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Introduction to Job Tracking for ArcGIS (JTX) version 3.0 Transcript

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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.

Copyright © 2006 ESRI. All rights reserved. 1

Copyright © 2004 ESRI. All rights reserved.

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.



What is job tracking?

So let's begin with answering the question, what is job tracking?



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.





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.





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.


\


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.




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.




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.





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.





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.



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.



What do I need?ArcGIS – ArcEditor or ArcInfo licenseArcSDE

ArcSDEAdvanced spatial data server

ArcGIS Desktop

Desktop GIS



ArcEditor

ArcView

ArcInfo

Because it is an enterprise system, you also need to have ArcSDE (the spatial data extension for

ArcGIS).




Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)• Oracle, SQL Server, Informix, DB2

RDBMSArcSDEAdvanced spatial data server

ArcGIS Desktop

Desktop GIS



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.




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



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.



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.





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.





Job Unit of work• Located in a designated area


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?





Job Unit of work• Located in a designated area

Job: Boundary updates forthe Bluestone WMA


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.





Job Unit of work• Located in a designated area• Can have multiple jobs (areas) per job type



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.






UserPeople assigned to perform work



The last term I want to define for you is the term "user." These are the people assigned to do the

work.






UserPeople assigned to perform workOrganized into groups based on responsibility



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.



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.



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.





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.





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.



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.


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


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.



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


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.



Tracking jobs with JTX

Now let's talk about tracking jobs with JTX.



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.




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).





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.





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.






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.






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.



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.



Workflow comes from the job type Our job type is street updates


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.




Specifies what needs to be doneOrder


Not only does the workflow specify what needs to be done, it also dictates the order for

completion.





Managers use of workflowSee the status of a job• What has been done• What is still left to do


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.





Managers use of workflowSee the status of a job• What has been done• What is still left to do

JTX automatically logs job activity


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.



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.



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.




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.




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.




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.



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.



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.




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.




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.



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.




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


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.


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


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.



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.



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.



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?"


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.



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.



Creating a workflow

For our final topic, we will discuss how you will create a workflow for your jobs.



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.




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.





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.





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.



Where are workflows created?JTX Configuration Manager

In JTX, you would use the Configuration Manger to create your workflows.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



Create the workflow Workflow tab of the Job Types dialog box


1 Select step2 Drag

Drag it into the workflow canvas.



Create the workflow Workflow tab of the Job Types dialog box


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.



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.




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.





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.





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.




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


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.


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.



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?"


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.



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: [email protected]

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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