Change MXD data sources to another SDE geodatabase

JakeSkinner

Is it possible to change the data source of an MXD to another SDE geodatabase?  I've tried this, but have only been able to get this to work when switching versions within the same SDE geodatabase.  Ex:

import arcpy
from arcpy import env
env.workspace = workspace = r"C:\temp\python"

env.overwriteOutput = True

mxdList = arcpy.ListFiles("*.mxd")

for mxd in mxdList:
    mxd2 = workspace + "\\" + mxd
    mapdoc = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(mxd2)
    mapdoc.findAndReplaceWorkspacePaths(r"C:\TEMP\Python\VECTOR_Default.sde", r"C:\TEMP\Python\VECTOR_QAQC.sde")
    mapdoc.save()

del mapdoc

The above code works as I am switching from one version (SDE.Default) to another version (SDE.QAQC) within the same VECTOR geodatabase.  When I try to switch to another SDE geodatabase that contains the same feature class (same owner and feature class name, just different database), it does not work.  Ex:

import arcpy
from arcpy import env
env.workspace = workspace = r"C:\temp\python"

env.overwriteOutput = True

mxdList = arcpy.ListFiles("*.mxd")

for mxd in mxdList:
    mxd2 = workspace + "\\" + mxd
    mapdoc = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(mxd2)
    mapdoc.findAndReplaceWorkspacePaths(r"C:\TEMP\Python\VECTOR_Default.sde", r"C:\TEMP\Python\RASTER_Default.sde")
    mapdoc.save()

del mapdoc

Thanks for any suggestions!

RuthEmerick

It sure is. I used replaceDataSource instead of findAndReplaceWorkspacePaths because it works better with group layers.

Attached is a copy of the script I used for all our mxds when we switched to ArcServer 10. It is meant to be run from the python interpreter in an open mxd, and does lots of extra things like copying files from one place to another that we needed so we could deploy this for non-techincal users. You can adapt this for a simpler case (we had a lot of name changes, too) and for looping through mxds in a specified folder; there is no need for the mxd to be open if the parameters are set correctly.

Have fun!

replace data source script.py.zip