Editor

The Editor library implements the ArcMap object editor. The Editor library supports the editing of simple features, network features, annotations, and topological features, as well as attributes for these features. This library supports both a user interface (UI) and an application programming interface (API). The API provided by the Editor library is a higher level API than that of the Geodatabase library. Developers are encouraged to use the Editor API when editing and manipulating features in the geodatabase.

This topic provides an overview of the Editor library and its significant subsystems. For information on using the library when developing editing customizations and solutions for ArcGIS for Desktop, see ArcGIS for Desktop editing for developers. If you're developing an editing customization using ArcGIS Engine, see ArcGIS Engine editing.

The primary object in the editor framework is the Editor object. The interfaces on the editor maintain the editing environment including the edit session, editable layers, feature templates, editing options, edit events, and the editor snapping environment.

The Editor object is an ArcMap extension and can be obtained by either the IApplication.FindExtensionByName or IApplication.FindExtensionByCLSID method.

The following code example shows how to obtain the Editor object. You must have a reference to the editor assembly in your integrated development environment (IDE).

'Get the editor extension.
Dim editorUID As UID
editorUID = New UID
editorUID.Value = "esriEditor.Editor"
Dim editor As IEditor3
editor = (application.FindExtensionByCLSID(editorUID))

//Get the editor extension.
UID editorUID = new UID();
editorUID.Value = "esriEditor.Editor";
IEditor3 editor = application.FindExtensionByCLSID(editorUID)as IEditor3;

The methods on IEditor3 are used to maintain the edit session, while its properties return information about the session itself such as the edit state, selection set, and current workspace. This interface also manages the template environment. For information on managing the edit session, see Managing edit sessions and edit operations. For information on working with templates, see Using feature templates.

The properties on IEditProperties4 reflect most of the options found on the Editor Options dialog box.

The editor target or current layer is used to determine which layer to apply an edit to. This is set behind the scenes by the template environment and most of the editor commands and tools via template pickers. The properties and methods on IEditLayers are used to maintain the current layer.

The properties and methods on IEditSketch3 maintain the edit sketch. Edit tasks and most customizations using the edit sketch will query and perform edits with the sketch geometry, obtained from IEditSketch3.Geometry. You can also constrain the edit sketch to a particular geometry type using IEditSketch3.GeometryType, which will enable those corresponding shape constructors. For more information, see Working with the edit sketch.

The editor maintains a separate snap environment (in addition to the ArcGIS snapping environment available in ArcGIS for Desktop and Engine) via the ISnapEnvironment3 interface. For most customizations however, the ArcGIS snapping environment is more appropriate.

For more information on snapping options and how to use snapping in your customizations, see Snapping in ArcGIS.

The editor exposes numerous events allowing customizations to respond to changes in the editor environment, templates, and the sketch. These events are located on the IEditEvents5 interface. For more information on working with edit events, see Working with editing events.

The ArcMap Attributes dialog box contains two panels. The feature panel lists the map features that have been selected and are editable. The features are listed under the feature class to which they belong. Any related features are also listed in this panel under the selected feature to which they are related. The attribute panel contains a feature inspector.

ArcMap ships with a standard feature inspector that enables attribute editing. For any feature class in a geodatabase, you can replace the default feature inspector with a custom feature inspector. For example, you can create a custom feature inspector that displays a bitmap whenever a feature belonging to a specific feature class is selected.

Create custom inspectors by implementing the IObjectInspector interface and registering the class as a feature class extension. Custom feature inspectors can only be assigned to feature classes in a geodatabase. Only one feature inspector can be active for each feature class. When you create a custom feature inspector, you specify the specific feature classes that will use it. Selecting a feature in the feature panel of the Attributes dialog box activates the associated feature inspector in the attributes panel.

For an example of a custom feature inspector, see Tabbed feature inspector.

Annotation constructors provide specialized behavior for creating new annotation features, while dimension constructors provide specialized behavior for creating new dimension features.