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Road Ahead - Version Changes Viewer

Ever connect to a version of a Geodatabase and ask "How is this Version different" ? At ArcGIS 9.3 we added the Version Changes Viewer to the Versioning Toolbar to answer this very question. The Version Changes Viewer provides the capability to view the changes made to a version since it was created or last reconciled with an ancestor version.

This is useful because:

  • You can quickly see all the changes in a version without doing a Reconcile.
  • The tool can be used to see the changes just within the current edit session or current map extent.
  • You do not have to be editing to see what has changed in the version

How it works:

When the dialog is opened you select a version to compare changes with. The dialog lists all modified classes, inserts, updates and deletes, and allows you to view these in a similar experience to the interactive Conflicts Resolution dialog. It also allows you to view the changes made during your current edit session.

The Version Changes dialog will list all the changes made to the version for all layers in the map document based on the selected workspace. If the layer is not currently visible, changes on that layer will still be present in the dialog. Optionally, the changes can be restricted to only those changes in the present map extent by selecting the "filter changes using map extent" check box in the initial Version Selection dialog.

The Version Changes dialog box displays the number of changes that have been made to the version from the time it and the chosen target version were identical. The number of changes is subdivided by class, and then further subdivided into Insert, Delete, and Update categories. Clicking an ObjectID number shows its changes in the right window. All the attribute values for the two versions being compared and for their common ancestor are displayed. Attribute values displayed in bold signify that a change has been made to the version for that attribute.

Published Monday, May 12, 2008 1:53 PM by brentardenpierce

Comments

# Version Changes Viewer - Older ArcSDE

Will this work also when connecting to older (9.2, 9.1) ArcSDE?

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 1:35 AM by PeterNemec

# re: Road Ahead - Version Changes Viewer

In the Beta program, I asked if it was possible for this to report on all changes, not just for the data in the map document.  The reasoning is that editors may tell the person performing the quality control and/or reconcile and post that they only edited one feature class, when they may have accidentally modified something else to which they have edit rights.  Can you explain if this is or is not practical (performance limitations, etc.) as this is something I would still like to see.  In any case, this is still a nice addition to ArcMap for those of us who regularly review other user's work in a versioned geodatabase.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:14 AM by ssalas

# re: Road Ahead - Version Changes Viewer

Peter,

This tool will work with earlier releases of ArcSDE (9.2, 9.1, etc...), just need 9.3 ArcGIS Desktop installed.

-Brent

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:04 AM by brentardenpierce

# re: Road Ahead - Version Changes Viewer

This tool was intentionally designed to work with the layers that are in the table of contents (TOC) of a map document. That being said, you can still get the changes of layers which are currently "turned off" or "unchecked" in the TOC. With this in mind, it is possible to create a map doc of all the layers and have them all remain unchecked so you do not encounter the rendering cost.

Hope this helps,

-Brent

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:08 AM by brentardenpierce

# re: Road Ahead - Version Changes Viewer

This will be a great addition to core functionality!  Currently, with the Version Differences tool, there is an error message returned when the database contains more than one FDS with the same name (but owned by different profiles).  I am wondering if this tool is able to work around that particular limitation?  Our Agency has data standards in place so that any number of separate units will each own a Feature Dataset with the same name.  Being able to use this tool under those circumstances would be an excellent improvement!  Thanks, Clara

Thursday, November 13, 2008 12:10 PM by claradair

# re: Road Ahead - Version Changes Viewer

Clara,

Thanks for the feedback, we are hoping that this functionality will improve the overall experience when working with versions in ArcGIS.

In our testing the Version Changes Viewer worked fine if you model your data in this way. Please let me know if you see behavior to the contrary.

Thanks,

-Brent

Thursday, November 13, 2008 4:29 PM by brentardenpierce
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