How to migrate an Excel dataset inventory into a "Proper Database". Any novel approaches?

Question

Past and present customers I have worked with record their geospatial data as items in spreadsheets.

This has always been a simple way of keeping track of geospatial data, because most companies using ArcGIS Enterprise will be using local File GBDs, SDE, Shapefiles, Rasters, Mosaics, Map Image Services, Hosted Feature services, etc etc. I don't believe we can manage ALL of these data entities in one place without creating a separate tabular database, but I would be really interested to know if this IS possible with something like HUB (using a private ArcGIS Enterprise), but I think Hub is only suitable for web services, not local geodata?

But essentially, we would like to migrate the content into a more secure database that can expose a web front end to allow GIS Users to discover data, manage existing entries, and add new data items in a custom form.

With my current client, we have a sharepoint spreadsheet with 2 sheets; one for local fileserver geodata and one for geoservices published to our Enterprise. There are multi-user editing risks associated with this recording approach (with overwriting errors being common), but at least sharepoint records all changes to cells so that they have the option to roll-back.

Anyone have any novel ideas or solutions to migrate away from Excel?

SurabhiGupta · Answer

Hi @David_Brooks. You can look into using Enterprise geodatabases for multi-user editing. Creating child as well as QA/QC versions will allow you to keep the edits error-free. Editor-tracking and archiving features would also help track the edits to editors or look at historical records. These excel sheets can be converted into geodatabase tables and feature classes, depending on your needs. You can use any RDBMS platform compatible with Esri to store the data and also publish it on AGOL or ArcGIS Enterprise to allow users to access it from web.

David_Brooks · Answer

@VinceAngelo they want to. They need a solution that has user based access control to each data entry, otherwise the margin for error is too great.

It's a shame that there isn't an OOTB solution already available for this type of challenge

VinceAngelo · Answer

This is more of a "Want" problem -- If they don't want to migrate, then no obviously superior solution will ever be acceptable.

- V