Alternatives to using SDE command line tools - Blog Discussion

[ChetDobbins]

With the release of 10.2 and plans to deprecate the ArcSDE command line tools, you may be wondering how current tasks that use these tools can be completed elsewhere. This blog provides some workflows that have alternate user interface tools in ArcCatalog/ArcMap that will make transitioning as seamless as possible.

http://blogs.esri.com/esri/supportcenter/2013/10/04/do-this-not-that-alternatives-to-using-sde-comma...

We are very interested in hearing feedback from everyone who uses the ArcSDE commands, including questions, concerns, and ideas for making this successful. You can also contact Esri Support Services for specific ArcSDE commands that do not have comparable replacements.

This document outlines the planned changes in platform and functionality in the ArcGIS 10.2 release and
includes a reference to ArcGIS 10.1 deprecation notes.
http://downloads2.esri.com/support/TechArticles/W26496_W25918_DEPRECATION_PLAN_FOR_ARCGIS_101_and_10...

[AsrujitSengupta]

Mike Dunham-Wilkie​ You can contact Esri Tech Support and ask them to attach the NIM085661 to your customer #. This way you will be able to track the NIM from support.esri.com.

[MelissaJarman]

Mike -

I just checked and this defect did not make it into the 10.3.1 release as it was originally slotted for and it is still being investigated. Asrujit stated that you need to contact support and give them your workflow and symptoms. The analyst will then make the determination if your symptoms match this defect and then link you. After this point you can review the status of this defect.

[Anonymous User]

So the only way to be kept up to date on this problem is to spend a lot of additional time jumping through hoops?! That is not helpful.

[DavidGifford]

Without providing detailed specific examples, we use spatial views (and I include materialised views as well as standard views) from a simple join (for example a look up table to point/line/poly feature classes) right through to incorporating st_geometry functions including st_buffer, st_intersects etc.

Sure I can do a join using layer files, or build python scripts and create scheduled tasks to do my geoprocessing, but that's nowhere near as elegant (or simple) as doing it at the database level.

I really don't know what else we as users (and customers) need to do to convince Esri Inc of the importance of being able to register views with the geodatabase. And I'm still baffled as to why it was taken out.

Regards

-David

[FalconESRIKW]

I agree with Joshua Bixby here, fixing NIM085661 may not address the exact issue being discussed here. I am not sure why isn't ESRI coming up with an alternative to 'sdetable -o create_view?.

At 10.1, I remember there was a way to register table or spatial table created from backend (using SQL or DBMS tools) with geodatabase from ArcCatalog.

You just had to right click on the table - regster with geodatabase - specify unique identifier - shape field - spatial reference.

Is it too much complicated to incorporate similar method for 'views'? Or may be provide an option of registering view with geodatabase during its creation itself?

Does ESRI have an acceptable clarification on why they have not came up with an alternative for this commond? Or will this be served with ArcGIS 11?

[AsrujitSengupta]

I think this may have been mentioned earlier as well. There are 2 sets of geodatabase repository tables - one for SDE and one for GDB.

The sdetable\sdelayer commands are used to register with SDE, but not register with GDB.

Creating a spatial view from ArcSDE commands will automatically register the view with SDE, however using ArcCatalog to register with Geodatabase, is to register with both SDE and GDB.

Database views are read only, they should NOT be registered with Geodatabase (as registering with Geodatabase needs to create an OBJECTID column).

[JoshuaBixby]

Asrujit SenGupta‌, good points of clarification.  Taking those points into consideration, it doesn't change my belief that I don't want ArcGIS assuming the first non-null field it finds is the unique identifier for a database view.  Embedding special meaning to column ordering doesn't seem like a sound solution.

[FalconESRIKW]

Thank you for the clarification! My intention was not to go into the technical details of it however all I was trying to say was with respect to John Baleja's comment:

"I've been following this thread and first I want to make clear that all of the ArcSDE command line tools are available up through the ArcGIS 10.2.2 release. We have done a lot of work at 10.3 to fill gaps, but spatial views is an area where we still have work to do. I will post back to this thread as I have more information regarding our plans regarding spatial views."

I just wish ESRI comes up with something as easy as steps I mentioned above so the prompts for UID and Spatial extent would just go away and the 'views' will work as smoothly as they used to when created using 'sdetable -o create_view'.

This is something users are eagerly waiting for and it would be great if ESRI clarifies their stance on this. Is this something ESRI is working upon? Or adding them as query layer or drag/drop and then specify UID (assuming spatial reference is already defined) is the process they would like users to adopt? Or as Joshua Bixby says order your fields such a way that the desired field would be considered by ArcGIS as UID?

I hope I am clear this time, sorry for the confusion earlier.

[JeffPace]

I had the exact same problem with my objectids showing up as a long int (and they wouldnot work in AGO either).

I ended up having duplicate objectids.  Once i cleared those up, i was able to manually add a primary key to the objectid field.  My spatial views now show up with the objectid field correctly identified as "objectid" as the data type

[LukeBehling]

In my case I ended up using a stored proceedure to create a temp view and insert from the temp table into a feature class. So, I'm creating a temp table (with OBJECTID set to int (identity 1,1), truncating a feature class then inserting from the temp table into the feature class. I scheduled this to run nightly and though not as clean as having a spatial view that users can add directly, it works to have nightly updated features AND I can export from the feature class without the unique identifier error. - Thank you Dave Watson!