ArcGIS to Access Link v1.0

for ArcGIS 9.0, 9.1 SP2 and Access 2002/2003

Updated January 18, 2007

ArcGIS 9.2 compatible version coming soon!

The ArcGIS to Access Link provides a connection between spatial data in an ArcGIS map and tabular data in an Access database. This link allows you to shift between these two products to view related data in both spatial and tabular formats.

This tool was developed by Angie Southwould of the Alaska Support Office of the National Park Service.

This product is available to the public and may be freely distributed. It is provided "AS IS", without warranty of any kind. NPS shall not be liable for any damages related to your decision to install and/or use this product.

Download ArcGIS to Access Link v1.0

What does the ArcGIS to Access Link do?

Arc2Ax allows you to select a group of features from a layer in ArcMap and link to a table, query, form, report, or function in Access displaying related records. Conversely, it allows you to select or filter records in an Access table, query, form, report, or function and link to a map in ArcMap selecting and zooming to related features.

Once links have been created, you may verify, edit, copy, rename, and/or delete them. Verifying a link will allow you to check if any of the properties of a link are invalid before running the link.

Once a link is created, it must be made active before you can run it. You can activate multiple links at once and the active status of each link is remembered between sessions within ArcMap and Access independently. In other words, a link that is made active in ArcMap will still be active next time that map is opened in ArcMap. Making the link active in ArcMap will not make the link active in Access. That same link will remain inactive in Access unless the status has been made active within Access.

Arc2Ax contains a feature that allows you to share links that were created on your machine with other machines. This saves multiple users from having to walk through the wizard to create multiple links for shared databases and maps.

This release of Arc2Ax also provides an interface (API) with which programmers can take advantage of the linking functionality and incorporate it into their custom applications. End users of these custom applications will run links without invoking the Arc2Ax user interface or perhaps even knowing they are using the tool.

Requirements

Arc2Ax was developed and tested under Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The following software is required:

• ArcGIS 9.0 with Service Pack 2 (or later)
• Access 2002 (XP) or 2003 (manual setup is required for earlier versions of Access)

Arc2Ax uses the windows registry to store configuration settings and link profiles. To install and use Arc2Ax, you will need read and write permissions for your windows registry. Specifically, this tool will register software under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER for Microsoft Access and ESRI. All settings for Arc2Ax are stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NPS\ArcGIS to Access.

If you do not have administrative permissions on your machine, ask your system administrator to provide read/write permissions for these areas of the registry.

After installing Arc2Ax, if the user does not have read/write permissions to the NPS section of the registry, no links will appear in the Link Manager window. To resolve this issue, contact your system administrator.