I've got some questions I've collected as we try to come to a decision about whether to use ST_Geometry or SDE native geometry for an Oracle/SDE datastore on a new project. The organization has quite a few legacy systems that use the SDE Binary type, and this would be the first to use ST_Geometry if we went that route.
Apart from the ability to access spatial data in ArcSDE with SQL, what are the benefits and drawbacks of ST_Geometry?
What sort of pitfalls have you experienced in implementing with one type or the other?
Can more than one data type live in the same schema?
Note: for this project the data in SDE will be all points and polygons.
Best Answer
I would say the main pitfall would be the documentation and configuration requirements on rebuild and cluster server building.
Simply put to remember exactly how you set up the last time. With all the little changes.
If the dba is seasoned and has built several systems it is just a matter of shifting repetitious activity to the new paradigm.
I have always preferred "other" data types to sdebinary.
But until you have been down the road, traveled up each side road, smoothed out the big bumps, and decided which turns were rabbit trails and which were necessary r your environment.
It is hard to know what needed to be documented.
But do it anyway!
That way you have something to go back through to add and remove from.
The question about using both in the same schema.
You don't want that.
Each data type has its own side management table schema and will render the other data unusable. (Ok it has been about 7 years since I went down that road. So I don't remember exactly what happened. But I do remember problems with the issue.)