1. Juanita Cano City of Sacramento Spring 2014 Geography 375

2. Project Summary  The City of Sacramento has a GIS Archiving Interface that is maintained by the Department of Public Works, Engineering Services.  The Database currently contains only improvement plans but we are working towards including other plans.  Permits can be accessed by entering cross streets, addresses, or via an advance search based on the attribute fields.  Previously a VBA script was used to update the features created with attributes but it no longer worked with ArcGIS 10.1.  Three scripts were developed to replace our previous VBA script used to update the features created with attributes.  These scripts are passed values from the Arc Toolbox GUI that takes what is input from the user and then performs an update cursor to update the attribute values on the feature class with pertinent information for that specific feature which is then linked to the original scanned plans.

3. Purpose  The purpose of this project was to create my own Python Scripting tool to update attribute values for our Revocable Permits.  Currently the Python Scripting tools created were only used on polygon features. The tool I created updates a feature class represented with points, lines, and polygons.  Features are created and then the Script Tool is opened to add attribute information and a file path to scanned images of permits/plans.  The script created can then be used in the future to continue updating any Revocable Permits entered into GIS.

4. Script Overview  Create the Python Script then integrate with GUI.  The script created begins by listing some except: blocks that contain some print statements that involve the use of some variables needed to update the features as well as some rules in order for the tool to function correctly.  The script parameter arguments are used so that the parameters can be typed or passed from an application to the script.  When the tool is executed, the parameter values are sent to the script. The script reads these values and proceeds with its work.

5. Script Tool Interface

9. Graphical User Interface  Script is added to tool box and tool properties entered into dialog box.  Script file is selected with correct script for interface.  Display names for the field and data type are entered.  Parameters must match those of the script and be in the same order.  Keywords parameters are populated with a list of values that correspond to the keywords stored in a geodatabase in a table.  Script saved can be opened in ArcCatalog.

10. Script Tool in Use

11. Difficulties/Outcome  Modification and editing of the script to update other types of permits.  Understanding how the parameters worked from script to tool and visa versa.  Early set up of feature class in order to create the features with domains.  Project runs successfully.  Can now create a basic GUI for other types of geoprocesses.  Better understanding of what goes on in the background of script tools.  GUI can now be used to update Revocable Permits if needed.

12. Sources  City of Sacramento  Jennings, Nathan. A Python Primer for ArcGIS. 2011