Specifying subtypes for Attribute Rules in ArcGIS Pro 3.5

In ArcGIS Pro 3.5, we now provide the ability to specify a combination of subtypes when creating or modifying an attribute rule.

Read on, or watch a short video on how to specify subtypes for new or existing Attribute Rules.

Significance

Before this release, the only options were to specify a single subtype or all subtypes when creating an attribute rule. When created, the subtype option became inactive, preventing subtype changes. Thus, to apply an attribute rule to data categorized by different subtypes, you need an attribute rule for each subtype. Use of subtypes with attribute rules provides another combination of better performance and more efficient workflows. In this blog, I will show you how to specify subtypes with existing or new rules.

Create and modify rules specifying subtypes

Being able to modify an existing attribute rule’s subtype property was a subtle, but significant update. The rule property for Subtype is no longer inactive when modifying existing rules or after a new rule is created.

Now, when creating or modifying an attribute rule, if you have subtypes configured, they appear in the Subtype drop down list.

Specify which subtypes apply to the attribute rule. If you have many subtypes (so many that scrolling is inconvenient), use the new Search parameter to find the subtype.

Editing

Attribute rules by design enhance editing workflows. Specifying subtypes on our user-defined rule automates, validates, or restricts edits to a subset of the data. For example, if the data has 20,000 rows, and the subtype categorized 1,500 attributes, the rule edit ignores 18,500 records. Creation or modification of a rule with more subtypes provides benefits, as the rule only edits the applicable subsets.

With the new updates allowing rules to have more than one subtype, you might want to consider any of the following:

• Creating identical rules with their own subtype prior to ArcGIS Pro 3.5. Now that you can have one rule with many subtypes, consider consolidating them into one.
• If you originally set multiple rules above, you might want to compare whether a rule with a single subtype is efficient versus one rule with multiple subtypes. To explore and test this theory, see the demo using the Diagnostic Monitor specifically for attribute rules; go to the 34:06 time point in this video from the 2023 Esri Developer Summit.
• One benefit you should explore is combining subtypes with triggering fields.
• You may also consider adding subtypes to data that currently does not have subtypes configured.

With the ability to modify existing or new attribute rules with more than one subtype, you might discover a myriad of combinations to enhance your attribute edits.

Conclusion

With the ability to create or modify attribute rules with one or more subtypes, we hope this enhancement to attribute rules is helpful in meeting your data management needs. In summary, we learned the following:

• Older rules added to ArcGIS Pro 3.5 can be modified to add applicable subtypes not originally part of the rule.
• The Subtype property remains active after rule creation, allowing subtype modifications as needed.
• Specifying subtypes on attribute rules allows a more discrete model for data.
• Like triggering fields, specifying subtypes can efficiently limit how often rules are evaluated. This translates to time saved while editing.
• There are now more options when working with attribute rules, allowing you to meet the custom needs of editing workflows with efficiency and productivity.

The benefits of this update are so beneficial, we recommend an evaluation of existing rules and modifying them to adopt this new behavior where applicable. We believe and know from our own experience that these updates could lead to huge productivity and performance benefits.