Latest Contributions by AlanDodson

‎11-13-2025

Sure. I think it's fairly well-explained above but maybe I've missed some details. The MD sits in an enterprise geodatabase. To connect to this geodatabase I have 2 sde connections - the first is what we refer to as a Creator connection. It is the most permissive and lets us do all the operations we need to when creating and modifying a MD. It also lets us publish an image service from this MD, so it passes through the analyzer step and successfully publishes to the image server. The other sde connection is what we refer to as a Viewer connection. It has less permissions - in effect it is 'read-only' so that users cannot change the underlying data. As I said, this is a strategy we are re-using from our Vector service conditioning and publishing. It is less permissive than the Creator, and fails to publish. It may be failing in the analyzer stage (which is our suspicion) or it may fail further on in the publishing. Our leading suspicion is that during the analyzer stage the software tries to use some SELECT functions to ensure the tables inside the database are good to go, but the SELECT functions are not inherently allowed. We don't get descriptive error messages to help us diagnose what is going on. We are now trying to change some permissions in the Viewer connection to see if that changes anything. Does this give a better impression about the connections I refer to?

‎11-08-2025

I posted this in the Image Server community on Thursday but no replies yet; maybe this community is better suited to assisting on this topic? Original post in Image Server community ----- I cannot publish an image service to my Enterprise Portal from a Viewer sde connection to my database. I can publish the same imagery from a Creator connection to the database. Is it just not possible to publish a mosaic dataset image service from a Viewer, or is there something wrong with my configuration? I'll provide as many details as I can below. I am using ArcGIS Pro 3.2.2. (I also have ArcGIS Pro 2.9.5 for this test). I have an enterprise geodatabase in an SQL Server (2016). From that geodatabase I have a Creator connection and a Viewer connection. These are created for me by our IT staff but have always worked as expected for publishing referenced vector layers. This is the first attempt for an image service. I've created a Mosaic Dataset using the Creator connection and done all my processing there (overviews, boundary, etc). No issues while doing any of the work. My source rasters are referenced and the UNC path is registered to the Image Server as a folder Data Store. The path is confirmed to be accessible by the server. Both my Viewer and Creator sde connections are registered as Database Data Stores on the Image Server. The Image Server is licensed. I am an Administrator of my Enterprise Portal which is at version 11.2. I also have a 10.9.1 Portal that I've used in this test (with Administrator). If I register the Viewer connection to the Hosting server I can publish vector features from the database without any issues To publish an Image Service I follow the Esri workflow: right-click on the MD in the Catalog pane and select 'Share as web layer', then fill out all the stuff and select the Image Server. When I do this from the Creator connection to the database, I can publish the image service without any issues. This works from ArcGIS Pro 3.2.2 to Portal 11.2 and also from ArcGIS Pro 2.9.5 to Portal 10.9.1. However, when I try to do this from the Viewer connection to the database the software either blows up (ArcGIS Pro 2.9.5) or returns an unhelpful 'Error publishing' from ArcGIS Pro 3.2.2. I cannot figure out what the issue is. I have 2 Esri on-site contractors helping me and they cannot figure it out either. My guesses are: 1. It is not possible to do this from the Viewer connection. Some dodgy AI prompts have told me this because publishing a MD is complicated and requires some SQL SELECT commands on various tables in the database during the Analyze part of publishing that aren't available at the Viewer level, but of course the dodgy AI does not cite any authoritative sources so I don't believe it about the reason (yet). 2. There is a permission issue with the Viewer connection that I am unaware of. We have no problems publishing referenced Vector datasets from Viewer connections but perhaps those are more basic than Mosaic Datasets to the image server... Does anyone have any advice on this? It would be very much appreciated. Happy to post more details if anyone has questions.

