Attribute Assistant

Attribute Assistant is an add-in for ESRI ArcMap written in C#

The version I am using was release January 2018

The good parts

• They are still releasing new versions (so far).
• The range of built in functions is pretty good.
• The documentation is so-so.

The horrible part

Expressions have to be written in VBScript, which is like stepping back in time about 15 years for me. I stopped using it everywhere when ESRI started supporting Python and (until today) I never looked back.

The stupid part

The word is that ESRI now wants me to learn and use "Arcade" which is not Python and not Javascript. I am delaying in the hopes that it goes away before I have to learn it.

Tricks and pratfalls

In case you have not looked at it yet, the way it works is that you put a table in your MXD called DynamicValue and then populate it with rules. The add-in fires the rules when the events are tripped.

A trick: populate the AutoWho and AutoDate attributes

Value Method	Value Info	On Create	On Change (Attribute)	On Change (Geometry)	Manual Only	Rule Weight	Comments
CURRENT_USER	U	1	1	1	0	<Null>

Putting U in the Value Info column makes it use only the user name, otherwise it puts DOMAIN\USERNAME which is ugly.

Value Method	Value Info	On Create	On Change (Attribute)	On Change (Geometry)	Manual Only	Rule Weight	Comments
TIMESTAMP	DATE	1	1	1	0	<Null>

Putting DATE in the Value Info column makes it use only the date, no time stamp, which is what I want.