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Introduction to Job Tracking for ArcGIS (JTX) version 3.0 Transcript
Copyright © 2006 ESRI
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Presenter: Sandi Schaefer ESRI Washington, DC
Co-Presenter: Malcolm LobleyESRI Redlands, CA
Introduction to Job Tracking for ArcGIS
(JTX) version 3.0
Hi, my name is Sandi Schaefer and I'm an instructor with the Educational Services team in
Washington, DC. Joining me today is Malcolm, a product specialist for Job Tracking with
ArcGIS. We would like to welcome you all to today's live training seminar, An Introduction to
Job Tracking for ArcGIS.
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Seminar overviewTopics
What is job tracking?Tracking jobs with JTXCreating a workflow
FormatEach topic followed by a software demonstration, review, andQ & A session
In today's seminar, we will be discussing job tracking. We will start by defining job tracking, then
we will talk about how you can use JTX to track and manage jobs in your organization. Finally,
we will talk about how to set up a work flow for a specific type of job. Throughout the
presentation, we will be discussing how to use Job Tracking for ArcGIS. We will conduct
software demonstrations and we will have review periods followed by question and answer
sessions, during which time, Malcolm will answer some of your questions.
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What is job tracking?
So let's begin with answering the question, what is job tracking?
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What is job tracking?Process of monitoring and documenting GIS tasks
Start date and timeWho has performed the work?Which tasks need to be completed? • Map production, editing, analysis, etc.
In a GIS environment, job tracking is the process of monitoring and documenting work that is
being completed. You, as the manager of a GIS project, might be interested in knowing when a
job was started, who has been involved with doing the work, and what tasks thus far have been
completed. The tasks we are talking about can be just about anything—data production, map
creation, or even data analysis.
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What is job tracking?Process of monitoring and documenting GIS tasks
Start date and timeWho has performed the work?Which tasks need to be completed? • Map production, editing, analysis, etc.
Challenges of trackingNeed to monitor work without interfering or encumbering the process• Behind the scenes• Allows for user interaction when needed
There are challenges associated with tracking and monitoring GIS jobs. The desire is to be able to
monitor the time spent on projects without the monitoring process interfering with the work being
done. A true job tracking system should mostly operate behind the scenes, gathering the needed
information automatically, while allowing for user interaction when needed.
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What is job tracking?Process of monitoring and documenting GIS tasks
Start date and timeWho has performed the work?Which tasks need to be completed? • Map production, editing, analysis, etc.
Challenges of trackingNeed to monitor work without interfering or encumbering the process• Behind the scenes• Allows for user interaction when needed
SolutionJob Tracking for ArcGIS (JTX)
A few years ago, ESRI began offering a solution to the traditional challenges of job tracking. It's
called Job Tracking for ArcGIS, also known as JTX.
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\
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What is JTX?System integrated into ArcGIS to track and manage jobs and workflow
Well, what is JTX you ask?
It is a system that is integrated into ArcGIS to help you track and manage the work being
performed in your organization.
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What is JTX?System integrated into ArcGIS to track and manage jobs and workflow
Solution to past challenges of job tracking
Its integration into ArcGIS makes it a solution to the past challenges of job tracking. It performs
many operations behind the scenes, gathering information—such as date and time stamps—so
that the end user doesn’t have to. It also has an interface that acts as a center point for the work
being done and the information that is being shared.
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What is JTX?System integrated into ArcGIS to track and manage jobs and workflow
Solution to past challenges of job trackingProduct definition
Enterprise GIS workflow management system• Organization-wide project management
The actual product definition that you will see for JTX is that it is an enterprise GIS workflow
management system. I want to take a minute to break down that definition.
Enterprise refers to something that is organization wide, where you will potentially have multiple
people accessing and using the same data.
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What is JTX?System integrated into ArcGIS to track and manage jobs and workflow
Solution to past challenges of job trackingProduct definition
Enterprise GIS workflow management system• Organization-wide project management • Establishes what needs to be done
Workflow means that you can use JTX to establish processes or tasks that need to be done.
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What is JTX?System integrated into ArcGIS to track and manage jobs and workflow
Solution to past challenges of job trackingProduct definition
Enterprise GIS workflow management system• Organization-wide project management • Establishes what needs to be done• Documents progress and information about work
And Management refers to the ability to document progress and information about the work being
completed.
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What do I need?ArcGIS – ArcEditor or ArcInfo license
ArcGIS Desktop
Desktop GIS
+ ArcGIS ExtensionsArcMap
ArcCatalog ArcReader
ArcEditor
ArcView
ArcInfo
So, what do you need to use JTX? First off, you need to have either an ArcEditor or ArcInfo
license level of ArcGIS Desktop.
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What do I need?ArcGIS – ArcEditor or ArcInfo licenseArcSDE
ArcSDEAdvanced spatial data server
ArcGIS Desktop
Desktop GIS
+ ArcGIS ExtensionsArcMap
ArcCatalog ArcReader
ArcEditor
ArcView
ArcInfo
Because it is an enterprise system, you also need to have ArcSDE (the spatial data extension for
ArcGIS).
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What do I need?ArcGIS – ArcEditor or ArcInfo licenseArcSDE
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)• Oracle, SQL Server, Informix, DB2
RDBMSArcSDEAdvanced spatial data server
ArcGIS Desktop
Desktop GIS
+ ArcGIS ExtensionsArcMap
ArcCatalog ArcReader
ArcEditor
ArcView
ArcInfo
One of the requirements for ArcSDE is that you have a relational database management system
(an RDBMS). This means that you are storing your data in Oracle, SQL Server, Informix, or
DB2.
