Creating a Geodatabase

By Sandra Schloen, June 2017

OCHRE supports the Esri Runtime geodatabase (.geodatabase) format as an effective means of packaging and distributing geospatial data for use in conjunction with the Esri tools (ArcGIS Java SDK) built into OCHRE. More details regarding this format are available via the ArcGIS documentation on creating runtime content but we will outline the steps below.

1. Start with an empty ArcMap session (using version 10.4.1 or later). From the menubar, go to Customize, ArcMap Options, the Sharing tab. Ensure that the Enable ArcGIS Runtime Tools checkbox under Packaging is checked on. This is a lesser known geodatabase format so do not assume that this has been enabled on your ArcMap installation.

2. Add the relevant map data to your ArcMap session. This can be from an MXD file or a geodatabase of the .gdb format. View the full extent of the Map.

Add map data

3. Ensure that the Attribute tables of the Layers to be included in the OCHRE geodatabase have a Field that identifies the items to OCHRE. By default, OCHRE looks for a field called "Name" but you can also tell OCHRE which alternate Field to consider instead. This Name field needs to contain either the Name, Abbreviation, or Alias of an OCHRE item in order for the corresponding shape to be available in OCHRE. Right-click the Layer to Open Attribute Table to check for such a Field.

Open Attribute Table

4. From the menu, select the File, Share As, ArcGIS Runtime Content option. (Note that this option will not be available if is is not enabled; see #1 above). This will pop up the ArcGIS Runtime Content dialog.

5. Browse to select the folder where the runtime geodatabase should be created.

6. Click the Analyze button. This will check for any errors in the map shapes or configuration and will report on any errors found. Study any Errors, Warnings, or Messages and resolve any problems before proceeding. Note some common pitfalls below. Repeat the Analyze process until there are no Errors or Warnings.

7. Click the Share button. You will be prompted to Save Map Document. Go ahead and save the document (ArcMap will save it as an ArcGIS ArcMap Document, .mxd), then let ArcMap proceed with preparing the geodatabase. It will report when it has finished.

Success!

8. ArcMap will create a sub-folder structure based on the name of the ArcMap document you saved. The resulting .geodatabase file is in the "data" sub-folder; this .geodatabase file needs to be copied to the server where OCHRE will be able to find it.

9. Back in OCHRE, create a Resource to represent this geodatabase file in the usual way. Make sure the Type of the OCHRE Resource is set to "geospatial."

10. Link the OCHRE Resource item representing the geodatabase to any Locations & Objects hierarchy on the Map Options tab of that hierarchy. If the Field used to name the OCHRE items in the corresponding Attribute Tables of the geodatabase layers is called anything other than "Name", identify that field to OCHRE. If there is no Table or Field specified, OCHRE will search the "Name" column (by default) of all the tables in the geodatabase, to find shapes for matching OCHRE items.

Now, in Map View, OCHRE will be able to find any items within that hierarchy which have been drawn and which have been appropriately identified (in a Name field, by Name, Abbreviation, or Alias) in the attribute table. These items will show with a checkbox in Map View, indicating that they can be toggled into View.

Common Pitfalls

  • Raster images cannot be included in a runtime geodatabase
  • All source shapes must be from features/shapefiles in the same folder ("workspace").
  • All shapes must be represented in the same spatial reference.