Is there a method for reading a SQL Server 2008 Compact Database File (*.SDF) in FME 2017?

Not sure SQL Server Compact Edition is supported directly. However I'm using FME to read Esri Arcpad .AXF files which are actually a SQL Server Compact Edition DB. It could be version 2005 however.

 

It had to be 32 bit FME

 

See : https://docs.safe.com/fme/html/FME_Desktop_Documentation/FME_ReadersWriters/arcpadaxf/arcpadaxf.htm

 

 

EDIT - Not a suitable method (see below)

 

Thanks Mark for your reply. I think this may be one of those things where we need to push our vendor to update the file format instead of building workarounds. We are running Windows 10, 64-bit FME, SQL Server 2016, etc. which might be a challenge.

As a side note, I did find a little program called CompactView that was helpful in looking at the database and exporting the schema and data into our modern SQL Server.

 

Yes used CompactView also but just viewing tabular data, not spatial data.

@mark_1spatial and @kddunn

I needed to extract data from an AXF file following a major disaster on the surveyor's ArcPad device. I was disappointed to find the AXF Reader greyed out in FME but there was a message to say SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1 was required. So I went looking for that and found it in "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Developer Software Development Kit". Installing that didn't work but I found "SQLServerCE31-EN.msi" in the "v3.1\\SDK\\bin\\Desktop" folder which the SDK install created.

Installing that did the trick and I was able to read the AXF. All of this though was in 32-bit FME 2016.1 on Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, which is actually our old FME machine that's about to be switched off. Our new FME machine is Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter and I get a "compatibility issues" warning on that when I try to install SQLServerCE31-EN.msi. Windows couldn't tell me what the issues were so I'm not sure if it would work or not. I've used the old machine for this one off task to be sure of getting a result.

Will Safe stop claiming support for AXF if newer operating systems make the Reader unusable because you can't install SQL Server Compact Edition? Or will a new Reader be issued? Otherwise the claim to support 400+ formats starts to just a little bit shaky!