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What do I need?ArcGIS – ArcEditor or ArcInfo licenseArcSDE
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)• Oracle, SQL Server, Informix, DB2
Job Tracking for ArcGIS (JTX)An extension of ArcGIS
RDBMSArcSDEAdvanced spatial data server
JTXArcGIS Desktop
Desktop GIS
+ ArcGIS ExtensionsArcMap
ArcCatalog ArcReader
ArcEditor
ArcView
ArcInfo
The last piece of the puzzle is JTX, an extension of ArcGIS.
I should mention that as a manager, you don’t need to know everything there is to know about
SDE and your RDBMS to use JTX.
You need to have someone on your staff who can manage and maintain SDE and your database.
But to actually use JTX, project managers really only need to have a working knowledge of the
concepts of data management with SDE.
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Key JTX termsJob type
Type of work being performed• Data production/updates• Creating map products• Data analysis
Thus far, we’ve talked about what job tracking is, and I’ve introduced you to our featured
product, Job Tracking for ArcGIS. Now let's define a few key JTX terms.
First, job type—this is the type of work that is being performed. You can think of it as the
projects or products your company or organization creates or manages.
As mentioned earlier, job types can be just about anything, such as data production and editing,
creating cartographic map products (like a series of tax maps for county assessors' offices), or
performing spatial data analyses.
You can have multiple job types in your organization.
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Key JTX termsJob type
Type of work being performed• Data production/updates• Creating map products• Data analysis
Job type: Boundary mapping
To give a specific example of a job type, let's say that we are a natural resources GIS agency in
West Virginia and one of our duties is to be responsible for mapping the locations of wildlife
conservation areas. We would create a job type called boundary mapping.
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Key JTX termsJob type
Type of work being performed• Data production/updates• Creating map products• Data analysis
Job Unit of work• Located in a designated area
Job type: Boundary mapping
Our next term is "job." This refers to a specific unit of work which is associated with a designated
area, called the Area of Interest (an AOI).
The term "job" answers the question, where is the work being done?
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Key JTX termsJob type
Type of work being performed• Data production/updates• Creating map products• Data analysis
Job Unit of work• Located in a designated area
Job: Boundary updates forthe Bluestone WMA
Job type: Boundary mapping
In our West Virginia example, let's say we received some updates for one of the conservation
areas in southern West Virginia, the Bluestone Wildlife Management Area.
Our job type is still going to be boundary mapping, and our job is the area around the
Bluestone—the location where the updates are needed.
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Key JTX termsJob type
Type of work being performed• Data production/updates• Creating map products• Data analysis
Job Unit of work• Located in a designated area• Can have multiple jobs (areas) per job type
Job: Boundary updates forthe Bluestone WMA
Job type: Boundary mapping
I should mention that for this particular example, we have just one job for our job type, but you
can (and often will) have multiple jobs for your job types.
It just depends on how the work is broken up or shared in your organization.
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Key JTX termsJob type
Type of work being performed• Data production/updates• Creating map products• Data analysis
Job Unit of work• Located in a designated area• Can have multiple jobs (areas) per job type
UserPeople assigned to perform work
Job type: Boundary mapping
Job: Boundary updates forthe Bluestone WMA
The last term I want to define for you is the term "user." These are the people assigned to do the
work.
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Key JTX termsJob type
Type of work being performed• Data production/updates• Creating map products• Data analysis
Job Unit of work• Located in a designated area• Can have multiple jobs (areas) per job type
UserPeople assigned to perform workOrganized into groups based on responsibility
Job type: Boundary mapping
Job: Boundary updates forthe Bluestone WMA
In JTX, users are categorized into user groups based on their responsibility or their role in the
organization. Are they a manager or a digitizing technician, for example.
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Street data layer updates to include new streets being built for new shopping center
A sample job
Through out this presentation, we are going to use the following scenario:
We are a government mapping agency in Washington, DC that has just been informed about
construction for a new shopping center. With the shopping center, some new streets are going to
be added to accommodate the traffic. So we need to update our street data layer to stay current
with the construction.
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Street data layer updates to include new streets being built for new shopping centerWhat is the job type?
Transportation or street updatesHas predefined steps for completion
A sample job
Steps
Job type
To review our JTX terms:
The job type for our scenario is transportation or street update. We’re going to call it street
updates.
We’ll talk more throughout the presentation about how to create job types. But for now I need to
tell you that every job type has predefined steps that guide the completion of the work.
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Street data layer updates to include new streets being built for new shopping centerWhat is the job type?
Transportation or street updatesHas predefined steps for completion
What is the job?Location around the shopping center
A sample job
Steps
Job type
Job
Our job will be the areas around the shopping center where the new streets are being added.
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Street data layer updates to include new streets being built for new shopping centerWhat is the job type?
Transportation or street updatesHas predefined steps for completion
What is the job?Location around the shopping center
Which users are involved?Manager• Receives the request and creates the job
Digitizing technician• Performs the updates
Quality control technician• Reviews the updates
A sample job
Steps
Job type
Job
The users in our scenario agency are organized into three user groups: managers, digitizing
technicians, and quality control technicians. Managers set up the jobs, technicians perform our
updates, and QC techs verify that the updates are correct.
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Software demonstration
So, let's go to our first software demonstration. In this demo, I'm going to introduce you to the
JTX framework. With JTX, you not only get tools added to ArcMap and ArcCatalog, but you also
get two new interfaces. The interfaces are the JTX Configuration Manager and the JTX
Application. The JTX Configuration Manager, which we are looking at now, is where you will go
to customize JTX so that it is optimized to suit the needs of your organization. We'll talk about
this interface in more detail in the last part of today's seminar.
