Migrating to Task Assistant Manager 10

Task Assistant workflows

At ArcGIS 10, the ArcMap editing environment has been updated to provide a more streamlined approach and uses the concept of feature templates. Feature templates replace the 9.3 editing model of the edit task and target layer.

Task Assistant Manager does not provide an automatic conversion of task assistant workflows using edit task and target layer to use feature templates. This is because, in many situations, the order of steps in the workflow will also have to change to support the modifications made to the ArcGIS editing experience.

Instead, Task Assistant Manager indicates when a task assistant workflow contains unsupported configuration elements and highlights and expands the workflow steps containing these items. Designers are expected to use the normal task assistant workflow editing tools to manually update the workflow and workflow steps to correctly use feature templates and construction tools. Users should contact the workflow designer to obtain updated workflow files.

For example, the Task Assistant Manager tutorial workflow was previously defined as follows:

Loading this workflow into Task Assistant Manager 10 displays the following:

A warning node has been added to the beginning of the workflow file indicating that unsupported elements exist. In addition, each node containing unsupported elements is assigned the warning style and expanded to show each of the unsupported element customizations. These child nodes are created as Name only nodes (that is, they have no ArcGIS customizations) and exist as indicators only. The unsupported customization settings have been cleared from the original node.

It is expected that the Designer will navigate to each of the highlighted nodes in turn and use the Designer tab to modify the original node, updating the node style and setting any new ArcGIS customizations as required. The Name only child nodes can be deleted when this is complete. Once all highlighted nodes have been updated, the workflow can be saved.

Due to the usability benefits that templates provide in ArcMap 10, it is recommended that you learn to use templates when editing. However, for some organizations that have extensive editing workflows, ArcGIS does provide the option to revert to the ArcGIS 9.3 editing environment. This setting is found in the Advanced ArcMap Settings utility, located in the \Utilities directory where you installed ArcGIS. Task Assistant Manager honors this setting, allowing editing workflows from version 9.3 to be loaded, edited, validated, and executed.

In addition to a new editing experience, ArcMap 10 also supports a new simplified snapping environment. However, users can revert to the 9.3 snapping environment if necessary by using the Enable Classic Snapping option on the General tab of the Editing Options dialog box. Task Assistant Manager supports both the new simplified snapping environment and the classic snapping.

Custom styles

At Task Assistant Manager 10, custom styles are stored at <user application data>\ESRI\TAM10.0\Data\Resources\Styles. Previous versions of Task Assistant Manager stored custom styles at <user application data>\ESRI\TAM\Data\Resources\Styles. Launch the Style Manager from the Task Assistant window shortcut menu and use the Import Styles function to load any previous custom styles. These styles will be automatically saved at the new Task Assistant Manager 10 custom style location.