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

Table Name	Field Name	Value Method	Value Info	On Create	On Change (Attribute)	On Change (Geometry)	Manual Only	Rule Weight	Comments
AutoWho	CURRENT_USER	U	1	1	1	1	0	<Null>
AutoDate	TIMESTAMP	DATE	1	1	1	1	0	<Null>

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

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

Pratfall category

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