When the publisher asked me to write a book about ArcGIS geodatabases, I was glad to do so. I have been working with geodatabases since 2005 with eight different versions of ArcGIS starting from Version 9.1; writing this title was a thrill for me. When the publisher mentioned that they need it to be a short book, based on the research done by their strategy team, I had to put in an extra effort and make tough decisions on what to include in this book and what to discard, without compromising on the quality of the content. What you are holding in your hands now is the essence of that work.
Learning ArcGIS Geodatabases was designed for those who want to start using the ArcGIS technology or those who have been using it and want to learn more about geodatabases. There are going to be three themes that will run throughout the book. The first theme covers Chapter 1, Authoring Geodatabases, and Chapter 2, Working with Geodatabase Datasets, and it is tailored for beginners and readers who are not familiar with ArcGIS geodatabases. It teaches readers how to author geodatabases and how to create and work with different datasets in their geodatabase. The second theme covers Chapter 3, Modeling Geodatabases, and Chapter 4, Optimizing Geodatabases, and it is targeted for intermediate users. It caters to those who know about geodatabases already and want to run them better. It is an excellent chapter for those who want to remodel their existing geodatabase and make it more efficient and cost less to maintain. They are also presented with new tools to help them tune and optimize their geodatabase. The last theme covers the last two chapters, Chapters 5, Programming Geodatabases, and Chapter 6, Enterprise Geodatabases, and it is designed for advanced readers. It caters to those who want to excel in using ArcGIS geodatabases with programming and script writing to manage and administer their geodatabase. They want to upgrade and use enterprise geodatabases instead of using simple file geodatabases so they can get the benefits of the multiuser environment.
Chapter 1, Authoring Geodatabases, introduces the concept of geodatabases and how you can design and create one using ArcGIS for Desktop. The chapter discusses a project, Bestaurants, where you need to create a file geodatabase for the restaurants in Belize to help the client visualize them on a map.
Chapter 2, Working with Geodatabase Datasets, will bring in new requirements for the Bestaurants project where you will learn how to create feature classes, tables, and relations between datasets in the geodatabase you created in Chapter 1, Authoring Geodatabases.
Chapter 3, Modeling Geodatabases, will show you some flaws of the design used while creating the geodatabase in Chapter 1, Authoring Geodatabases. It will teach you how to remodel your Bestaurants geodatabase in a more elegant way. It will also show you how to cut down the number of datasets to reduce future maintenance on the geodatabase.
Chapter 4, Optimizing Geodatabases, is where you will be given some new tools to optimize your Bestaurants geodatabase now that it has been modeled elegantly. You will learn concepts such as indexing, compacting, and compressing, which will help you optimize your geodatabase queries and maintain a healthy geodatabase.
Chapter 5, Programming Geodatabases, will take you further along your Bestaurants geodatabase by writing Python scripts against it. It will also teach you how to use a model builder to combine different geodatabase tools to save a lot of time in administering and maintaining your geodatabase.
Chapter 6, Enterprise Geodatabases, introduces the concept of enterprise geodatabases, an upgraded version of a geodatabase that supports multiple user access, enhanced security, and higher availability. It will show you how to set up and configure your enterprise geodatabase from scratch using Microsoft SQL Server Express and migrate your existing Bestaurants geodatabase to the new geodatabase.
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