Calling ArcMap geoprocessing method in FME

Question

I am trying to create an attribute index in a feature class in FME 2011. I couldn't find any transformer that does it. I'm thinking that maybe I can use "PythonCaller" transformer to call "Add Attribute Index" geoprocessing method from ArcMap.

Is it possible?

Here's the syntax I copied from ArcMap Help menu:

arcpy.AddIndex_management ("counties.shp", "NAME;STATE_FIPS;CNTY_FIPS", "#", "NON_UNIQUE", "NON_ASCENDING")

I intalled FME2012 on my machine and used python26.dll as my custon Python interpreter and copied @Mark's code. For Entry point, I entered the name of the class "MyIndexingScript". I'm getting the following error:

Python Exception : Object: Error in executing tool Error encountered while calling method `input' PythonFactory failed to process feature

import fmeobjects
import arcpy

class MyIndexingScript(object):
   def __init__(self):  
       self.featureList = []
   def input(self,feature):
       self.featureList.append(feature)
       arcpy.AddIndex_management (self, "YORK_PARCEL_ID;PARCEL_GIS_ID", "PIndex", "UNIQUE", "ASCENDING")
   def close(self):        
       self.pyoutput(feature)

Answer 1

If you can use the File Geodatabase API writer in FME2012-SP2, then there will be a setting in the feature type/writer to enable setting an attribute index.

Unfortunately, for the moment, it's limited to only that writer (not the ArcObjects Geodatabase writer) which has a number of other limitations.

In the meantime you are correct, a call using the PythonCaller should work.

I am no Python expert, but you will need to make sure you call it as a Class and not a Function - because a function will execute once per feature, and you only need it to run once in total.

So I would think something like:

import arcpy
import fmeobjects

class MyIndexingScript(object):
def __init__(self):  
def input(self,feature):
def close(self):

arcpy.AddIndex_management ("counties.shp", "NAME;STATE_FIPS;CNTY_FIPS", "#", "NON_UNIQUE", "NON_ASCENDING")

...but you will want to check the help doc for the PythonCaller and probably take a look on fmepedia.com for examples. Also check out fmeevangelist.com and search for Python content. There are some examples I created that might be of use.

Answer 2

To use arcpy you will need to change the Python interpreter used by FME as arcpy requires its own Python interpreter (version 2.6.5 for ArcGIS 10.0).

For FME 2011 what you need to do is create and set the FME_PYTHON_VERSION environment variable to 2.6 (for ArcGIS 10.0, I believe it's 2.7 for ArcGIS 10.1) as described here:

• Choosing a different Python interpreter (installation) - fmepedia.safe.com

For FME 2012 there is a Workbench option to set the Python interpreter DLL.