how do I reestablish all feature class references in mxd after their names change?

Question

I have 200 shape files which have been named using an integer at the beginning of the name...i.e 01.03.shp 01.04.shp etc. They are all symbolized within an mxd document.

I need to import these shapes into a file-GDB which is not permitted due to the fact that the feature class starts with a number - I can iterate through the shapes and rename them using a prefix, but then i´ll need to change the mxd reference for every single feature class because the names are different. Is there a clever way to get around having to fix every single reference in the mxd?

Answer 1

I had a similar problem to yours when my work upgraded its computer and changed around the network. In my instance it resulted in hundreds of maps with broken data links. I wrote a script that, for all intensive purposes, should work, but fails whenever it reaches the lyr.replaceDataSource, and ultimately crashes when a datasource is a personal geodatabase.

However, it is a start for you, especially around line 32 - newDataSource = brokenDataSource.replace(r'N:', r'c:\users\athom\Documents\GIS\GIS_computer_06_20_2013\GIS_LOCAL_MASTER')

Hopefully you can use this as a start.

import arcpy, os, sys, traceback
workspace = r'c:\users\athom\Documents\GIS\GIS_computer_06_20_2013\GIS_LOCAL_MASTER\MAPS\Map_Projects\TEST'
arcpy.env.workspace = workspace
mxdList = arcpy.ListFiles("*.mxd")
for Map in mxdList:
    filePath = os.path.join(workspace, Map)
    mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(filePath)
    brkLayerList = arcpy.mapping.ListBrokenDataSources(mxd)
    for lyr in brkLayerList:
        if lyr.supports("DATASOURCE") and lyr.supports("WORKSPACEPATH"):
            brokenDataSource = lyr.dataSource
            print brokenDataSource
            if brokenDataSource.startswith('N'):
                if brokenDataSource == brokenDataSource:
                    newDataSource = brokenDataSource.replace(r'N:', r'c:\users\athom\Documents\GIS\GIS_computer_06_20_2013\GIS_LOCAL_MASTER')
                    layerName = lyr.datasetName
                    ChangedDataSet = newDataSource.replace(layerName, '')
                    print 'newDataSource = ' + newDataSource
                    print 'ChangedDataSet = ' + ChangedDataSet
                    print 'layerName = ' + layerName
                    try:
                        if "shp" in newDataSource:
                            ChangedDataSet =ChangedDataSet.replace(' ','')[:-5]
                            print ChangedDataSet
                            layerName = layerName+'.shp'
                            print layerName
                            lyr.replaceDataSource(ChangedDataSet, "SHAPEFILE_WORKSPACE", layerName, True)
                            lyr.save()
                        elif "mdb" in newDataSource:
                           accessName = 'mdb'
                           ChangedDataSet = ChangedDataSet.split(accessName,1)[0]
                           ChangedDataSet = ChangedDataSet + 'mdb'
                           print 'ChangedDataSet = ' + ChangedDataSet
                           #lyr.replaceDataSource(ChangedDataSet, "ACCESS_WORKSPACE", layerName, True)
                           lyr.save()
                        elif "gdb" in newDataSource:
                            lyr.replaceDataSource(ChangedDataSet, "FILEGDB_WORKSPACE", layerName, True)
                        else:
                            lyr.replaceDataSource(ChangedDataSet, "RASTER_WORKSPACE", layerName, True)
                    except Exception as e:
                        print arcpy.AddError(e)
                        print "N FAILED"
            elif brokenDataSource.startswith ('n'):
                newDataSource = brokenDataSource.replace(r'n:', r'c:\users\athom\Documents\GIS\GIS_computer_06_20_2013\GIS_LOCAL_MASTER')
                layerName = lyr.datasetName
                ChangedDataSet = newDataSource.replace(layerName, '')
                print newDataSource
                print ChangedDataSet
                print layerName
                try:
                    if "shp" in newDataSource:
                        ChangedDataSet =ChangedDataSet.replace(' ','')[:-5]
                        print ChangedDataSet
                        layerName = layerName+'.shp'
                        print layerName
                        lyr.replaceDataSource(ChangedDataSet, "SHAPEFILE_WORKSPACE", layerName, True)
                    elif "mdb" in newDataSource:
                        lyr.replaceDataSource(ChangedDataSet, "ACCESS_WORKSPACE", layerName, True)
                    elif "gdb" in newDataSource:
                        lyr.replaceDataSource(ChangedDataSet, "FILEGDB_WORKSPACE", layerName, True)
                    else:
                        lyr.replaceDataSource(ChangedDataSet, "RASTER_WORKSPACE", layerName, True)
                except arcpy.ExecuteError:
                    arcpy.AddError(GetMessages(2))
                    print "n FAILED"

                else:
                    print 'Data Source Lost'
        mxd.save()
    #mxd.save()
    del mxd