The JTX Application is really the heart of JTX. I say that because this is the interface that your
users will interact with on a daily basis. It's the gateway, if you will, to the tasks that the users
need to complete in ArcMap and ArcCatalog. As a manager, you can use the JTX Application to
see what is being done throughout your organization. If, for example, I want to see what jobs
have been created, I can click the All Jobs in my query list and I see the jobs that I have created in
my organization. Here, I can see that one of my jobs is signed out to the QA/QC group and I have
another that's signed out to my Technicians group. These jobs are waiting for people from those
specific groups to take them and work on them. The last three jobs that I have are actually
assigned to specific users.
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Now, if I click on or select one of my created jobs, I can actually get to the properties of the
information that's being stored in JTX for that job. For example, I can tell that this JOB_16-Demo
1 is created from a job type that is a street update. It's listed here inside of the general box. I can
also see that the start date for this job was February 23rd; the due date when this job should be
completed is February 28th. I also see that this job in fact was started on February 23rd. If I scroll
down, I can see a description of this job that tells me about what the work that is being
completed. Here, I see that this is another street update, but it's for a new pharmacy that's being
built over on 9th Street. If I want to see where the job location is, I can click the AOI tab. I'm
going to get a base map that shows me general information about DC. This base map is
configured in the Configuration Manager. I also see the actual area where 9th Street is located. If
I want to see what has been done so far on this job, I can go to the Job History tab. This is going
to tell me what has been done. I can see that the job has been worked on by just one user, that's
myself. This is because this particular job was created for demo purposes; however, in a real
world scenario, you would actually have several different people that interact with the job at
different times.
If I was a technician using JTX, I would be looking at this information to gain an understanding
of what I'm going to be working on and what I need to do. As part of that investigation, I'd go to
the Workflow tab. The workflow comes from the job type and tells me what needs to be done to
complete the job. In the workflow of an active job, the yellow step, such as edit data, indicates the
active step. If I go and click the Run button, it's going to execute my active step. Now, what JTX
is doing right now is it's opening ArcMap. It's setting up all the preconfigured properties for my
job. It's loading my data, setting up my symbology, and it's going to zoom me in to my area of
interest for the job so that I can perform the needed edits. All of these settings are preconfigured
for me based on the job type in the Configuration Manager.
Let me minimize ArcMap here so you can see the entire display. As a technician, I have
everything I need to do my edits. I have all my data layers. I'm zoomed to where I need to work;
really, all I need to do is start editing. When I'm done, I simply save my edits and exit out of
ArcMap. There are some tools on the JTX toolbar which we see located here that I can use to get
information on my job while I'm in ArcMap. For example, I can go to the Job Properties button,
and get a listing of all the properties, the same properties that we saw in the JTX Application for
this job. Or, if I wanted, I can get the job history by toggling on the Job History button. As you
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can see, JTX has logged a record for when I actually executed the edit data step. We started this
step at 3:15 and it was started by myself.
I'm going to go ahead and close ArcMap now. I'm not going to save any of the changes to the
MXD that JTX created for me. I haven't made any changes and the next time I execute the edit
data step, I'll get the same exact set up for my MXD. When I exit out of ArcMap, I'm returned to
the JTX Application. Thus far, we've talked mainly about how an end user such as a technician
would use this application. In the upcoming section, we're going to talk about how a manager is
going to use the Application to gather information that has been tracked for the job.
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Review and Q & AWhat is job tracking?Job Tracking for ArcGIS (JTX)
RequirementsKey termsSample job
In this section we answered the overall question, what is job tracking?
We also introduced you to a tool from ESRI called Job Tracking for ArcGIS (JTX) that helps to
overcome the past challenges of tracking GIS jobs.
We discussed the requirements for JTX, some key terminology, and a sample job that we will be
revisiting throughout the rest of the seminar. In the software demo, you saw how JTX is truly
integrated into ArcGIS.
I will now turn the seminar over to Malcolm, who's going to be answering some of your
questions.
Thank you, Sandi. We've got some really good questions coming in here. We'll start out with
Alexis from Salt Lake City who asks, "Do we need to know programming to configure and use
JTX?"
No, you don't. JTX is a highly configurable tool just by using the applications that we provide for
you, and Sandi will go into more detail about that later in this seminar. You can see that you can
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actually do a lot of things without actually doing any programming, but you can extend and add
to the software by putting programming into your steps and automating some of your workflows
for you.
Ivy from Atlanta asks, "After the AOI has been defined, can you redefine at a later date?"
Yes, you can redefine area of interest multiple times. If your area of interest changes throughout
the job, you can go in and remodify the area of interest assuming that the user has the privilege to
actually make that change.
Eric from Minneapolis asks, "Can any statistical summary operations be performed on the job for
users, such as how many total jobs pending?"
We can actually run reports on the tables on JTX using Crystal Reports. You can generate any
type of report you want from this information. It's all stored inside unversioned tables in the
database.
Mike from Nashville asks, "Must features edited in a JTX workflow be stored in an ArcSDE
geodatabase?"
No, they don't have to be in a geodatabase, but if you want to store a lot of transactions, as you'll
see Sandi show later on, you will need to actually have those features inside a versioned ArcSDE
geodatabase. But you can use JTX to help you work with jobs that aren't necessarily with
ArcSDE. Sandi?
Thank you, Malcolm.
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Tracking jobs with JTX
Now let's talk about tracking jobs with JTX.
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Getting startedCreated per the job type
Before we can track a job, the first thing we need to talk about is how jobs are created. The
creation process is done in the JTX Application.
When creating a job, you first need to choose the job type.
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Getting startedCreated per the job type
Single job Multiple jobs (batch)
Once you have selected your job type, you need to decide how many jobs you want to create. Are
you setting up work that is going to be conducted for just one location (a single job)? Or are you
going to have several locations for the work that is being done? JTX gives you the ability to
create multiple jobs at once (this is called batch job creation).
