topic Spatial View in a File GDB, is it materialized? in Data Management Questions

Spatial View in a File GDB, is it materialized?

JamesFox1 — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:39:56 GMT

I have a question about how a spatial view is stored and if it is update-able in a file GDB. I copied a group of objects out of a relational SDE geodatabase into a file GDB and some of the objects are spatial views. They seemed to copy fine but then I realized "how is a spatial view defined for a file GDB"?

My understanding is that a spatial view is technically a view defined at a relational database level against base tables maintained by the ArcGIS metadata so that the geometry can render and process correctly. But is a spatial view in file GDB stored as an "internal view" against the base tables in the GDB file? I started cleaning up some the base tables in this file GDB, renaming the table names and such and it seems like the data in these spatial views did not change. This tells me that a spatial view in a file GDB is some kind of "snapshot" set of data taken at the time when the spatial view was copied from the original relational SDE database, sort of like a materialized view in common relational databases. if it is just a materialized snaphot, is update-able or refreshable then or would a file GDB spatial view then need to be deleted and re-created to be updated?

Any thoughts on this?

-Jim

Re: Spatial View in a File GDB, is it materialized?

VinceAngelo — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:22:39 GMT

I'm pretty sure File Geodatabase doesn't support views (there isn't an SQL engine behind it).

If you copy a view into a file geodatabase, you'll get a table with the contents of the view at
the time of the copy. It would be quite a stretch to call this a materialized view.

- V

Re: Spatial View in a File GDB, is it materialized?

JamesFox1 — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:48:41 GMT

Thanks Vince,

I kind of figured as such. A one time, non-updatable snapshot at create time.

-Jim

Re: Spatial View in a File GDB, is it materialized?

Bud — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 16:50:43 GMT

I know this post is ancient, but I thought I'd add a comment for future readers:

I learned recently that it's possible to create a true/dynamic database view in an FGDB:

Create Database View (Data Management):
This tool is supported for databases, enterprise geodatabases, mobile geodatabases, and file geodatabases.