‎11-06-2025

I cannot publish an image service to my Enterprise Portal from a Viewer sde connection to my database. I can publish the same imagery from a Creator connection to the database. Is it just not possible to publish a mosaic dataset image service from a Viewer, or is there something wrong with my configuration? I'll provide as many details as I can below. I am using ArcGIS Pro 3.2.2. (I also have ArcGIS Pro 2.9.5 for this test). I have an enterprise geodatabase in an SQL Server (2016). From that geodatabase I have a Creator connection and a Viewer connection. These are created for me by our IT staff but have always worked as expected for publishing referenced vector layers. This is the first attempt for an image service. I've created a Mosaic Dataset using the Creator connection and done all my processing there (overviews, boundary, etc). No issues while doing any of the work. My source rasters are referenced and the UNC path is registered to the Image Server as a folder Data Store. The path is confirmed to be accessible by the server. Both my Viewer and Creator sde connections are registered as Database Data Stores on the Image Server. The Image Server is licensed. I am an Administrator of my Enterprise Portal which is at version 11.2. I also have a 10.9.1 Portal that I've used in this test (with Administrator). If I register the Viewer connection to the Hosting server I can publish vector features from the database without any issues To publish an Image Service I follow the Esri workflow: right-click on the MD in the Catalog pane and select 'Share as web layer', then fill out all the stuff and select the Image Server. When I do this from the Creator connection to the database, I can publish the image service without any issues. This works from ArcGIS Pro 3.2.2 to Portal 11.2 and also from ArcGIS Pro 2.9.5 to Portal 10.9.1. However, when I try to do this from the Viewer connection to the database the software either blows up (ArcGIS Pro 2.9.5) or returns an unhelpful 'Error publishing' from ArcGIS Pro 3.2.2. I cannot figure out what the issue is. I have 2 Esri on-site contractors helping me and they cannot figure it out either. My guesses are: 1. It is not possible to do this from the Viewer connection. Some dodgy AI prompts have told me this because publishing a MD is complicated and requires some SQL SELECT commands on various tables in the database during the Analyze part of publishing that aren't available at the Viewer level, but of course the dodgy AI does not cite any authoritative sources so I don't believe it about the reason (yet). 2. There is a permission issue with the Viewer connection that I am unaware of. We have no problems publishing referenced Vector datasets from Viewer connections but perhaps those are more basic than Mosaic Datasets to the image server... Does anyone have any advice on this? It would be very much appreciated. Happy to post more details if anyone has questions.

‎05-18-2025

+1 - fairly ridiculous that we can't do this in Pro. I'm on 3.2.2, still no sign on the functionality

‎05-02-2025

@TonyAlmeida I very much appreciate your keen eye in finding that. I was going crazy - it was a simple copy-paste when trying different options for the sync and I missed changing those two characters. Much appreciated, it solved this issue indeed. And I also provided a nice script if anyone wants to build it out for their needs 🙂 Future readers - change line 34 to be fc instead of fds

‎05-02-2025

I am having considerable frustration with updating metadata via scripting. I have an enterprise geodatabase with many feature datasets. Inside each feature dataset are many feature classes. All feature datasets and feature classes have metadata, which I need to update. There are 3 sources for my metadata (dynamically-defined items via scripting, synchronized properties, and a template) and I cannot get them to play nice with each other when it comes to displaying the extents of feature classes. Dynamically-defined items include the fd / fc title, summary, description and tags. Synchronized properties are extents, feature classes, fields, crs, etc. The template contains the credits, contact information (a few times), and other information - stuff that doesn't change regardless of what feature dataset or feature class is being shown. The most logical flow (in my head) is reflected in my current order of operations: Import template Update dynamically-defined items Synchronize With that flow, I've tried each of the metadata_sync_option choices; when using 'ALWAYS' everything syncs correctly for feature datasets, and everything syncs correctly EXCEPT Extent for feature classes. How can I get the Extents of feature classes to be properly shown? When I click the Synchronize button everything is perfect, but I need to do this via scripting. I've tried saving the metadata between steps, I've tried syncing before importing the template, after importing the template.... No joy. Here is a minimal example of my code import arcpy import os from arcpy import metadata as md sde_connection = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0) metadata_template_path = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(1) arcpy.env.workspace = sde_connection fds_list = arcpy.ListDatasets(feature_type='Feature') for fds in fds_list: fds_path = os.path.join(sde_connection, fds) fds_md = md.Metadata(fds_path) if not fds_md.isReadOnly: fds_md.importMetadata(metadata_template_path) # Here I add the metadata that is dynamically generated (title, summary, tags, etc) fds_md.synchronize(metadata_sync_option='ALWAYS') fds_md.save() else: arcpy.AddWarning(f"Metadata for {fds} is read-only") arcpy.env.workspace = fds_path fc_list = [] fc_list = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses() for fc in fc_list: fc_path = os.path.join(sde_connection, fds, fc) fc_md = md.Metadata(fc_path) if not fc_md.isReadOnly: fc_md.importMetadata(metadata_template_path) # Here I add the metadata that is dynamically generated (title, summary, tags, etc) fds_md.synchronize(metadata_sync_option='ALWAYS') fc_md.save() else: arcpy.AddWarning(f"Metadata for {fds}\{fc} is read-only") # reset workspace arcpy.env.workspace = sde_connection

