Esri Geodatabase (ArcSDE Geodb) Reader Parameters

This parameter identifies the pathname of a connection file to be used to connect to an Enterprise Geodatabase.

A connection file provides the necessary information to connect to the SDE server, such as the server name or the username.

The connection file must be a *.sde file and have the proper format for a connection file as defined by Esri. Connection files can be created in ArcCatalog.

Check this option to override the User and Password from the connection file. Overriding credentials is required for Connection Files that do not have saved credentials.

Note: This parameter is ignored if the Connection File is using OS Authentication.

Enter the username and password to access the database, user account, or wherever authentication is required.

Select this parameter to override the version provided in the connection file.

The name of the SDE version to which FME connects. If not specified, FME connects to the version sde.DEFAULT, or equivalent. This parameter is only applicable when dealing with versioned tables or layers.

The historical marker name of the dataset to be read (used in multi-versioned databases that have archiving enabled). Note that the version name is case-sensitive, and that the historical data is read-only.

The specific date and time of the archived dataset to be read (used in multi-versioned databases that have archiving enabled). Note that historical data is read-only.

Specifies whether to keep the table qualifier. The full name of a table in a database is of the format:

<prefix>.<table_name>

Depending on the database format, the prefix can be <database_name>.<owner_name>, <owner_name>, or <schema_name>.

Selecting this parameter indicates that the reader should return the table name without any prefixes. This is useful, for example, when creating a workspace that will be passed on to another organization using the same table names, or performing a translation to another database format but with a different user name.

When this parameter is selected during workspace generation, the source feature types will be the table names without any prefix; otherwise, they will contain the owner name as a prefix. It is recommended that you do not change this parameter after generating the workspace, because it is possible for no features to be successfully passed onto the writer (since the writer is expecting feature types with different names).

Note: Even when this parameter is selected, if the table is owned by a user other than the current user, the prefix will not be dropped. This is to ensure that the reader will find the correct table.

After you have specified the database connection, click the Browse button to select tables for import. A connection window appears while the system compiles a table from the database.

Once the table list appears, you can select one or more tables, and then click OK to dismiss the window. The table name(s) will appear in the Table List field in the parameter box.

Enter any SQL where clause that constrains the attributes of the layers selected in the layer list (for example, NUMLANES=2).

Specifies whether to only translate features that contain some kind of geometry.

Specifies whether or not to resolve the domain code found in feature classes and tables into the domain value.

This means that when an attribute of a feature has a coded value domain associated with it, another attribute will also be added that represents the textual description of the coded attribute. The new attribute will be <attribute-name>_resolved, where <attribute-name> is the name of the attribute containing the code.

Specifies whether or not to resolve the subtype field values found on feature classes and tables into the name of the actual subtype.

Specifies whether to read the network portion of network features. When checked, junctions will be read as points (geodb_point) and edges will be read as lines (geodb_polyline). Additionally, none of the network related attribution will be supplied on the features. Checking this option speeds up reading of network features significantly.

Determines whether to read relationship features present in a source dataset. When this parameter is checked, feature types containing simple relationships will be ignored, and feature types containing attributed relationships will be treated as non-spatial tables. When this parameter is unchecked, relationships will be read normally as either simple or attributed. The speed of reading features is vastly improved if relationships are ignored.

Determines whether complex edge features should be split. When split, complex edge features are read at the element level rather than the feature level. The element level represents the logical view of the geometric network. As a result, no network connectivity information is lost.

Note: For information on the attributes that each FME feature stores when this option is checked, please see the Esri Geodatabase Reader/Writer > Reader Overview > Reader Keywords > SPLIT_COMPLEX_EDGES.

Specifies whether or not to split multi-part annotations into separate features for each 'element' when reading. If checked, a single feature for each element (usually a word) in a multi-part annotation will be produced on reading, resulting in feature-specific attributes such as angle and text position being stored according to the location of each element. If the parameter is unchecked, multi-part annotations will be read normally, as a single feature storing a single set of attributes describing the positioning of the text.

This parameter provides a mechanism for specifying an arbitrarily complex search feature. It works with the Search Method parameter to define the spatial constraint.

This parameter specifies the type of spatial relationship the query features must have with the Search Features parameter or Use Search Envelope parameter, whichever is used, in order to be returned.

