Direct connection to geodatabase with API

[HarlanMarshall]

Can I make a direct connection to our SQL Server enterprise geodatabases with API for Python? Does the API only work with AGOL or Portal?

[JoshuaBixby · Accepted solution]

Not directly.  It is common for ArcGIS API for Python to be installed in a Python environment that also has ArcPy, and ArcPy provides the ability to make direction connections to databases, both regular and geo-enabled.  Even if ArcGIS API for Python supported connecting directly to geodatabases, it would likely require or use ArcPy code, so adding that support doesn't add much value.

[HarlanMarshall]

Thanks Joshua for the answer. I can use arcpy with Jupyter Notebook but do not get widgets for result display other than textual.