‎05-21-2022

Ah, that logic makes total sense when I see it like this. I haven't had the opportunity to test this out yet but will do so ASAP. Will do some testing with longName as you suggested, my previous tries included this but didn't use the same logic as you did so might be an excellent building block. Thank you!

‎05-20-2022

Yes, fully aware of how to get and set the scale thresholds through the mapping module for individual layers. What I can't figure out is how to apply the thresholds from the group layer to every feature layer that falls within that group layer. I hope that clarifies. Any advice? As for why I'm attempting this - One reason (aside from being told to do so by a boss 😉 ) is that I have a requirement to make these projects more bulletproof so that if a layer gets moved out of place it's still being displayed correctly. I also have to output a config file that shows the properties of every layer and this is how I envision making the scales of grouped layers more easy to understand for some users.

‎05-20-2022

Can someone help me to solve this arcpy problem? I'm using ArcGIS Pro 2.5 if that helps. An example of my issue: I have 20 group layers. Inside each group layer are 20 feature layers (all vector). The grouping only goes one level deep (Group layer Roads --> Feature layer Highways, for example). Values for minScale and maxScale have been applied to the top-level group layers (which control visibility for everything in the group), but not to the feature layers within the group. Using arcpy I'd like to get the minScale and maxScale values from the top-level group and set those values to all feature layers within that group. A bonus would be if there was some operation that could comprehend what higher group layer is controlling the minScale / maxScale of a feature layer and apply that, but for now the rigid structure outlined above with just two levels will do. Can someone help me organize the logic and code around this problem?

‎03-13-2020

I figured out the problem and it was a stupid amateur mistake that I didn't see until now. I hadn't cleared a selection prior to running the cursor, so the cursor was only running on selected records. Clearing the selection allowed the cursor to run on the entire layer which is what I wanted. Such a silly mistake. Thanks to everyone David Pike Dan Patterson Jeff Kling for their help in organizing the code just a bit better. Here is the code I ended up using (although my original code would've worked just fine too if the selection was cleared beforehand): with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor (in_table="RoadsAnno", field_names=["Status","TextString"] as cursor: for row in cursor: if row[1] is None or row[1] =="": cursor.deleteRow() else: row[0] = 0 cursor.updateRow(row) del cursor‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

‎03-12-2020

No, I don't have access to the software at home in the evenings but I will try out in the morning. As I said in that paragraph however, the order of the updateRow and deleteRow statements didn't seem to affect the functioning of the last example where I changed the attribute to "DeleteMe"

‎03-12-2020

Ah yes, that was in the code originally - I was typing out this question from memory at home and forgot that line. I'll amend the question; thanks for the heads up.

