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Is there any way to view .accdb data in Pro?

KamillePreto

I never use Microsoft Access for the work that I do, but I do know that GIS professionals would be able to open or convert the Access data into their GIS. I was sent a .accdb from somebody who needs a map created and web application and I am unfamiliar with what the steps look like from here. I am aware that .accdb are no longer able to open up in Pro (I read in a few forums), however, I feel like there has to be some way to get the data from an .accdb into Pro so I can save the layers as shapefiles or feature classes.

I tried to go to Properties of the .accdb and change the extension to .gdb, which worked. But it is not showing up as a file that is able to be pulled into Pro - I assume it's formatting related.

Can anybody help me?

This type of GIS-related work is above my skill set and I am definitely confused.

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Accepted answers

KoryKramer

OLE DB support is coming in the next release of Pro (2.6) which is scheduled for July. In a development build, I have created a connection to an .accdb file:

All comments

WilliamRice

For File Geodatabase to Personal Geodatabase to Microsoft Access workflows and reverse, one option is to keep around an older version of ArcGIS Desktop around such as ArcGIS Desktop 10.3.1 around on an older machine or virtual machine.

Hornbydd

This is indeed very good news to hear! I know most of the UK will be cheering at this!

JamesBurn__LET__C_E_T___GISP__

Good point - I'm using ArcPro v2.5 and MS SQL Server 2016/2018.

I hope that helps.

Cheers.

BranislavBlagojevic

James,
Thanks a lot! I'll test this. My last connection test (AGP ver. 2.1? MS SQL Server Express 2014) failed. Obviously I was doing something wrong, so I'll try again with AGP 2.5 and MS SQL Server Express 2019.

JamesBurn__LET__C_E_T___GISP__

Hi Branislav,

I agree that going through SQLServer is not ideal, but as there have been discussions about running the solution through other applications such as excel or flat files (csv's) I felt that it was worth mentioning. Especially as it a) generally handles the field type issue that has been discussed and b) one can bring in an entire MS Access db in one go.

Regarding your comment about enterprise and SDE, I can clarify - what I mentioned can be done just using a regular license without the need for enterprise, ArcServer or SDE. With the screenshots that I posted being just that - a direct link from my ArcPro Basic license to my locally installed SQL Server Express. You just need to use the "add database connection" from the "connections" dropdown. This will allow you to bring in both tabular data tables and spatial ones with geometry. Note that you will need primary keys of some sort and there may be editing limitations depending on one's configuration.

I can appreciate the confusion though as ArcPro appears to list any SQL Server connection as "SDE" regardless of whether or not it actually is.

I hope that helps to clarify things.

The end result though is that once the data is in ArcPro. One can then save to other formats if needed etc.

BranislavBlagojevic

Kory,

Thanks for the nice news!

BranislavBlagojevic

James,

Microsoft SQL Server is free but people here discussing direct reading MS Access data from ArcGIS Pro software (Basic, Standard and Advanced), not Enterprise Solution; not about SDE and not about ArcGIS Server. As far as I know from ArcGIS Pro it is not possible to even connect to SQL Server Express, as it was (I haven't tested in ArcGIS Dektop 10.8) possible from ArcMap/ArcCatalog (Personal SDE). So it's not free!

JoeBorgione

I use the table to table tool in Pro to convert CSVs into FGDB tables; you can specify how each field is handled with that tool. That's really helpful for what you are describing, and especially so with text fields that otherwise default to 8,000 characters. Excel to table may be different but I try to stay away from them when it comes to ArcGIS...

JasonSmith4

Hey Greg, while this is true. It almost ALWAYS leads to fields getting set with incorrect data types. For instance, Zip Code fields when imported from Excel or CSV usually come in as a number field, when they should really be text/string. Same with company IDs that are numeric in nature, but should be treated a text/string. By having native Access database tie-ins, as long as the data type is set correctly in the Access table, then it saves a step of having to make sure the fields coming in are set to the correct type in ArcGIS Pro.

JasonSmith4

OMG Kory Kramer‌ you don't know HOW much you just made my day, month, YEAR! MANY of us have been waiting with baited breath for this functionality. YAY !!!!!! I'm going out celebrating tonight! LOL

MiguelMartinez2

When ArcMap was release back on 1999, half of the ArcView tools were missing. And then year after year ESRI made these big announcements of the new things coming to ArcMap and most of the new things were tolls already available in ArcView. The same thing happens with the release of ArcGIS Pro, half of the ArcMap tolls were missing and then for the past years they have been incorporated to Pro as a new thing. That’s why users like me are still saying, “what were they thinking???”. Of course, to be fair, there were new tools in ArcMap that did not exist in ArcView, and there are tools in ArcGIS Pro that never existed in ArcMap. But the point is, you don’t release a new version of anything taking away past functionalities just to say you have a new software. You keep adding up and keep having your customers happy. So, what can we expect in the future when ArcGIS Pro is replaced by a new software, that we are going to have, again, half the tools missing? And now that ESRI used the “Pro” suffix in this latest version, what would they called the next software, Super Pro, Mega Pro, Pro Pro??? The answer to all this is very simple, talk to your customers before and find out what they really want to see in a new installment. Do focal groups, do beta testing, do surveys, and most of all, be users of your own products so that you can really understand what we as users want in future releases.

Zeke

Another option would be to export the tables in Access to Excel or csv and import those to Pro.

JamesBurn__LET__C_E_T___GISP__

As external applications were mentioned, a potential free option could be to work it through MS SQL Server. You can install the express version (free) and it can read/import both mdb and accdb. These tables in turn can then either be linked to directly from ArcPro or export to CSV etc. depending on where you want to go with it. Generally speaking I haven't had any issue moving between MS Access and MS SQL Server with respect to field types etc. I agree that it's a bit of a big hammer for a small nail, but the you do end up with the advantages of having a local SQL Server instance.

JoeBorgione

That's going to make tons of people very, very happy!

Kory Kramer‌

KoryKramer

OLE DB support is coming in the next release of Pro (2.6) which is scheduled for July. In a development build, I have created a connection to an .accdb file:

JoeBorgione

(posted just after Joshua's repsonse without seeing his...)You can always export your Access Table(s) to csv format and then use a table to table in Pro to bring the csv into a fgdb table. Be careful when you do that as you may need to manually adjust the field types during that process to maintain the original type.

JoshuaBixby

If you are willing to spend some money, there are several tools that various companies put out that convert entire Access databases to other formats, like SQLite, that ArcGIS Pro can read. I am not aware of any free or open-source tools that do entire DB migration.

If there aren't too many tables, then you could export tables as CSV or to Excel worksheets and then open them in Pro that way. If there are a lot of tables, you could script something similar.

One other idea, although convoluted, would be to convert an ACCDB to MDB and then use ArcGIS Desktop/ArcMap to convert/copy from MDB to FGDB.

KamillePreto

Thanks Joshua. Yes I voted on that Idea earlier today as well during my research. I'm going to check out the second link you sent me.

So there is no way to convert the existing .accdb into something that Pro can read?

JoshuaBixby

The short answer, not really. I assume you read Microsoft Access (.accdb) Support in ArcGIS Pro? The idea/request has been around for years, and Esri is now saying it is "In Product Plan" but they don't say when it will show up. There is also https://community.esri.com/community/open-platform-standards-and-interoperability/blog/2019/09/26/using-odbc-data-sources-in-core-arcgis-pro

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