SDE Files: show specific tables per file but NOT based on permissions?

Question

This is another question that's hard to articulate, but does anyone know a way to make it so specific SDE files filter down what tables are shown, without having to sign in as a specific user?

Example:

I have an Enterprise GDB with like 100 items in it. They're more or less organized into feature datasets,, except for the standalone tables since they can't be added to FDs.

I'd like to be able to make an SDE file that only showed one or two of the tables or feature datasets at a time.

Current SDE connection for UserIdealized SDE files* FD1* FC1A
* FC1B

* FD2* FC2A
* FC2B
* FC2C

* FD3* FC3A

* FC0A
* FC0B
* TB0A
* TB0B
* TB0C

* SDE1* FD1* FC1A
* FC1B

* TB0A
* TB0C

* SDE2* FD2* FC2A
* FC2B
* FC2C

* FD3* FC2A

* TB0B

* SDE3* FC0A
* FC0B

I know that you can allow read or edit privileges to specific users or groups and then store those in an SDE file and work from there. That is not what I'm looking for.

I'm looking to take what the user should be able to see based on those privileges and filter it.

Is this possible at all?

Thanks!

AlfredBaldenweck · Answer

Thanks for the response, Vince.

Yes, I am talking about .sde connection files.

That is unfortunate to hear. I definitely do not want to have a billion different roles.

The fact of the matter is there needs to be a way to filter this stuff down. In a file system, folders exist for a reason, and it's really frustrating that Pro still doesn't have a way to, for example, only show non-spatial tables or just a few datasets out of 30.

Maybe in a few years we'll get something to ameliorate this.

Vaguely related Ideas for anyone who reads this post in the future:

Catalog: Filter by Item Type by right-clicking on ... - Esri Community

Quick filter in Contents Panel in Catalog Window - Page 3 - Esri Community

Allow tables to be stored into FeatureDataset - Esri Community --this got closed for reasons that make sense from a technical standpoint but ignore the fact that the user experience is really tough when you can't compartmentalize your database items.

VinceAngelo · Answer

First of all, it's important to point at that "SDE" no longer exists. The functionality of the product formerly known as "SDE", then "ArcSDE", has dissolved like ink into water within ArcGIS Enterprise functionality. The last dregs of "SDE" naming are the "sde" login that owns enterprise geodatabase metadata (in most environments), the ".sde"-suffixed file known as a "Enterprise Geodatabase Connection File" (or just "connection file") and the arcpy.ArcSDESQLExecute() function (that executes arbitrary SQL code as the connection user).

The connection file UI widget has a specific functionality in Desktop interfaces (based on permissions), and there isn't any way to change that. If you know how to create login and group roles and GRANT access to tables, you know all that is necessary to get an approximation of what you are requesting here out of connection files. Doing it this way would be cumbersome, moderately hideous, and probably result in awful performance (burdening the database server with far more connections than is necessary)

The only way you can filter tables like this is if you make your own UI component, fed by a JSON file or other config file. The particulars of implementing such a UI component would be better researched in an ArcObjects, Pro API, Python, or other programming interface forum, since this isn't really a data management issue so much as a custom UI one.

- V