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Getting startedCreated per the job type
Single job Multiple jobs (batch)
Set job properties
Now, the job (or jobs) will inherit some of its properties, such as the steps that need to be
completed from the job type. But, there are some properties that you can set during the creation
process so that they are customized for that particular job.
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Getting startedCreated per the job type
Single job Multiple jobs (batch)
Set job propertiesAssignment• User group• User
You can specify the user that is going to be assigned to that job. Or you can assign it out to a user
group. This puts the job into the pool or queue, so that anyone in that user group can see it and
choose to work on it.
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Getting startedCreated per the job type
Single job Multiple jobs (batch)
Set job propertiesAssignment• User group• User
Time frame• Required start time• Stop time
You can specify the time frame for the job. The time frame indicates the date by which the job
needs to begin and end.
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Getting startedCreated per the job type
Single job Multiple jobs (batch)
Set job propertiesAssignment• User group• User
Time frame• Required start time• Stop time
PriorityDescription
You can also specify a priority level and provide a description for the job. The description is
helpful in differentiating the different jobs.
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Workflow comes from the job type
Job property - workflow
One property associated with a job is its workflow. This property is inherited from the job type,
but it can’t be modified during the job creation process.
The workflow is a key part of a job, and I want to take a minute to talk about it and how it can be
used for tracking the status of a job.
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Workflow comes from the job type Our job type is street updates
Job property - workflow
In our scenario, our job type was street updates. You can see from the workflow here that the
steps that have been specified for that job type. When we create our job, these are the steps that
become the workflow our users will follow to successfully complete the updates.
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Workflow comes from the job type Our job type is street updates
Specifies what needs to be doneOrder
Job property - workflow
Not only does the workflow specify what needs to be done, it also dictates the order for
completion.
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Workflow comes from the job type Our job type is street updates
Specifies what needs to be doneOrder
Managers use of workflowSee the status of a job• What has been done• What is still left to do
Job property - workflow
From a manger’s perspective, when you are viewing a job in the JTX Application, you can use
the workflow to assess the job’s status. The active step is colored yellow, and by looking at the
active steps you can see what has been done, and what is yet left to do.
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Workflow comes from the job type Our job type is street updates
Specifies what needs to be doneOrder
Managers use of workflowSee the status of a job• What has been done• What is still left to do
JTX automatically logs job activity
Job property - workflow
It is important to realize that as your users are progressing through the workflow, JTX is
documenting (or logging) any activity that has occurred on the job.
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What has been done?Job History tab
Logs everything that has happened through life of job• Creation• Assignment• Step initiation and/or completion
Time and date stamp
You can see the log in the Job History tab of the JTX Application. Everything throughout the life
of the job is logged, starting from when the job was created to when the job is completed.
The job shown here is in the process of being edited. We know that because it’s the last entry in
the Job History.
Not only is the activity logged, but the time and date are recorded as well.
For example, with this job, we see that it was created on the 9th by Sandi (myself). And after
doing some updates to the properties of the job, I assigned it out to Malcolm, who started doing
edits on the job on the 11th at 9:08 in the morning.
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Which edits have been made?Transaction feature history
JTX also records what is called a transaction feature history. This is a documentation of the edits
that have been made to the data.
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Which edits have been made?Transaction feature history
Feature-level changes Before
After
Transactions can be defined as feature-level changes in the geodatabase. For example, if we
modify a road and posted those changes, JTX would record a transaction indicating what the road
looked like before and after the edit.
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Which edits have been made?Transaction feature history
Feature-level changesStores which changes are made• Added• Modified
Geometry and attributes• Deleted
Before After
Before
After
With the transaction records, you can see when a new feature was added or how an existing
feature was modified. Changes to both the geometry and the attributes are recorded. Geometry
changes are recorded as changes in the shape and can be visually observed. Attribute changes can
be seen by looking at a tabular report of the attributes before and after.
Also, when a feature is deleted, a transaction is recorded.
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Which edits have been made?Transaction feature history
Feature-level changesStores which changes are made• Added• Modified
Geometry and attributes• Deleted
Viewing transactions• Using ArcMap tools• Exported to XML
Before After
Before
After
Transactions can be seen in ArcMap using the tools on the JTX toolbar, or you can export an
XML file of the transactions using tools provided in the JTX Configuration Manager.
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Is there additional information?Notes, attachments, and holds
Getting information from a job doesn’t always come from tracking and monitoring the
completion of steps. You may find that there is additional information that you need to record or
have documented throughout the life of a job. The information I am referring to is specific to the
job as a whole, something that is not related to a particular step. This is done in JTX through the
use of notes, attachments, and holds.
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Notes, attachments, and holdsNotes tab• Arbitrary text area
Is there additional information?
Notes are sort of like post-em’s. These are general text information that need to be temporarily
documented. In the JTX Application, there is a Notes tab where you would read a note or post a
note for the users. Notes can be changed at any time.
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Is there additional information?Notes, attachments, and holds
Notes tab• Arbitrary text area
Attachments tab• Associates a document with a job
Attachments are a little more formal type of communication. With attachments, you can share
documents with your users. Some examples might be a Word document of instructions, the
proposal for doing the work, or a scanned map to use while digitizing.
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Is there additional information?Notes, attachments, and holds
Notes tab• Arbitrary text area
Attachments tab• Associates a document with a job
Holds tab • Suspends a job for an indefinite amount of time
The Holds tab is used when you need to suspend work on a job for an indefinite amount of time.
Examples of reasons to hold a job could be insufficient funding to complete the work; maybe
technical problems or missing data; or possibly, you’ve encountered a lack of resources and no
one is available currently to work on the job.
