Manage Data Links

Use the Manage Data Links dialog box to manage dynamic links to data sources. You can check the status of whether a dataset is up to date or if it has been modified. You can also enable or disable the link between the data and the document so that changes that aren't intended for updates are not accidentally included.

PostGIS Databases, GDB, and MDB files are now supported in Manage Data Links

Using Manage Data Links

Click the Manage Data Links button or from the MAP View panels option menu, select Manage Data Links to open the Manage Data Links dialog box. The Manage Data Links dialog box displays the name, format, and dates of when the data was modified, last checked, and last updated. It also shows the current status as to whether or not the current data in the document is up to date, and whether the data link is Active or Inactive. All data imports will be listed as MAP Data sources. 

During import, the Create active Data Link check box will provide the Link Type column an Active or Inactive status. If you didn't enable this option during import, you can always change the setting in the Edit MAP Data Link dialog box. During import, if the AI document’s location is known, MAP Data Links will save the absolute and relative path of the source data.  The only times when this will not happen is when the document has not been saved yet, or if it is a cloud document.  In these scenarios, only the relative path will not be recorded.

Use the Edit and Remove buttons (left to right) to edit, or remove data links. Click the Check button to manually force a check of selected data links. Click the Update button to update the features of a selected data source (more below). When a layer is deleted (or becomes empty), an option to remove the data link is available.

Link Indicators in the MAP Views Panel

Layers that have an active MAP Data Link now display a link icon directly in the MAP Views panel layer tree. This allows you to identify all linked layers at a glance without opening the manage data links dialog window. 

In order to check to see if a link is out of date, click on the link icon next to the layer name, or go to the manage data links icon in the panel menu and select ‘Check Active Data Links’. If anything is out of date, the icon on the layer will update and you can click on it to apply any new changes automatically. 

Edit Data Link

To edit a MAP data link, select one and click the Edit Data Link button. In the Edit Data Link dialog box, you'll be able to change the name of the data link (this doesn't affect the name of the actual MAP layer), the dataset path, coordinate system to use, and options to automatically check for updates when the document is opened and to apply any relevant stylesheets or dot density themes when updated.

When a data source is missing, a notification will alert you in the Manage Data Links and the Edit Data Link dialog, the Edit Data Link dialog boxes, and via the link icon in the MAP View panel layer tree. To fix missing data links, select Relink to find the correct path to the dataset.

Under options, you can change the link type between an Active and Inactive state. Set this to Active if you want MAPublisher to check for updates every time the document is opened as well as being able to update from the MAP Views panel. By default, data will have an inactive status, which will remove data links when a layer is deleted. 

The active link can be enabled at import time via the Advanced Options dropdown, eliminating the need to configure it later through Manage Data Links’ Edit settings.  

Check

On the Manage Data Links dialog box, click the Check button to manually force a check of selected data sources. This will provide an immediate status update that will indicate whether the source is up to date or missing. 

Update

When opening a file with modified data, an Update Linked Data dialogue will appear. If you have multiple MAP layers that need updating you can select by directly clicking on the data sources. Once you have selected all your data sources, click the Update button to update the associated MAP layer. Please note that updating a MAP layer will completely replace the existing MAP Layer.

Data that have missing sources will not be able to be updated until the dataset paths are fixed.