The Create Replica wizard

This topic applies to ArcEditor and ArcInfo only.

You use the Create Replica wizard to define what data should be replicated, what kind of replica you'd like to create, and which geodatabase the data will be replicated in.

The Create Replica wizard supports both local and remote geodatabases. Remote geodatabases are accessed through geodata services published on ArcGIS Server.

Tip:

Before creating a replica, review the preparing data for replication topic to understand data requirements and how to specify what gets replicated.

To begin, open an ArcMap document. If more than one workspace is present in the map document, you must choose which workspace to create the replica from.

You have a choice of which type of replica to create: check out/check in, one way, or two way.

In checkout/check-in replication, a new version is created with the name of the replica. The combination of user name and replica name must be unique. For example, user1 and user2 could each create a replica called MyReplica because the full replica names would be user1.MyReplica and user2.MyReplica. However, user1 could not create more than one replica named MyReplica because that replica name would not be unique.

The Reuse schema option, available for checkout/check-in replication only, allows you to reuse a geodatabase that contains the schema of the data you want to replicate. This reduces the amount of time required to replicate the data.

Note:

Metadata for the feature classes and tables you choose to replicate is copied during the replica creation process. However, changes to the metadata are not applied during replica synchronization.

Default behavior

The default behavior for each replica is as follows:

• The replica includes all the data you have permissions to edit, visible and invisible, in the active data frame for the chosen geodatabase.
• Selections and definition queries applied to the data to be replicated are maintained.
• The spatial extent of the replica is restricted to the current view extent of the document or the boundary of a selected graphic.
• Any directly related objects are included in the replica.
• The list of layers and tables to replicate is expanded to include dependent datasets. For example, all feature classes in a geometric network are included if just one feature class in the geometric network is selected.
• If there are several layers representing one feature class in the document, only the top layer in the table of contents is used in the replica.

Advanced Options

The advanced options initially reflect the current replica defaults and the expanded list of all the datasets that will be included in the replica. However, you can customize the replica using the advanced replication options.

A panel in the advanced options offers the choice between full or simple replica models for all replica types. The default is the full model.

In the full model, complex data types are created on the child, and they are versioned. This data must remain versioned.

If you choose the simple model, the data is created on the child as simple and is not registered as versioned. The data can be registered as versioned later or left as unversioned.

Note:

If you are creating a checkout/check-in replica, and you choose to replicate only the schema, the extent section is inactive.

The extent of the replica area may be determined by one of the following:

• The current view extent (the default)
• The full extent of the data
• The boundary of a currently selected graphic
• User-defined coordinates

The options in the grid determine how many records from each layer or table will be replicated. In addition to excluding layers and tables from the list of data to replicate, you may also override the defaults for individual layers and tables. For example, if a selection set exists for a layer, you may choose to disregard that selection for this replica. By default, all layers are filtered by geometry, selection, or definition query or a combination of these.

The default is to replicate all features in a layer. If you are interested in replicating only the schema, you can choose the Schema Only option under the Check Out column.

For tables, if no other filters have been applied (for example, a selection), the default filter is Schema Only; only the schema for the table will be replicated.

If you want to exclude a geometric network or topology from a replica, you must exclude all the participating layers; including just one layer results in the whole network or topology being replicated.

By default, related data is replicated. If you would like to turn off relationship class processing, uncheck the Replicate related data check box.

For two-way replicas, there is an additional advanced option to select whether the initial data sender is the child replica or the parent replica. This setting is only important in systems where you plan to work in a disconnected environment.

Using the keywords panel in the wizard allows you to specify the ArcSDE configuration keywords for each object involved in the replication. By default, the DEFAULTS keyword is specified.

The final panel includes options that determine what will happen to the ArcMap document when the Create Replica wizard is closed.

• No further action (the default)—The current document will not be modified, and no new documents will be created.
• Change the layers and tables to point to the replicated data—The current ArcMap document will be modified to point to the data in the relative replica geodatabase, preserving all symbology.
• Save a copy of this map document with the layers and tables pointing at the replicated data—A new ArcMap document, referencing the data in the relative replica geodatabase, again with symbology preserved, will be created.

Click the Summary button to open the Create Replica Summary dialog box. This dialog box lets you review the properties you specified for creating the replica.