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More communicationNotifications
Messages sent from JTX to individuals after specified events• When step is completed; when job is finished
Sent via e-mail to subscribed users
Another form of communication available in JTX is called notifications.
With notifications, JTX is enabled to send messages via e-mail after specified events. So, as the
manager, I might want to receive an e-mail after the QC has been performed on the update that
indicates that all the work is complete for that job. Or, you can set up JTX so that when you
create new jobs and assign them out to specific people, those users will receive an e-mail telling
them about the new job.
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Software demonstration
Now, let's go to our second software demonstration. In this demo, I want to give you a more in-
depth look at tracking jobs using the JTX Application. As we saw in the last demo, we currently
have several jobs that are already created and active but we're actually going to step through the
process of creating a new job. To do this, I'm going to click on the Create Job button.
My first decision that I have to make when I create this job is, what job type am I going to be
using? Our job that we're creating is going to be for our scenario that we've been chatting about,
the street updates for the new shopping center. So I'm going to select Street Updates from the
drop-down list of job types. Another thing I need to decide is how many jobs am I going to be
creating. For this particular example, I'm only going to be creating one so I'm going to leave my
number here at 1.
Now, as we've discussed, my job is going to inherit a lot of properties from the job type. Some of
them I can modify here in the creation process so that they better describe what needs to be done
for this particular area. So I'm going to click on the More button to do that. I can see that this job
starts off with the job type being assigned out to the manager group, which means that someone
from that group will need to take the job to do the first couple of steps. Since I'm a manager and I
plan on doing those first few steps, I'm going to go ahead and assign the job out to me from the
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list of potential users. I'm also going to add some information to the job description. This
description here is a generic one that is inherited from the job type. But I want to add on some
information that helps me identify this particular job. So I'm going to add in that it's the "Street
additions for the Belson Shopping Center." I also want to adjust the start and stop dates. My start
date is good, but I'm going to change the due date so that it corresponds to when the actual center
is supposed to be completed. That date is on March 8th. All of my other properties are fine, so I'm
going to go ahead and click OK to create my job.
It's going to start me off on the Workflow tab. So if I wanted, I could actually get started working
on this job. But what I'm going to do is go to the Job Properties tab for just a minute. Here I can
see the information that I just provided. I can see my start date and my due date and I can see the
description that I just added. I'm actually going to scroll up here and I'm going to add a little bit
more information to the job name. I'm just going to add in "BelsonCenter" to the name and I'm
going to go ahead and click Apply to enforce the change on the job. What that does is that when I
click the All Jobs query, I can now see Belson Center in the name of that job query list.
Now, let's go ahead and go to the Workflow tab and see what the first step for the workflow is.
Define Area of Interest is the first step for this workflow. That means it wants me to create an
area or an extent that's going to define where the work is going to be performed. So I'm going to
go ahead and click the Run button to define that area of interest. I need to choose whether or not
I'm going to define that area from a map or by using source extents. I'm going to go ahead and use
a map. The base map that we see is actually configured in the Configuration Manager. It's set up
to help make this particular step faster because the majority of the data that I need to find the job
location is already available. However, if I do need more, I can click the Add Data button to add
in more information. I happen to know that the job for the Belson Center is located just a little bit
south of the bend here in the red line for the metro system, which is the DC subway system, if
you will. So I've drawn in my box and I'm going to go ahead and click Save to commit that area
of interest to my job.
When I click the Save button, I'm returned to the JTX Application and my workflow has
progressed to the next step. I could at this point assign the job out to a technician and let them get
started on doing the updates, but before I do that, I want to show you something that JTX has
been doing for me behind the scenes. If I go to the Job History tab, I can see that for every action
I took, a record has been made. For example, we started the creation process of this job at 3:29.
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We went to define the area of interest for this job at 3:31 and we finished defining the area of
interest at 3:31:07.
Now, in the lecture, we also talked about notes, attachments, and holds. Well, let's say that we
have plans for the construction. I can actually add that plan as an attachment so that my
technicians can use it for reference while doing the updates. So I'm going to go ahead and click
the Attachments tab. To add my attachment, I'm just going to click Add and I have to decide
whether or not I want to add it as a link or store it in the database. I'm going to add it as a link
because all of my technicians have access to the network drive. That drive is in this DemoData
folder and my plans are right here, this BelsonCenterPlans.pdf. I'm going to go ahead and say
Open. Those plans are now an attachment to my job. Now, what I'm going to do is go to the
Notes tab and add in a note for my users that lets them know that they need to use the attached
plan as a guide while digitizing. If I click Apply, it's going to commit my note and if I go back to
the Job History tab, I see a new record for when I added that note.
Now, before we end this demo, I want to show you the feature transaction history tools. So I'm
actually going to go to a job I have open inside of JTX already. This job is also a street updates
type job and there have been some edits already performed and posted by our technicians and
we're going to see what's been done. There are three tools that we can use to gather information
about the transaction histories: the Load JTX Transactions Layer, the JTX Transaction Inspector
by Graphics, and the JTX Transaction Inspector. To see the transactions, I'm actually going to
start with the Load JTX Transactions Layer button. What I'm going to do is I'm going to be
creating a new layer that gets added to my table of contents. So I need to give that layer a name.
