Support for using a (spatial) database?

Question

Hello

I'm wondering about the abilities of ArcGIS Runtime to use a database. I've read about it on the Resource Center but I have some questions I would like to recieve more clarification on.

As I gather ArcGIS Runtime relies on 'ArcGIS for Server' to obtain data from a database, is this true? There's also something called "SDS", Spatial Data Server, what is this really? The pages on it doesn't make this clear.

Another option to the above is probably to use ArcGIS Desktop, let it interact with a database, and generate a map package the client application can use, or am I wrong?

Best Regards
Alexander

MichaelBranscomb · Answer

I'm wondering about the abilities of ArcGIS Runtime to use a database. I've read about it on the Resource Center but I have some questions I would like to recieve more clarification on.

Another option to the above is probably to use ArcGIS Desktop, let it interact with a database, and generate a map package the client application can use, or am I wrong?

Hi,

The ArcGIS Runtime SDK for WPF can consume layers from a variety of datasources both "online" and "local". Online datasources cover sources such as ArcGIS for Server services (map, feature, image, etc) where the data is likely to reside in a database plus various Open Geospatial Consortium service types, and other services including Bing and OpenStreeMap. Local datasources refer to local Tile Packages or local map/feature services spun up from Map Packages. The Map Packages are prepared in ArcGIS for Desktop as you have identified. So you could say that the ArcGIS Runtime SDK for WPF supports all the same datasources as ArcGIS for Desktop... but any datasets that cannot be natively supported in the runtime local server will be converted to File Geodatabase.

The Map Packages you create can persist the connection information for connecting directly to your database if required. To do this add an Enterprise GDB layer to ArcMap and package the map making sure you choose to reference the data.

Regarding the Spatial Data Server - that's just a way of exposing lightweight feature services directly from spatial types in your database (http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/#/What_is_ArcGIS_Spatial_Data_Server/01sq00000005000000/). Think of it as a subset of components from ArcGIS for Server.

Cheers

Mike

JohnHauck · Answer

"ArcGIS Spatial Data Server is provided as a separate installation with all editions of ArcGIS for Server Enterprise. You can install ArcGIS Spatial Data Server for either IIS or the Java platform."

SDS can be installed independently or with Server and could definately be a potential option for this. With SDS you can serve and edit native spatial types from a database via a feature service.

Here is some documentation that discusses SDS in relation to Runtime:

Spatial Data Server feature services