class field constraints.  ... View more

Hosted Feature Services in Portal/AGOL seem to create feature records without respecting the data model behind the feature class. Please fix this functionality so the platform does not commit a database record unless all constraints are dealt with by the user. At this time both Portal and AGOL platform's allow the creation of feature records when NOT NULL constraints exist. This defeats the purpose of data integrity and the very reason we want to set NOT NULL constraints. Feature Class definition - prior to publish Hosted Feature Layer The current experience is ArcGIS Online will prompt the user for fields which are NOT NULL with an exclamation icon indicating the value is required, however the user can just close the window and the record is saved. The result is a "space" is saved in the NOT NULL field. This goes around the entire data model and is not desirable as it leads to messy data collections and allowing users to by pass required fields. Granted they could type a space in as well but the platform should not do this by default. The experience is the same in Portal 10.5 except it does not show the exclamation point to the user in the fields window. Tracing the activity in Portal shows the record is actually created in the database once geometry is defined (applyEdits) and then an edit window pops up for the end user which then passes another applyEdits. Querying the hosted feature service rest end point shows the records are being created with spaces in the NOT NULL fields even if the user does not interact with the feature.  Please fix this so no records are saved in the database unless a user has completed entering values, do not bypass NOT NULL fields with automatic space values which by passes the feature class field constraints.  ... View more

Please provide a test / dev / qa ArcGIS site for organizations to perform and test functionality. This site does not have to be a full mirror or contain all user licenses and counts, credits but please some place to play with functionality without making a complete mess in the "LIVE" production site. Most cloud providers provide access to a "production" as well as a "test" site as this is expected in such an important platform. The test site would be helpful to play with site organization, scripting and new capabilities without touching the LIVE / production site. ... View more

We used to use Query Layers to append into existing ArcSDE Feature Classes but something changed in recent releases and the ability to do this. The problem is Arcpy cannot determine the difference between Multi-point vs point feature class in the query layer. This requires us to save a LYR file with these properties to be set for arcpy operations to be successful.    Please allow ArcCatalog, ArcMap, ArcPro the ability to auto-detect the spatial data type. Multi-Point, Point, Polygon, Multi-Polygon should able to be determined based on the spatial engine.   Spatial databases provide the type to be determined based on a spatial property so assuming the Query layer supports all of the ArcGIS rules, why can't it determine the spatial data type? ... View more

In ArcMap 10.3 the option to assign unique layer ID's was enabled. When enabled this allows map authors to set the numeric ID's accordingly.   Can this data frame property be read in Arcpy to determine if an MXD is using this setting? Can arcpy access the layer ID thru the layer object?   Thanks for any info Ronnie ... View more

ArcPy functionality using and detecting Query Layers is very limited.   Identification - In the arcpy.mapping module there is no proper way to identify a query layer. There should be a method or property to identify the layer in question is a query layer. Update Query - In the arcpy.mapping module there is no ability to modify the query portion of the query layer. repathDataSource - This method does not work properly for Query Layers especially if the database name has changed. Using SQL Server the database name is part of the query and this method does not update the database inside the query layer properties. This could be dealt with if updating the query was possible but currently it is not so repathing a map document using query layers with differing databases is not an easy task or nearly impossible. ... View more

ArcPy functionality using and detecting Query Layers is very limited. Identification - In the arcpy.mapping module there is no proper way to identify a query layer. There should be a method or property to identify the layer in question is a query layer. Update Query - In the arcpy.mapping module there is no ability to modify the query portion of the query layer. repathDataSource - This method does not work properly for Query Layers especially if the database name has changed. Using SQL Server the database name is part of the query and this method does not update the database inside the query layer properties. This could be dealt with if updating the query was possible but currently it is not so repathing a map document using query layers with differing databases is not an easy task or nearly impossible. ... View more