Create events data

Available for an ArcGIS organization licensed with the Indoors extension.

After importing floor plans, you can manually create events data for use in the ArcGIS Indoors web and mobile apps.

Indoors supports three methods of creating and managing events data in your maps:

  • Custom modeled floor-aware layers
  • Custom modeled layers that are not floor aware
  • The Events feature class created by the Create Indoors Database tool

Required fields

If you are using a custom modeled layer to maintain events data, you must add fields to enable functionality in the Indoors web and mobile apps.

The following required fields are used by the Indoors web and mobile apps and must be included in the events layer:

Field nameTypeDescription

DATE_END

Date

Defines the end date for the event in coordinated universal time (UTC).

DATE_START

Date

Defines the start date for the event in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

DESCRIPTION

Text

Provides a description of the feature for use in turn-by-turn directions.

EVENT_ID

Text

Defines a unique ID for the feature. This value must be unique in the table.

IMAGE_URL

Text

Provides a URL for displaying a single associated image in pop-ups in the Indoors web and mobile apps.

LEVEL_ID

Text

Records the unique ID of the feature’s associated level and is used to identify the feature’s associated level feature in floor-aware maps. A feature can only be related to a single level using the Level ID field.

NAME

Text

Defines the name of the event.

USE_TYPE

Text

Defines the event type. This value is used to filter events by type in Viewer and the Indoors mobile apps.

Create events

Ensure that your events table contains a location attribute UNIT_ID that matches the UNIT_ID for the unit feature where the event is taking place. The events can come from a class schedule, Microsoft Exchange Server, a conference agenda, a spreadsheet, or another business system or live service. To load event data, you need to combine a spreadsheet or table of events with the Units feature class and output a 3D point of the joined location and event information.

Note:

Event date and time must be stored in UTC.

  1. Load your tabular events data into a table in the geodatabase that contains your indoor dataset.

    For example, you can use the Excel To Table tool.

    Note:

    Ensure that your events table contains a location attribute UNIT_ID that matches the Units feature class's UNIT_ID attribute. These attributes are used to join the unit and location details to each event.

  2. Add the INSIDE_X, INSIDE_Y, and INSIDE_Z fields to the Units feature class with the Add Geometry Attributes tool.

    Choose Central point coordinates for the Geometry Properties parameter.

  3. Calculate the z-value for units features.
    1. Right-click the Units feature class and click Attribute Table.
    2. Right-click the INSIDE_Z field and click Calculate Geometry.
    3. Choose Minimum z-coordinate from the Property drop-down menu.
    4. Click OK.

    The INSIDE_Z field is populated with the z-value of the unit feature.

  4. Join the Units feature class to your imported events table.
    1. Right-click the events table, click Joins and Relates, and click Add Join.
    2. Choose the location field from your events table for the Input Join Field parameter.
    3. Choose the Units feature class for the Join Table parameter.
    4. Choose the UNIT_ID field for the Join Table Field parameter.
  5. Run the Make XY Event Layer tool on the joined table.
    Tip:

    Use the INSIDE_X, INSIDE_Y, and INSIDE_Z attributes.

  6. Run the Copy Features tool to create a temporary point feature class.
  7. Use the Append tool to load the 3D points into the Events feature class or your custom modeled feature class.
    Tip:

    Use the Schema Type Field Map option to match the attributes of input points to the target dataset.

Update events

To update event features, complete the following steps:

  1. Delete invalid event features from the indoor dataset.
  2. Follow the steps above to load events data for updated areas to the indoor dataset.
    Tip:
    • Use an input spreadsheet that has been filtered to only contain events for updated areas.
    • Create the points in a separate feature class.
  3. Use the Append tool to load the new points into the current Events feature class in the existing workspace.

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