I'm going to call it "Edits Job 5." I know it's Job 5 because that corresponds to the name of the
job in the map document. For the query, I'm going to say that I want the transaction layer to show
me all of the transactions where the Job_ID is equal to Job 5. When I say OK, I get that new layer
added to my table of contents and in my display area. I have all features that were deleted show in
red. All new features that have been added are shown in green and all features that were modified
shown in this blue color. Now, if I wanted to see the information about the deleted feature, I
would use the JTX Transaction Inspector by Graphics button and I would click on the feature that
I want to see the information for. I get an identifier inspector window that shows me the date that
the feature was deleted and the transactions type says it was in fact deleted. I can also see the
attributes of that feature before it was deleted. Now if I wanted to get information about the
feature that was modified, I could use the JTX Transaction Inspector. So I click on that button
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and I'll click on my modified feature. I get the same type of pop up. In this case I see the
transaction date and type and in the list here, I can see that it was the street name attribute that
was modified. It was M Street and now it's been changed to South M Street.
Transactions are a great way to document changes to the data. I'm going to go ahead and close the
demo now and return to the slide presentation.
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Review questionLocate the Review question link in the upper-left corner of your browser window. Click this link now.
Okay, before we go to the question and answer session, we're going to ask you a review question.
You'll need to locate the review question link to participate in answering.
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Review questionWhen creating a job, which of the following is not a property you will customize?A) Start timeB) Job typeC) WorkflowD) Users
To submit your answer, click A, B, C, or D, then click the Send button.
Your question is, when creating a job, which of the following is not the property you will
customize? The start time, the job type, the workflow, or the users? To submit your answer, go
ahead and click A, B, C, or D, then click the Send button.
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Review and Q & ATracking jobs with ArcGIS
Creating jobsWhat has been doneCommunication through JTX
In this section, we talked about the tools and information available for tracking jobs in JTX. We
talked about how you would create a job, then the different ways that you can see what events
have occurred for that job. We also talked about how you can set up JTX to send communication
automatically after a step has been completed. In the demo, you saw how the JTX Application
can be used not only as a starting point for your users to do their work, but also as a tracking tool
for the managers.
I will now turn the seminar over to Malcolm, who will answer some more of your questions.
Thank you, Sandi. I have some more really good questions. Rudy from Olympia asks, "Does JTX
create a separate map document or a collection of map documents for each job?"
Well, as you saw in the demo, when Sandi launched the edit data step, it actually created a JTX
document and that one document will be associated with the job for the life cycle of the job. If
you want to store more documents than that, you would have to use the attachments.
Heather from Vienna asks, "Are there significant changes to JTX 3 from the existing JTX
application?"
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Yes, there are. From 2.1 there are some major improvements to the software. Just to point out a
few things, obviously the workflow has changed a lot. In previous versions, you could only have
sequential workflows. Now you can have all sorts of complicated workflows. Attachments allow
you to add files to jobs. Queries are now completely configurable. You can add custom properties
to your job if you have extra information you want to store along with the job. Job dependency
allows you to model relationships between jobs and holds allow you to basically put a suspension
on the job for an indefinite amount of time. There are some major improvements and that's just a
few of them there.
Ken from Salt Lake City asks, "Is there a limit on the number of users per job?"
There's only one current user at any one time, but you can set up ahead of time assignment of
steps to certain users. This means that when this step is reached, the user of the job is assigned to
the user of the step. This allows you to basically auto-route the job to different people as the life
cycle continues.
William from Pittsburg asks, "Can the job history be accidentally deleted or modified without
job-related activities occurring?"
Actually, the only way to delete the job history is to delete the job itself. You can't delete
individual pieces of history, so that would never happen. So the only people allowed to delete the
job are those with certain privileges and the right software.
Then finally, David from Wellington asks, "Is transaction history preserved after a post reconcile
compress process, or does it save the transaction history to XML first?"
You're right in your second point there, David. If you were to post and reconcile or reconcile and
post, the changes are logged at the post point and they're stored as XML in an unversioned table.
So that won't be a problem if you compress after that. Those things would still be there in the
unversioned table. Sandi?
Great, thank you, Malcolm.
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Review question resultsTo view the results, click the Review question link in the upper-left corner of your browser window.
When creating a job, which of the following is not a property you will customize?
A) Start timeB) Job typeC) WorkflowD) Users
Now to revisit our review question—when creating a job, which of the following is a property
you will customize? The answer is actually C, workflow. There was a tie of 48% between those
who answered correctly at C and those who answered A. Start time is something that you can
customize when you create the job. I, however, chose not to in my example. The workflow cannot
be edited nor changed during the actual creation process, but it's something that if permitted, you
can modify once the job has been created.
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Creating a workflow
For our final topic, we will discuss how you will create a workflow for your jobs.
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What is a workflow?Operational aspect of the job
We learned in the last section that the workflow is a key component to a job. It provides a stable
set of steps that defines the operations that need to be completed.
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What is a workflow?Operational aspect of the job
What needs to be done?In what order?
It tells the users what steps they need to do and the relative order that they should follow to
complete them.
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What is a workflow?Operational aspect of the job
What needs to be done?In what order?
Highly beneficialStreamlined steps for completing tasksConsistent user experience• Less guesswork and more production
==
Creating workflows is highly beneficial because they provide a stable set of steps for your user.
This gives users a consistent experience and they spend less time guessing about what needs to be
done and more time actually doing the work. This pays off in an environment where often, time
equals money.
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What is a workflow?Operational aspect of the job
What needs to be done?In what order?
Highly beneficialStreamlined steps for completing tasksConsistent user experience• Less guesswork and more production
In JTX, it’s a property of a job type
In JTX, workflows are a property of a job type. So when you create a job, it is automatically
inherited.
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Where are workflows created?JTX Configuration Manager
In JTX, you would use the Configuration Manger to create your workflows.
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Where are workflows created?JTX Configuration ManagerUsed to customize JTX
Establish job types• Workflows
Set up users and user groupsManage user privilegesMore …
The Configuration Manager is the interface that allows you to customize JTX to fit your
organization’s needs.
