Hi Lucy,
Make sure to name your file with a lowercase extension ".arches" instead of
".Arches" otherwise the file won't load.
Cheers,
Alexei
Director of Web Development - Farallon Geographics, Inc. - 971.227.3173
On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 9:42 AM, Adam Cox <mr.adam...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Lucy, personally I'd recommend modifying (a copy of!) the excel file,
> because then you can continually recreate the .arches file from it--I've
> always found it beneficial to spend the most time on replicable steps
> rather than one time (copy/paste) operations.
>
> Here's something that could help the process, and I'll use the Name, Name
> Type as an example:
>
> If you have a column of names, and you know that they are all primary
> names, you can avoid creating a new column where every value is
> "NAME_TYPE:1" by just hard-coding that term into a statement in the query.
> So, your new statement would not reference a column name, but would just
> have "NAME_TYPE:1" written into it. In the example I made, the geometry
> column shows an example of combining strings, 'POINT (', with column
> names, lat. So that may be helpful for reference.
>
> A couple of other points related to this:
>
> If you have begun to use open office, it would be really great to see if
> this same SQL stuff can be used there. Just a word of warning, even though
> it's all SQL, the syntax (double vs. single quotes, the use of AS) may
> differ between Excel and Open Office.
>
> Also, it occurs to me that once you have created a spreadsheet that is
> formatted like a .arches file, you could probably do some pretty nimble
> things with it by using the sorting and filtering capabilities that Excel
> has and I'm sure open office has. A .arches file is just a bunch of rows
> with two levels of sorting: first by RESOURCEID and second by GROUPID. To
> add a line to a specific resource, you could just filter the rows based on
> a RESOURCEID, add your new row or two, and then remove the filter, re-sort,
> and you will have properly "inserted" a row.
>
> Finally, I just downloaded Open Office, and it looks like you can write
> Python or Javascript macros. This is pretty huge (if you're into that sort
> of thing) and a simple python or js macro could be used in place of the SQL
> query I made. Sharing open office macros is probably really easy, so this
> would be a great way to collaborate.
>
> Good luck!
>
>
> On Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 6:19:35 AM UTC-6, Lucy FJ wrote:
>>
>> Hi Adam,
>>
>> I have now thoroughly read the documentation on .Arches file and have
>> played around with the Microsoft query and have a much better idea of what
>> I need to do, so there is no need to answer some of the questions I asked
>> below!
>>
>> It seems that you either need to do a lot of manipulation of the excel
>> file or a lot of copy and pasting in the .Arches file which will then be
>> enormous even for our modest database!
>>
>>
>>
>> Lucy
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 11:01:23 AM UTC+2, Lucy FJ wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Adam,
>>>
>>> Finally I am back testing out creating an .Arches file (but I am not
>>> able to load them yet and see the results) and I do have further questions
>>> about adding alternative names and several resource classifications.
>>>
>>> Just to be clear that I understood you correctly, the group ID keeps
>>> records that are related within a heritage resource together, and the
>>> resource ID ensures that all data for a particular resource is kept
>>> together? Therefore, each alternative name/nametype would have a separate
>>> Group ID from the preferred name/nametype, but the same Resource ID?
>>>
>>> Secondly, I am not very familiar with Microsoft query, but it seems that
>>> the original Excel file for creating the query from, can only have one
>>> 'row' per record or archaeological site in our case. So as you suggested,
>>> we would need to put in a new column for each alternative name we have and
>>> for each site type classification and of course modify the query to add
>>> more statements for the extra names etc. I am looking for a method of
>>> reading the Excel file in the way we have set up with all the alternative
>>> name being in *one* column, as it would be more efficient for us -
>>> sometimes we have 10 alternative names but I don't think Microsoft Query
>>> can handle this.
>>>
>>> I don't know if you have any further thoughts on this or know how others
>>> have handles this.
>>> Thank you very much for your help, which is always appreciated!
>>> Lucy
>>>
>>> On Monday, January 18, 2016 at 7:27:24 PM UTC+2, Adam Cox wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Lucy, I'm happy to hear the documentation was helpful.
>>>>
>>>> To add more attributes to your .arches file, you'll just need to add
>>>> more statements to the SQL query. First, because the SQL window is pretty
>>>> cramped in Excel, I'd recommend pasting your query into Notepad ++ so it's
>>>> easier to work with.
>>>>
>>>> If you look at the two statements that define Name and Name_Type,
>>>> you'll see that they both reference "group1". What you want to do is make
>>>> more groups, so I'd recommend copying and pasting the Name_Type statement
>>>> from the existing query (because it is the most standard) and pasting it
>>>> below, as many times as you need--one time per new attribute that you need
>>>> to add. Then just make sure to set the group value appropriately: if you
>>>> have an alternate name, you'll have to make a new column for that name, and
>>>> make a column with the correct conceptid (or hard-code the conceptid into
>>>> the new statement), and then put "group3" into each statement. Or, if you
>>>> just have a single column for a standalone attribute like "Site Type", make
>>>> sure it has its own unique group ID.
>>>>
>>>> I hope that makes sense. I have to run now, but if you have more
>>>> questions don't hesitate to ask them!
>>>>
>>>> Adam
>>>>
>>>> On Sunday, January 17, 2016 at 12:17:31 PM UTC-6, Lucinda
>>>> Fletcher-Jones wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Qu9c0GYT4ig/VpvaZj1w5yI/AAAAAAAAFXo/aMjV0c5GLJg/s1600/Dabanarti.JPG>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> I have worked through the example in Adam Cox's excellent guide to
>>>>> creating a .Arches file from a Microsoft Excel file which is where we have
>>>>> all our archaeological site data at present, and it worked very well. Now
>>>>> I
>>>>> have a question. Our data, as everyone else's is a little more complicated
>>>>> than the example. How do you deal with a site that has more than one name
>>>>> and more than one classification etc? for example: Dabanarti with three
>>>>> names and three site types.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Qu9c0GYT4ig/VpvaZj1w5yI/AAAAAAAAFXo/aMjV0c5GLJg/s1600/Dabanarti.JPG>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you very much, Lucy
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
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