Administrators, Editors, and Validators can use the Upload Pre-Checks tool to detect errors in upload files to prevent upload failures. This feature allows users to ensure that their uploads will be GIS data-ready without performing an upload.
Data that is submitted in this tool to be checked will not be permanently uploaded into VEP. To upload data into VEP, please use the Upload tool.
When to Pre-Check Data
This tool is designed to be used before the upload and data validation processes that are available within VEP. Users should use this before uploading their first dataset into VEP, before introducing new datasets or layers, or to verify the data-readiness of data that has been edited locally before being uploaded.
This tool is designed to check the Road Centerline, Address Point, Provisioning Boundary, PSAP Boundary, Fire, Law, and EMS feature layers.
Upload Pre-Checks
Complete the following steps to run a Upload Pre-Check on data in DATAMARK VEP:
Before selecting a file to check, a .zip file of the data to be uploaded should be created in the local environment.
File Geodatabase: Place all necessary datasets into a .gdb and zip the folder.
When zipping a .gdb, remove the ".gdb" extension from the .zip file.
Shapefile(s): Place all shapefiles into the same folder and zip. ALI and MSAG tables can be placed in the same folder. Ensure that the field names in each dataset are 10 characters or less.
XML file: Place XML files into a folder and zip the folder.
XML files must comply with Esri's XML Schema of the Geodatabase technical paper published in June 2008 and available on their website. Please refer to this document for all specifications around using XML for XML workspace documents, geodatabase RecordSet documents, and as part of an XML Data Changes document.
Click on the Uploads link on the left navigation panel of the menu.
Click on the Upload Pre-Checks button under Select an Option.
Select the file from the Select File drop-down.
Select a file by pressing the blue link icon next to the Select File box.
Select the type of file from the File Type drop-down.
Add any notes, if needed, to help describe the dataset for future reference in the Notes field.
Then, press the Next button.
Pre-Check Data Mapping
The next step requires users to map data going into VEP to the user data through field mapping, which establishes a correspondence between the attributes in the Target Dataset (the Road Centerline, Address Point, Provisioning Boundary, PSAP Boundary, Fire, Law, and EMS data going into VEP) and the corresponding attributes in the Source Dataset (the user data).
If there is a previously saved schema that contains the desired mapping from a previous pre-check or data upload, select Saved Schema from the Field Mapping drop-down. Then, select a schema from the Apply Schema drop-down, and press the Next button. If no schema is available, a custom mapping can take place by selecting Custom Field Mapping.
For each Target Dataset, map the appropriate Source Dataset from the uploaded data by selecting a dataset from the drop-down.
When loading data into a saved Native Schema, the Source Feature Layer name must match the original saved Source Feature Layer name when the Native Schema was created. If the name of the Source Feature Layer doesn't match the name that was saved, the Schema will be unable to auto-field-map the feature layers.
Each Feature Layer in the Target Dataset must be matched to a unique Source Feature Layer. If a source feature layer needs to be mapped to multiple target datasets, they must be uniquely named before data mapping.
If a user wants to only check changes on particular feature layers (for instance, EMS), you can check the box next to the names of the desired layer in the Feature Layer column.
Click the Next button to proceed.
Pre-Check Field Mapping
For each Target Field, map the appropriate Source Field from the selected dataset by choosing a field from the drop-down.
If a schema was not applied, press the green Auto Map button to help automatically map similar field names.
If a schema is applied and the Auto Map button is pressed, the schema will be removed and will need to be reapplied in the "Pre-Check Data Mapping" step.
When loading data into a saved Native Schema, the Source Field name must match the saved Source Field name when the Native Schema was originally saved. If the name of the Source Field doesn't match the name that was saved, the Schema will be unable to auto-map the fields.
Click the Next button to proceed once all the appropriate fields are mapped.
Run Pre-Checks
Once all feature classes have been selected and field mapped, VEP is now ready to check the upload dataset. Verify that the source datasets have been selected in this table. Click on the Previous button to edit the feature classes that will be checked or click Next to execute the pre-checks.
After selecting Next, a pop-up will confirm the submission of the upload pre-check request.
After clicking OK, the user will be redirected to the Upload Pre-Checks tab on the Upload Requests page.
The name of the checked dataset will be visible, along with the name of the pre-check result file. The Status column shows ‘Pending’ while the check is running and will display ‘Completed’ when ready for download. Once the download is ready, click the download icon under the Action column to download the zip file.
Users can also search previously submitted upload pre-check requests up to a year after the initial date of creation. Enter a custom date range to narrow the search, if needed. Otherwise, browse the displayed list to see the names and statuses of previously submitted upload pre-check requests.
Understanding the Pre-Check Report
The downloaded zip file will contain a Microsoft Excel file that contains the pre-check report. This report will provide a list of violations, which represent data deficiencies that users must address before uploading their data to VEP, as shown below:
This report contains the following columns:
ValidationID - This column contains the identification numbers for each pre-check validation. All pre-check violations can be found on the Upload Pre-Checks Description Table page.
Layer Type - This column names the layer being checked. The layers that the pre-check tool checks are: the Road Centerline, Address Point, Provisioning Boundary, PSAP Boundary, Fire, Law, and EMS layers.
Check - Each issue that is being checked is named in this column.
Violation Name - The name of the violation that is tied to a ValidationID. The violation name will describe why the validation passed or failed.
Violation Description - If an issue is found, this provides more information about what a particular check found in the user data.
Number of Returned Issues - This column shows the count of each violation found.
Status - This column shows the status of the validation pre-check. There are three statuses:
Passed - No violations have been found and the data is ready to be uploaded.
Issues found - Violations have been found in the checked data, but will not prevent uploading into VEP.
Critical - This status is for important violations in the data that must be addressed before uploading into VEP.