Using arcpy.da.Editor?

Question

I am working with copies of feature Datasets that come from a versioned SDE. The copies are in an un-versioned 'development' SDE. I am attempting to do a field calculation on a single feature class in the development sde. I am trying to activate an editing session in python to work around the versioning but the arcpy.da.Editor is not activating an editing session.

I am more or less copying the code from these two sources:

http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/analyze/arcpy-data-access/editor.htm https://geonet.esri.com/thread/77534

For some reason it will not work, and returns the "Objects in this class cannot be updated outside of an edit session" error.

What am I doing wrong?

import arcpy
workspace = "C:\\Users\\syoklic1\\AppData\\Roaming\\ESRI\\Desktop10.3\\ArcCatalog\\devsde.sde"
fc = "devsde.SYOKLIC1.main"
arcpy.env.workspace = workspace
arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(fc, "fc_layer")
edit = arcpy.da.Editor(workspace)
edit.startEditing(False, True)
edit.startOperation()
with arcpy.da.Editor(workspace) as fieldedit:
 arcpy.CalculateField_management(in_table= "fc_layer",
 field="MiantenanceArea",
 expression="1234",
 expression_type="VB",
 code_block="")
edit.stopOperation()
edit.stopEditing(True)

Additionally, it works if I do it inside of ArcMap.

• NULL.Dude: can you register the feature class as versioned in the SDE?
• Simon.y: Yes I can register the feature dataset but not the feature class individually. There is a different issue that comes up with that. When I register the FD as versioned (manually) Calculate fields works in arcmap but when I run the script it sits there and never finishes processing. I was hoping to avoid figuring out that problem by doing it this way. I am thinking that maybe I can set that parameter (registered as versioned) in the python script as a work around, but I haven't tried yet.
• Simon.y: Same problem when I do it within the python script.
• Rex: Would it help to make fc_layer it's own variable to feed into CalculateField_management? Also have you tried UpdateCursor instead of field calculator?
• Midavalo: @Simon.y I'm confused by your question - you say you are "trying to activate an editing session in python to work around the versioning", but you also say you're working in an "un-versioned 'development' SDE", so which is it? You don't need to work around versioning in an unversioned environment. If it's unversioned, you may not even need the arcpy.da.Editor references.

Answer 1

In the end I chose to go around this barrier and use an SQL update statement inside the script. Refer to arcSDESQLExecute. More of a work-around than a solution.