• When Search Features is selected, there is no default value, so this parameter must be specified.
• When Use Search Envelope is selected, the default value is GEODB_ENVELOPE for vector workspaces, GEODB_AREA_INTERSECT for vector FME Objects applications, and GEODB_ENVELOPE for all raster-related translations.
• When reading rasters, GEODB_ENVELOPE is the only valid value and the Search Features parameter is not supported.

Value

The value of Search Method can be one of the following:

For more information on these search methods, see Esri technical documentation ISpatialFilter Interface.

Specifies the order that the underlying search is performed:

• OPTIMIZE: Let SDE decide which to perform first
• SPATIAL_FIRST: Perform spatial query first
• ATTRIBUTE_FIRST: Perform tabular query first (when performing a WHERE clause search)

Note: This parameter is only applicable on releases of ArcSDE that support versioning. It is also only valid for vector features.

Specifies the name of a child version to create using the version specified by Transactional Version as the parent version. All tables will then be read from this (child) version rather than from the parent version.

All the tables read when this parameter is specified must be multi-versioned and have read, insert, update, and delete permissions with the current user. This is because this parameter is designed to be used when checking out a copy of the data in the parent version, with the intention that the child version will be modified and possibly reconciled and posted back to the parent version. The version will be created as a public version and the description given to the version will be Safe Software Created Version.

If Child Version Name specifies a version that already exists, an error will be output. The child version will be owned by the user specified by Username; therefore, if the owner is specified as part of the value for this parameter, the owner must be the same as Username. If the translation is aborted, then the child version created will be deleted.

By default, this parameter is left empty and therefore no child version is created.

Note: Version names are case-sensitive and therefore the value supplied for this parameter is also case-sensitive.

When checked, only the differences between two versions will be read instead of reading all the data. Differences are read as difference features that record the inserts, updates and deletes that have occurred on the connection version since the baseline version. See the Difference Features section for the structure of difference features.

In order to read transactional version differences, the tables/feature classes being read must be registered as versioned and for historical version differences, those tables must additionally have archiving enabled.

When comparing two transactional versions, the baseline will actually be the common ancestor of both versions to avoid conflicts where the same record was changed in both versions.

Baseline Version

Use this parameter to select the version type to compare with when reading version differences:

• When the connection version is transactional, a transactional version must be used.
• When the connection version is historical, the historical version should be used.
• Comparing a historical version with a transactional version will result in an error.

Baseline Transactional Version

Select a specific transactional version to serve as the baseline for difference reading.

Baseline Historical Marker

Select a historical marker to serve as the baseline for difference reading.

Baseline Historical Date and Time

Select a specific date and time to serve as the baseline for difference reading.

Use this parameter to expose Format Attributes in Workbench when you create a workspace:

• In a dynamic scenario, it means these attributes can be passed to the output dataset at runtime.
• In a non-dynamic scenario where you have multiple feature types, it is convenient to expose additional attributes using this one parameter. For example, if you have ten feature types and want to expose the same attribute in each one, it is easier to define it once than it is to set each feature type individually in the workspace.

This parameter controls how Geodatabase aliases are used.

• None: Aliases are ignored.
• Replace Attribute Names with Aliases: (Only applicable when adding a Reader.) Attributes on feature types will be named for their aliases rather than their official names. A geodb_feature_class_alias attribute will be included on each feature. Use this mode when the target format should create feature types using the aliases as attribute names.
• Expose Aliases as Metadata Attributes: For each attribute read, a second <name>_alias attribute will be added that stores the alias for the attribute in question. A geodb_feature_class_alias attribute will also be included on each feature. Use this mode when the target format is Geodatabase and the aliases should be preserved during feature class and table creation.

Using the minimum and maximum x and y parameters, define a bounding box that will be used to filter the input features. Only features that intersect with the bounding box are returned.

If all four coordinates of the search envelope are specified as 0, the search envelope will be disabled.

Select this parameter to remove any portions of imported features being read that are outside the Search Envelope.

The illustration below shows the results of the Search Envelope when Clip to Search Envelope is set to No on the left side and Yes on the right side.

• No: Any features that cross the search envelope boundary will be read, including the portion that lies outside of the boundary.
• Yes: Any features that cross the search envelope boundary will be clipped at the boundary, and only the portion that lies inside the boundary will be read. The underlying function for the Clip to Search Envelope function is an intersection; however, when Clip to Search Envelope is set to Yes, a clipping operation is also performed in addition to the intersection.