Editing Overview

Introduction

With the ArcGIS Runtime SDK for WPF you can develop lightweight, focused mapping applications that let users edit geographic data. The API includes both fine-grained components and coarser grained controls and user interface components that help you add and enhance editing functionality in your applications. As the designer or developer of a custom desktop application you have complete control over how simple or how complex an editing experience you expose to your users.

When editing data you can add, move, delete, cut, union, and reshape features. You can also edit feature attributes. If you attempt to modify the same feature at the same time as someone else, the last edits submitted are the ones committed to the database.

For some editing workflows, it's a good idea to have an analyst using ArcGIS for Desktop periodically review the edits to verify data integrity. Although components in the API can perform some data validation, other tasks such as validating topologies cannot be performed.

How the editing works

Editing of geographic data is supported via feature layers in your application. Feature layers represent a collection of graphic features with a specific geometry type, intelligent attribute schema, predefined symbology and default feature templates. While editing, your application tells the feature layer which attributes have changed and, if applicable, how the geometry has changed. The feature layer also displays the updated features after editing. Edits can be applied immediately or you can explicitly commit edits at your discretion.

Feature layers depend on feature services. The feature service is just a map service with the Feature Access capability enabled. This capability allows the map service to expose feature geometries and their symbols in a way that is easy for applications to use and update. Unlike with map services, which have an ExportMap function to draw the map, visualization of feature services works completely from queries. The server returns the queried features to the client, then the client does the work of drawing the features in the feature layer. The feature services in your application can be online, hosted on ArcGIS Online or served by ArcGIS for Server, or they can be local to the client application provided by the runtime local server as a local feature service. For more information about feature services see Authoring feature services.

In addition to feature services, editing also involves and in some cases requires the use of a geometry service. The geometry service helps perform common editing operations such as creating, cutting, and reshaping geographic features. Before you use the Editor Widget, you need to create a geometry service on your ArcGIS for Server or use a public ArcGIS for Server geometry service or create a local geometry service on the runtime local server. When you create the Editor Widget, you must provide the URL to the geometry service. The control uses the service behind the scenes to support certain editing operations.