Changing Feature Classes Schema

[aam]

What is the best way to change schema for feature classes in the Enterprise Geodatabase? We are going through reorganizing of our data and part of it includes streamlining the schema (field names) for our feature classes. The challenge is, a lot of these feature classes have been published on the ArcGIS Server and are currently being used in web applications.

Is there a way for me to modify the schema without breaking the connection to the web apps?

[VinceAngelo]

I name my tables with a numeric suffix (e.g., "project_stuff_t1") so I can make later changes ("project_stuff_t2") and keep track things like type changes.  This often manifests with revised service names ("proj_data_10" -> "proj_data_11" or "proj_data_20", depending on scope changes), allowing the "old" service to run while dashboards are updated to use the new service. 

Of course, to pull this off, you don't modify the table, but create a new one from the old before archiving the old content and dropping it.

- V