Dependencies: arcgis.gis.ItemDependency.to_dependencies not returning dependent items

Question

Hi all, I'm trying to use ArcGIS Notebooks to view dependencies between items for some cleaning up in ArcGIS Online (not Enterprise). I found the to_dependencies property in the API reference: https://developers.arcgis.com/python/latest/api-reference/arcgis.gis.toc.html#arcgis.gis.ItemDependency.to_dependencies, but it doesn't seem to return anything. from arcgis.gis import GIS import pandas as pd gis = GIS("home") item = gis.content.get('') # Get dependencies dependencies = item.dependencies print(dependencies) print(dependencies.properties) print(dependencies.to_dependencies) However, passing in the ID of a hosted feature layer that I know is used in multiple web maps and apps returns nothing: > { "items": [] } [] If I pass in the ID of a Web Map that has multiple layers within it, I also get no dependencies: > { "items": [] } [] I've seen in the documentation that the dependent_upon and dependent_to methods only work in ArcGIS Enterprise, but there is nothing in the documentation that says that the to_dependencies doesn't work in ArcGIS Online. What am I missing here? Is to_dependencies deprecated?

MappyIan · Answer

Hey @SuzyFer, I never got any further with this due to other priorities.  I was intending to revisit it at some point so if you have any examples @AlderMaps I'd be interested to see them too.

After asking this question on here a colleague came across this Dashboard, which is explained in this LinkedIn post, and documented here.  I note in the documentation the author of this Dashboard states the following about the get_dependencies method which is interesting:

This script also does not use the get_dependencies method, also in the API reference. This method at least returns something, but it only returns items found within that items own JSON, or downstream items. I.e., it will return all the feature layers found in a given map, but not which apps are consuming that map, and not which maps are consuming a given feature service, etc. (the latter, I would argue, is the whole point of a dependencies tool).

At some point I'm planning to implement the Dashboard linked above across our AGOL instances, at which point I'll have a look at the code and see how it's configured but there might be some useful stuff in there you can use.

Hope this helps.

SuzyFer · Answer

Hello,

Did you ever manage to find further solution with the .get_dependencies()? Would be interested in seeing some examples.

AlderMaps · Answer

Came here looking for the reason I'm getting exactly the same output from the item.dependencies property as @MappyIan: just a bunch of empty lists for everything in my portal (where I know there are plenty of dependencies).

Looking through the toolbox now and it doesn't use the item dependencies property / ItemDependency object either, assuming because this simply doesn't work at the moment? (One wonders why the entries are still in the API reference, then?) