Field descriptions and value types do not persist over distributed collaboration

Question

I'm using distributed collaborations to share copies of hosted feature layers from ArcGIS Enterprise 11.4 to ArcGIS Online.

1. When I update the field alias (display name), field, description and field value type of the portal item in ArcGIS Enterprise (using the data tab), only the field alias persists in the copied item in ArcGIS Online.

Is this expected?

I'm updating my publishing workflow to include field aliases etc when publishing to ArcGIS Enterprise, but       I'd rather not have to replicate this in ArcGIS Online.

2. Also, I've noticed that when I make these changes to an item that is already shared to the collaboration workspace in the ArcGIS Enterprise organization, none of the changes persist in the item copied to the ArcGIS Online organization.

Y_Maree · Answer

Thank you for the validation. I think you're right - the item ID is retained when you un-share and re-share the item. I appreciate you taking the time to explain this.

It would be great to have a simple workflow to get the updates to pass through the collaboration as we have a lot of content going through to our ArcGIS Online organization.

We're working on a python Notebook we can run in both environments that updates the field alias, description and value types.

For context, we have been making these improvements to help meet the guidelines provided by the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World.

Resources | ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World

CalvinHarmin · Answer

I commented on your idea post, but just for posterity for others, this is the expected behavior. Documentation does mention this:

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/administer/windows/share-content-with-collaboration-participants.htm

This doesn't mean syncronization is totally broken if you change the schema, for example by adding or deleting a field in the source data. Rather, the adds/updates of features simply will ignore any values that do not have matching fields from Portal source to AGOL.

As you mentioned in the other post, you would have to un-share and re-share the item to your collaboration group, which would wipe out and recreate the item on AGOL side. However, it should retain the same item ID and the same service URL on AGOL side (at least from my testing). It would, unfortunately, remove any customizations to summary, description, tags, symbolization or popup customization, etc. on the AGOL item if you had made any such customizations. So it's probably always safest to customize the Portal item and not the AGOL item.