Editing form (Beginners Questions of using VB.NET)

[JoshBritton]

I'm looking to simplify the editing process of a feature class for a project I'm working on. What I have in mind is a tool that can be clicked and will open something like the mockup image below.  From what I understand the only way to do something like this is using the the .NET Framework?  I don't know VB or C#, but have done a little bit with python and basic scripting in linux (not GIS).



So my question is 1) is this to much for me to do? and 2) are there any examples of similar forms out there that I could look at to get an idea of where I need to start?

[DuncanHornby]

Josh

What you are asking is fairly easy, you could even knock up a form quickly in VBA.  But you should consider something else if stream lining data entry (and thus quality) is your prime concern, you should be using Domains.

One thing that will improve your data entry is to have your dataset as a FeatureClass in a GeoDatabase. You can then set domains on the beetle and release fields. You cannot do this for Shapefiles. This would control exactly what goes into those fields. Little drop downs appear on the Table in those fields.

Duncan

[JoshBritton]

Thanks for the reply.  I actually have already set domains, but I think that making it a little more straight forward would help with the data entry.  The other thing I have considered is trying to automate as much as possible, such as a county field and lat/long fields.

Any recommendations of examples of forms?  I haven't been able to find anything like what I'm picturing.

Thanks!

[DuncanHornby]

Josh,

In 9.3 the sequence would be to listen out for the onCreateFeature event in the IEditorEvents Interface. This gives you a handle on the the feature you just drew and through this you can gain access to the attributes of the feature which you update.

If you are using Domains on fields then you'll want to  access and read those values into your combobox on your form, check out the IDomain Interface.

If you are using 10 it maybe different as Templates now exist, not sure how they complicate things.

Duncan