topic Re: How to identify branch versioned feature classes from SDE Business Tables? in Geodatabase Questions

How to identify branch versioned feature classes from SDE Business Tables?

AndrewRudin1 — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 19:52:20 GMT

I'm looking for a way to easily detect all feature classes in an enterprise geodatabase that are configured with branch versioning. Anyone found a straightforward way to do this in an automated fashion?

Arcpy's describe provides a way to determine if the feature class is versioned, but no way to distinguish between traditional vs branch. So that's led me to look at the SDE business tables, and I found two possible candidates. I'm curious if anyone has had more experience with these since I can't find documentation on what each do.

BRANCH_TABLES_MODIFIED is the first candidate. It has a BRANCH_ID column with many of the rows having a zero in this column. Then there is a REGISTRATION_ID which seems to be the same ID as on SDE.TABLE_REGISTRY. I assume that BRANCH_ID = 0 equates to default version for each table. So if I filter to BRANCH_ID=0 and join to TABLE_REGISTRY does that get me the comprehensive list?

MULTIBRANCH_TABLES is another candidate with a REGISTRATION_ID and a START_MOMENT date column. I seem to get fewer tables back from this.

Re: How to identify branch versioned feature classes from SDE Business Tables?

DavidSolari — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 21:03:34 GMT

From the SQL end, any registered table that's branch versioned will have some special fields to track the branch version info. In my environment the GDB_IS_DELETE field is a solid indicator, your EGDB configuration may create different fields. I'm not a SQL wizard but if you can get the schema for every table programmatically that should do you.

Re: How to identify branch versioned feature classes from SDE Business Tables?

MobiusSnake — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 23:25:43 GMT

The XML definitions in the GDB_ITEMS table might have something? (I don't actually know, but it's probably worth a look.)

Re: How to identify branch versioned feature classes from SDE Business Tables?

MarceloMarques — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 23:32:53 GMT

SQL access to enterprise geodatabase data—ArcMap | Documentation (arcgis.com)

Geodatabase system tables—ArcMap | Documentation (arcgis.com)

Example: Determine which datasets are versioned in a geodatabase—ArcMap | Documentation (arcgis.com)

SQL SERVER
SELECT *
FROM sde.GDB_ITEMS
GO
--Versioned
SELECT NAME AS "Versioned feature class", definition
FROM sde.GDB_ITEMS
WHERE Definition.exist('(/*/Versioned)[1]') = 1
AND Definition.value('(/*/Versioned)[1]', 'nvarchar(4)') = 'true'
GO
--Not Versioned
SELECT NAME AS "Versioned feature class", definition
FROM sde.GDB_ITEMS
WHERE
Definition.exist('(/*/Versioned)[1]') = 1
AND Definition.value('(/*/Versioned)[1]', 'nvarchar(4)') = 'false'
GO
--Branch Versioned
SELECT NAME AS "Versioned feature class", definition
FROM sde.GDB_ITEMS
WHERE
Definition.exist('(/*/Versioned)[1]') = 1
AND Definition.value('(/*/Versioned)[1]', 'nvarchar(4)') = 'true'
AND Definition.exist('(/*/IsBranch)[1]') = 1
AND Definition.value('(/*/IsBranch)[1]', 'nvarchar(4)') = 'true'
GO
--Traditional Versioning
SELECT NAME AS "Versioned feature class", definition
FROM sde.GDB_ITEMS
WHERE
Definition.exist('(/*/Versioned)[1]') = 1
AND Definition.value('(/*/Versioned)[1]', 'nvarchar(4)') = 'true'
AND Definition.exist('(/*/IsBranch)[1]') = 1
AND Definition.value('(/*/IsBranch)[1]', 'nvarchar(4)') = 'false'
GO

Re: How to identify branch versioned feature classes from SDE Business Tables?

ChrisStiwinter1 — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 14:48:37 GMT

A little late but may help someone, as stated in OP...

ORACLE:

select distinct(TABLE_NAME), OWNER from SDE.TABLE_REGISTRY a
inner join SDE.BRANCH_TABLES_MODIFIED b
on a.registration_id = b.registration_id

filter on branch_id,

Re: How to identify branch versioned feature classes from SDE Business Tables?

JBeasley — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:44:51 GMT

I am only sharing this in case it was missed, but at ArcGIS Pro 3.4+, Describe now has properties isTraditionalVersioned and isBranchVersioned. I wish there weren't three different properties to go through to find what versioning type a dataset is, but better than digging through the RDBMS...

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/3.4/arcpy/functions/dataset-properties.htm

Re: How to identify branch versioned feature classes from SDE Business Tables?

MichaelAdornetto1 — Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:47:18 GMT

isBranchVersioned, and isTraditionalVersioned is only in the Dataset properties documentation but it appears to work on feature classes.

Re: How to identify branch versioned feature classes from SDE Business Tables?

MichaelAdornetto1 — Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:46:46 GMT

retracted