In addition to creating your workflows, you’ll use the Configuration Manager to do things such as
creating job types and specifying your users and user groups. You can also manage user
privileges, which specify what a user can and cannot do in the JTX Application. These are just a
few examples of what you will use the Configuration Manager for.
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StepsMake up the workflow
Tasks that execute an action
Before we can talk about creating job types and workflows, we need to talk about steps. Steps are
important because they make up the workflow.
A step is a task—one that executes some sort of action from either the software or the user.
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StepsMake up the workflow
Tasks that execute an actionStep type
A step before it is added to the workflow
Before a step is included in the workflow, it is called a step type. There are several step types that
come with JTX that you can use to build your workflow. You can also create your own step types
if what you need to do is not readily available.
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Properties of step typesDescribe the type of step and required interaction
Name, description, execution
To create a step type, you need to specify its properties.
For example, here on the Profile tab for the Step Type, we can see that the name of the step is
Edit Data, and the description tells us that this step launches ArcMap with the data loaded for the
job type.
Another property of a step type is its execution.
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Properties of step typesDescribe the type of step and required interaction
Name, description, execution• Procedural: e.g., updating documentation• Executable: e.g., ArcMap is launched• Custom: e.g., calls a customized program or .dll
Many provided with JTX as developer samples
The execution specifies what happens when the step is run. There are three different types of
Executions:
Procedural is a manual step with no automated execution, such as a step indicating that the user
needs to update the documentation.
Executable launches an executable or an .exe file, such as ArcMap or possibly Microsoft Excel.
Custom Step Object calls a customized program or DLL—one that you have created, or one of
the developer samples provided with JTX.
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How to create a workflowCreate the job type
Job Types tab
Now that we know about steps, let's talk about how to create a workflow.
Workflows, again, are a property of a job type. You will first create a job type, or edit an existing
job type.
This is done on the Job Types tab shown here in the Configuration Manager. You’ll click the
Add button, then specify the properties for the job type to create a new one, or click the Edit
button to edit an existing job type.
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How to create a workflowCreate the job type
Job Types tab
Properties of a job type include its name and a description; some default information, such as the
start date and priority levels; maybe the layers you want to have loaded into ArcMap when it's
launched through the JTX Application; and the workflow for the job type.
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Create the workflowWorkflow tab of the Job Types dialog box
Drag-and-dropStep type “tree”Workflow canvas
1 Select step
The Workflow tab is where you create the workflow for the job type.
The canvas is very user friendly—it is designed as a drag-and-drop environment.
On the left of the canvas, you have a tree view of all the available step types that you can include
in your workflow. You’ll start by selecting the step you want to add to the workflow.
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Create the workflow Workflow tab of the Job Types dialog box
Drag-and-dropStep type “tree”Workflow canvas
1 Select step2 Drag
Drag it into the workflow canvas.
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Create the workflow Workflow tab of the Job Types dialog box
Drag-and-dropStep type “tree”Workflow canvas
1 Select step
3 Connect and verify
2 Drag
Then connect the step to the workflow.
The last thing you will do is verify the workflow. This is going to check to make sure that the
connections are appropriate.
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Types of workflows in JTXCustomizable to suit job type
There are different types of workflows that you can build in JTX 3.0. This helps to make the
workflow suit the needs of your organization.
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Types of workflows in JTXCustomizable to suit job type
Sequential• All steps are followed in specified
order
You can create sequential workflows, where all steps are followed in a logical order, from one
step to the next without deviation.
In the workflow listed here, the job starts with defining the Area of Interest, moves into
inventorying the source, flows through the version creation, and into editing and QC’ing the data.
The final step is a notice that is sent to the manager that lets the manager know that the job is
complete.
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Types of workflows in JTXCustomizable to suit job type
Sequential• All steps are followed in specified
orderConditional/branching• Allows for possibility that a task
might not be required• Decision making steps
Or, you can create workflows that are conditional or branching. These workflows allow for the
possibility that a task might not be required. If we look at the same workflow from the previous
slide, we can create a branch off of the Inventory Source step. This particular branch allows the
user to make a decision. If during the inventory process they find that there isn’t any inventory to
clip, then they can proceed down the workflow without clipping the imagery.
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Types of workflows in JTXCustomizable to suit job type
Sequential• All steps are followed in specified
orderConditional/branching• Allows for possibility that a task
might not be required• Decision making steps
Looping• Allows for steps to be repeated
Finally, you can create a looping workflow where steps can be repeated if needed.
In our example, the workflow can loop back from the QC to the editing if the QC technician
identifies errors in the update that need to be corrected prior to finalizing the job.
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Software demonstration
Now, let's go to our third and final software demonstration. In this demo, we're going to
investigate the JTX Configuration Manager. As mentioned, we use the Configuration Manager to
customize JTX to suit the needs of our organization. Right now, we are looking at the users who
have been granted access to JTX for these demos. If I go to the Step Types tab, I can see the steps
that have already been created to use in my workflows. These are all steps that are available with
JTX. If I select the Notify step type and click on Edit, I can see the properties of the step type. I
can see that the description of the step is that it’s a notification for when the job is completed. If I
go to the Execution tab, I can see that this is a Custom Step Object. It's one of the samples that
comes in the JTX developer sample kit.
Now, let's go take a look at the job types. There are two job types that have been created so far:
landbase edits and the street updates. The street updates is the one that we have been working
with in our scenario. But let's say I want to create another job type. To do that, I'm going to go
ahead and click Add, and I'm going to supply the properties of the job type. I'm going to keep
with our construction scenario that we have been using. But since I already have a job type called
street updates, I'm going to name this one "Construction Updates." And for the description, I'm
going to say these are "Updates for the street layer to stay current with construction." Now, I can
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actually go and set some of the default properties for my job type. These are the default properties
that are going to be inherited for my job when it's created.
