About data packaging

Data packaging, introduced at version 3.0 of ArcGIS for Windows Mobile, allows you to use Mobile Project Center to cache mobile map data from all mobile services to your project before you provision the project to field devices. Before you can package data for your project, you need to define a project extent that covers your area of interest for data packaging.

In addition to the deployment advantages, packaging data in your project is also recommended for most mobile field work for the following reasons:

• Deploying a mobile cache with the project makes it easier for field workers because the packaged data (data of the operational map layers and attachment data if applicable) is readily available when the project is opened in field applications. Field workers don't need to download data from the server while they're in the field, where, most likely, they're connected with limited bandwidth. This is especially important when the data contains large or a lot of attachments. In this regard, data packaging saves both time and money.
• If a field worker cannot connect in the field, data packaging is the only option to provision your mobile service based on operational map data.
• By using data packaging with a project extent, you can reuse the same project for different field workers who work in different areas. For example, in a firefighting project, you might want your field workers to collect data about land features and synchronize the data back to the database in real-time for decision making. To ensure high efficiency, the inspection area of each worker should not overlap. For this reason, when you create mobile projects for your field workers, set a specific extent as the project extent for a worker, package the data for that extent, save the project, then save the project as a new one for another worker by defining a different project extent and packaging data for that extent.

Note:

Data packaging in Mobile Project Center is different from using the Create Mobile Cache tool provided by ArcGIS for Desktop:

• Data packaging is a feature in Mobile Project Center that allows you to get data from mobile services and include the data in your project. You need to have ArcGIS Server to use this feature (See the Server workflow for details).
• The Create Mobile Cache tool allows you to build a mobile cache directly from an ArcMap document, which you can then add a copy of it to your mobile project in Mobile Project Center to use as an offline data source. In this case, real-time synchronization with the back-end database is not supported (See the Desktop workflow for details)..