Allow Spaces in ALIASES in SQL Views

[NickMcNamara]

As described in this Community post https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-enterprise-questions/what-is-the-proper-sql-syntax-for-includin...

please enable the correct functioning of aliases in Views. Currently, views are not implemented correctly. Although the field names are defined in the View, ArcGIS ignores them and uses the alias for both the field names and the alias. This forces you to not use an alias and then you have to define the alias in ArcGIS Pro every single time you add the view into a project, creating lots of extra work.

[SSWoodward]

Thanks for this Idea @NickMcNamara,

Could you share what version of ArcGIS Pro you are using, and a step by step of how you are creating the view?  I am not seeing this behavior in ArcGIS Pro 3.4.  When I create a view, the field name is correctly used for the field in the view, and not the alias.

[NickMcNamara]

3.4. Create a view in SQL Server and define the aliases in SQL Server. Those aliases defined in the database are not treated as aliases in GIS. They are treated as the table name. You should see if there is a way to detect that they are not the table name but the alias. So you have to go in and redefine the alias in GIS. 

Basically, the alias in GIS is not the alias in SQL.

[NickMcNamara]

If it cannot be done, at least have a way to define the alias in GIS in Catalog so that it stays in the database. When you define it in GIS, it has to be defined in the project file and does not stay. So if you create a new project, you have to go and manually create those aliases in that project file as well, and you have to keep doing this every time you use the view.

There are a lot of opportunities to modify ArcGIS Pro so that users don't have to keep doing things over and over in projects, but should be able to save them in the database. How about reordering fields too, and saving that?

[SSWoodward]

Thanks for the additional information here.

When you create the view with the create database view GP tool in ArcGIS Pro, are you seeing the same behavior?

[NickMcNamara]

Yes, its the same. 

At the end of the day, it would be useful to be able to define the alias AS THE USER SEES IT IN GIS APPS such as in the image below in the view itself and have it saved in the database so that you don't have to enter those aliases over and over and over every time you use it.

Sure, you can create a project and share it among people so they can copy and paste their alias settings into the new project, but that's a hack and it would be nice to have it clean... just set it once and you're good.