So, if I were to create a job with this job type, right now, they would all have the start date of
February 23rd. That's fine; I'll go ahead and leave that. I can change my due date to whatever it is
I want the due date to be for all of my jobs of this job type.
Versions are an important concept in SDE. A simple definition of a version is that they represent
the master dataset at different periods of time. I actually have a version that I'm going to use,
called the Edit data version. All of the jobs that are created with this job type, I'm going to list as
a high priority. They're important and we want them to be done quickly. Now, for my assignment,
I'm actually going to assign this out to a User group. I'm going to assign it to the Managers group
because the first couple of steps are again, something that I'm going to want my manager to do.
Now, let's go and customize or set up our workflow. As I mentioned in these slides, we have the
steps over here on our left and our canvas on our right. We're going to set up a very basic or
simple workflow. So, we're going to start by defining our area of interest. I'm just going to drag
that to the canvas. Then we're going to edit our data. Then we're going to QC our data. And then
we're going to send a notification to our manager that lets him know that all of the steps have
been completed. Now, for each of these steps, I can customize the properties. I do that by clicking
on the Properties button and clicking on the step. For example, with this Define Area of Interest
step, I can choose to have this done by a Group or by a certain User. I'm going to go ahead and
assign it out to the Group. I can also specify whether or not this step is going to be run
automatically or if it's something that can be skipped. I don't want this step to be skipped. For my
workflow, it's a pretty important step, so I'm going to turn that option off. I do want to have this
step be a self-checking step, however, which means once the execution is complete, the workflow
knows that it can move on to the next step. I'm going to go ahead and say OK to these properties.
Ideally, you would go through and set the properties for all of these steps if you needed. Now that
I have my properties set, I can use my Connector button to connect from defining the area of
interest to the editing of the data; from editing to QC'ing of the data; and then from QC'ing the
data to notifying. If I click on the Verify Workflow button, it tells me that my workflow was
successfully validated, which is always good.
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If I wanted to create a looping workflow (like we saw in the slides) going from the QC data to
editing the data, I would use my Connector tool and I would just draw in a connection going from
QC'ing to editing. Then I would modify the properties of that connection and for the path name, I
would actually say, "Corrections required." Click OK and I now have a loop in my workflow. I
could at this point add more steps to the workflow, or I could configure more properties for this
job type. As you can see, the Configuration Manager is your interface to customize JTX. And the
workflow creation process is a user-friendly process. Let's go ahead and go back to our slides.
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Review and Q & ACreating a workflow
JTX Configuration ManagerJob typesStep typesTypes of workflows
In this final section, we talked about how you can create workflows for your organization.
Workflows are created in the Configuration Manager as a property of a job type. We also talked
about the step types that make up workflows, and the different types of workflows you can
create—sequential, branching or conditional, and looping. In the demo, you saw how we created
the workflow for our sample job type, street updates.
I’ll turn the seminar over to Malcolm one more time so he can answer your questions.
Thank you, Sandi. Some good questions here. Diego from Watsonburg asks, "How many steps
can you assign per user?"
There's actually no limit on the number of steps that you can assign. You can assign all the steps
in one workflow to a particular individual if you wanted to, but that would be kind of pointless in
terms of assigning steps. You'd want to assign them to different people. Otherwise, it just
assumes that the next step is going to be performed by the current user. There's no real limit based
upon that.
Ivy from Atlanta asks, "Does JTX actually track hours spent on a job as for billing purposes?"
Copyright © 2006 ESRI. All rights reserved. 86
Well, if you look back at how Sandi was able to look at the job history, you'll be able to see the
time and the user who created the job. And if Sandi were to complete the job, you'd also see that
date of when the job was completed so you'd be able to see the difference in time there. It also
stores a lot of information about what happened throughout the life cycle of the job and when it
happened and who it was performed by.
Fletch from Tampa asked, "Can I create a report of deleted items at the end of the year and show
them graphically?"
Yes, you can. Using the transaction loading tool that Sandi showed in ArcMap there, you can
actually query by dates and see how many and which features were deleted between these two
dates and you'll be able to see them graphically on the map. You could also create a tabular report
by running something like Crystal Reports on a transaction table.
Cynthia from Fairborn asks, "Is there an ArcObjects interface for JTX? If so, is it problematic
initiating a workflow when team data is received?"
Yes, there is a set of business objects that JTX is built on top of. So anything you've seen Sandi
do using the applications here can actually be reproduced using these business objects. As for
initiating a workflow, you can do that by any process you wanted.
Eric from Minneapolis asks, "If I already have an extensive SDE database set up with multiple
versions and I'm at 12 users, what would it take to implement JTX?"
Well, that's pretty much the perfect configuration there for JTX. You could just install the
software on your client machines and deploy the JTX system tables in your SDE instance. And
then all that would remain would be configuring the system to meet your own needs, so that
sounds like a pretty good set up there. Sandi?
Thank you, Malcolm. It looks like we're just about out of time.
Copyright © 2006 ESRI. All rights reserved. 87
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For more informationVirtual Campus training seminar
Introduction to ArcSDE
Instructor – led trainingIntroduction to the Multiuser Geodatabase
Managing a Versioned Geodatabase
JTX Specific training Contact Bruce Rowland at ESRI
Email: browland@esri.com
Here is a little bit more information for you. We do have some classes that you can take to help
learn and better understand ArcSDE, both on the virtual campus and through instructor-led
training. These are important concepts for when you're actually going to be using and managing
JTX. If you need JTX-specific training, you can contact Bruce Rowland at ESRI and his e-mail is
listed here.
We hope you enjoyed today's seminar, and on behalf of ESRI, I'd like to thank you all for
attending.
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