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Composite configuration keywords

Composite configuration keywords
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The composite keyword is a unique type of keyword used when you want to store tables from the same network, terrain, or topology class in separate spaces. You would do this, for instance, if one table is much more active than the others or if one table in the class is much larger than the others.

Composite configuration keywords are subdivided into elements: the parent element, which does not have a suffix, and the composite keyword elements, which are demarcated by the addition of the ::<element name> suffix to the parent element’s configuration keyword.

You can create composite keywords of your own, but the ones present by default are the NETWORK_DEFAULTS, TOPOLOGY_DEFAULTS, and TERRAIN_DEFAULTS composite keywords.

For the NETWORK class, NETWORK_DEFAULTS is the parent class. The other elements of the NETWORK class composite keyword are NETWORK_DEFAULTS::DESC and NETWORK_DEFAULTS::NETWORK. When you use NETWORK_DEFAULTS for your network class, parameters and values are read from all three configuration keywords.

If you want to create your own set of network configuration keywords, you would create, for example:

NETWORK_HWY
NETWORK_HWY::DESC
NETWORK_HWY::NETWORK

As with all custom keywords, you would specify the storage values you want to use for special, nondefault network classes. In this example, you would specify NETWORK_HWY to create a network class, and ArcSDE will use the NETWORK_HWY, NETWORK_HWY::DESC, and NETWORK_HWY::NETWORK keywords.

If you do not choose a network class composite configuration keyword from the ArcCatalog interface, the ArcGIS network is created with the storage parameters within the NETWORK_DEFAULTS composite configuration keyword. See What is a geometric network? in the "Network analysis" section of the help to learn more about geometric networks.

The TOPOLOGY composite keyword controls the storage of topology tables. Your ArcSDE instance must have a valid topology keyword in the DBTUNE table for topology to be built. The TOPOLOGY composite keyword consists of the parent element, TOPOLOGY_DEFAULTS, and TOPOLOGY_DEFAULTS::DIRTYAREAS, which indicates where the DIRTYAREAS topology table will be stored. The DIRTYAREAS table can grow quite large and is very active in versioned geodatabases. Therefore, if your geodatabase uses topology and a lot of versioned editing takes place on the data, you will want to alter the parameter values of TOPOLOGY_DEFAULTS::DIRTYAREAS to store the DIRTYAREAS table components in a separate storage location; by default, they have the same storage settings as the topology table.

Be aware that datasets that participate in the same topology should use the same geometry storage type; if they do not, you may experience some topology errors due to slight variations in the way the data is stored. These variations are extremely small in most cases but could cause a violation of one or more of your topology rules. See the topic Topology basics in the "Working with geodatabase datasets" section of the help for an introduction to the topic of topology.

The TERRAIN composite keyword controls the storage of the following tables created for terrain datasets:

The ExtensionDatasetID# is the value in the ID field of the GDB_EXTENSIONDATASETS table for the particular terrain dataset. The OBJECTCLASSID# is the value in the ID field of the GDB_OBJECTCLASSES table for the dataset.

The terrain keywords are TERRAIN_DEFAULTS, which controls the default storage of the first four tables listed above, and TERRAIN_DEFAULTS::EMBEDDED, which controls the storage of the DTM_<ExtensionDatasetID#>_DISCONNECT_<OBJECTCLASSID#> tables.

DTM_<ExtensionDatasetID#>_DISCONNECT_<OBJECTCLASSID#> store embedded feature classes. For this reason, they could be much larger than the other terrain tables; therefore, you may want to alter the storage parameters of the TERRAIN_DEFAULTS::EMBEDDED keyword to store these tables in a different place or in a different sized extent, depending on the DBMS you use to store your geodatabase.

NOTE: Terrains can only be created if you have the 3D Analyst extension installed and active.

Composite keywords and geometry storage

The default composite configuration keywords do not contain a GEOMETRY_STORAGE parameter. As mentioned in the topic The DEFAULTS keyword, any necessary parameters that are missing from a specified keyword are read from the DEFAULTS keyword. This saves you from having to retype all the parameters and parameter values for every custom keyword you create.

However, this also means that if you are using an Oracle, SQL Server, or PostgreSQL database and want to use a geometry storage type other than that defined with the DEFAULTS keyword for your terrains, networks, or topologies, you need to create your own custom composite keywords for these that include the GEOMETRY_STORAGE parameter.

NOTE: In SQL Server databases, two additional sets of network, topology, and terrain composite keywords have already been added for you: one for the geometry storage type and one for the geography storage type.

For example, if you are using ArcSDE for PostgreSQL and you leave your DEFAULTS GEOMETRY_STORAGE set to ST_GEOMETRY but you want to occasionally store your topology tables using the PostGIS geometry storage type, you would create a set of topology composite keywords for the PG_GEOMETRY type. You would do this if you create some of your feature classes with the PG_GEOMETRY keyword and want to create a topology for these. Custom keywords for the topology might look something like the following:

##TOPOLOGY_PG_GEOMETRY
UI_TOPOLOGY_TEXT		"Topology setting for PG_GEOMETRY"
GEOMETRY_STORAGE	"PG_GEOMETRY"
A_STORAGE          "TABLESPACE pgtblspace"
B_STORAGE          "TABLESPACE pgtblspace"
D_STORAGE          "TABLESPACE pgtblspace"
END

##TOPOLOGY_PG_GEOMETRY::DIRTYAREAS
GEOMETRY_STORAGE	"PG_GEOMETRY"
A_STORAGE          "TABLESPACE pgtblspace"
B_STORAGE          "TABLESPACE pgtblspace"
D_STORAGE          "TABLESPACE pgtblspace"
END

In this example, the UI_TOPOLOGY_TEXT parameter is included to allow users to choose this keyword when creating topologies. The GEOMETRY_STORAGE parameter is set to PG_GEOMETRY so the dirtyarea and shape fields in the topology system tables will use PG_GEOMETRY for their data storage type. These custom keywords do not include the index parameters; that means the settings for those parameters will be read from the DEFAULTS keyword.

NOTE: Be aware, your configuration keyword name cannot exceed 32 characters total.

See Also

  • DBTUNE configuration keywords
  • The dbtune file and the DBTUNE table