Using xml workspace to overwrite geodatabase in ArcGIS Server 10 with ArcSDE for SQL Server?

Question

I want to transfer a geodatabase from my development server to my client's production server. We are using SQL Server, but in different versions. Hence I cannot use Backup/restore or detach/attach. The servers don't have direct connection, so that I cannot copy the database. I used Moving a geodatabase using an XML document to export the database and then Import it to the destination. The export is done successfully, but since there are existing feature classes on the target database, I cannot import the data to the destination. I have to delete the existing features or overwrite the imported xml, but I don't know how.

Answer 1

You might consider exporting your development database to a file geodatabase first (XML workspace export/import would work fine). Then if you have a connection to your production SQL Server database from the ArcGIS Desktop, you could set a Python script or a model with ModelBuilder that would truncate all the rows (in 10.0, the tool is Delete Rows) in all of the feature classes and tables you have in your client's production database. Then you could just run the Append tool for each element in your file geodatabase in order to "merge" the empty feature elements in the production database with the data you have in your development database.

This is much better than deleting database elements because when appending the data you don't have to delete any element and thus all the behaviours you set up (relationships, domains, etc.) will be preserved.