‎03-12-2020

I have a fairly simple problem, and I've tried everything I can think of to fix it. I am using a data access update cursor in a larger script to update the value of one field, and if the other field is Null I want to delete the record. The update part works fine, but the delete part does not. My input data is an annotation feature class created by ArcMap (turn on labels, right-click layer, create annotation). Nothing fancy or complex. The annotation expression is stored in a field named TextString. If no annotation is created for the feature, the field is Null (as a default, all annotation classes created by ArcMap are nullable). When you look at it the attribute table it appears as <Null>. I cannot use a where clause in this case because of the first update. The following example should work as far as I can tell, but doesn't. with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor (in_table="RoadsAnno", field_names=["Status","TextString"]) as cursor: for row in cursor: row[0] = 0 cursor.updateRow(row) if row[1] is None: cursor.deleteRow() del cursor, row‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ (I also tried replacing "if row[1] is None:" with "if row[1] == None:" but no joy. "is None:" is the most proper way to write this according to my Python resources, though "== None:" still works (in other situations) So I then tried the following: with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor (in_table="RoadsAnno", field_names=["Status","TextString"]) as cursor: for row in cursor: row[0] = 0 cursor.updateRow(row) if row[1] is None or row[1] =="" or row[1] == "<Null>": cursor.deleteRow()‍‍‍‍‍‍ del cursor, row‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ I figured one of those statements would catch the Null value, but it did not. I then changed the value of a previously Null row in the RoadsAnno feature class to read "DeleteMe" (not in quotes) and ran the following just to test if the cursor was picking up the right field: with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor (in_table="RoadsAnno", field_names=["Status","TextString"]) as cursor: for row in cursor: row[0] = 0 cursor.updateRow(row) if row[1] is None or row[1] =="DeleteMe" or row[1] == "<Null>": cursor.deleteRow()‍‍‍‍‍‍ del cursor, row‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ The row containing the TextString attribute "DeleteMe" was deleted. So what's happening with the Null value? Would anyone be able to help with this? Why doesn't the cursor recognize the Null value in the field? Maybe Arc creates Null values with unseen characters or something that need to be stripped? EDIT: Do I have to put the updateRow statement after the deleteRow statement? Maybe the cursor is moving to the next row with the update and never gets the chance to delete? Although that wasn't the case for the "DeleteMe" example so perhaps this line of thought is not correct.

‎11-25-2019

Based on Randy Burton‌ 's reply, I used the following code in the validator which does exactly what I want. Thanks Randy! import arcpy class ToolValidator(object): def __init__(self): self.params = arcpy.GetParameterInfo() def initializeParameters(self): self.params[0].filter.list = ["Digital Map", "Paper Map"] self.params[0].value = "Digital Map" return def updateParameters(self): if self.params[0].value == None: self.params[0].value = "Digital Map" if self.params[0].valueAsText == "Digital Map": self.params[1].filter.list = ["Not applicable"] self.params[1].value = "Not applicable" self.params[1].enabled = False else: self.params[1].filter.list = ["1:10,000", "1:25,000"] if self.params[1].value not in self.params[1].filter.list: self.params[1].value = self.params[1].filter.list[0] self.params[1].enabled = True return def updateMessages(self): return‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

‎11-21-2019

Sorry for the late reply to this - I was moved to another priority job and just got back to my normal work today. I’ve tried things again and as far as I can tell it is working as expected with no changes. Perhaps I just needed to clear some cobwebs from my understanding of the issue. Regardless, thanks for helping out.

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Date Last Visited	‎11-13-2025 03:56 PM

My Ideas

Latest Contributions by AlanDodson

Re: Publishing Image Service from Viewer Connection to Enterprise Database

Publishing Image Service from Viewer Connection to Enterprise Database

Publishing Image Service from Viewer Connection to Enterprise Database

Re: Analyze Service in ArcGIS Pro When Using Sharing.CreateSharingDraft

Re: Issues with syncing metadata via Python

Issues with syncing metadata via Python

Re: Apply minScale/maxScale of group layer to all nested layers

Re: Apply minScale/maxScale of group layer to all nested layers

Apply minScale/maxScale of group layer to all nested layers

Re: da.UpdateCursor not deleting Null rows

Re: da.UpdateCursor not deleting Null rows

Re: da.UpdateCursor not deleting Null rows

da.UpdateCursor not deleting Null rows

Re: Validator error with lists and set values

Re: Python not recognizing special character in string

Re: Issues with syncing metadata via Python

Re: da.InsertCursor and Parsing Large Text file

Re: Intersecting Lists Problem

Re: da.UpdateCursor not deleting Null rows