Things to consider when preparing data to send to an ESS Support Analyst

Hi, my name is Chris W. and I am a Support analyst on the ArcGIS Server Team within ESRI Support Services (ESS). ESRI Support analysts often request data, as it can offer further insight into your suspected technical issue or software defect. When a technical issue is reproducible or an error is thrown during the execution of a specific step of your workflow, supplying the ESRI Support analyst with all the information necessary to extract your data and reproduce your issue helps to expedite incident resolution.

The data that an analyst is looking for will depend on your technical issue, and there are a few things that you can do to help move the incident towards resolution. Here are some key points to keep in mind when sending data to ESS.

• First and foremost, use relative paths for all data, and make the paths as simple as possible. For example, if your problem is dealing with your MXD freezing when you zoom to a certain scale, create a folder and place a copy of the data in that folder and a copy of the MXD referencing the data in the same folder. When you use relative paths, in this case, you can send the data to the analyst, they can extract it, and open the MXD and none of the data paths are broken. The analyst is ready to zoom in and see your MXD freeze. The same applies for models that are misbehaving, as well as many other situations. If, for some reason, the data paths are broken, we’ll step you through the process of correcting the paths, helping to save time and any possible frustration on your end.

• Along with using relative paths, consider sending a Microsoft Word document that has screen shots of your workflow with captions to help explain the steps being taken. As Kevin mentioned in the previous blog post, a picture is worth a thousand words. If it is something as easy to understand as zooming in to a certain scale, you can forget this bit of advice, but a technical problem that requires data being sent is rarely that simple.

• If you are not sure that you are sending the data correctly, send your ZIP file to another computer and extract your data. This is a great way to test your data and how it is compiled prior to sending it to an ESRI Support analyst. Likewise, we’re here to assist you and step you through the process if you are unsure how to send us your data.

Hopefully the information above helps you in helping us resolve your incidents more efficiently, and therefore contributing to your overall success with your GIS projects.

-Chris W., ArcGIS Server Support Analyst, ESRI Support Services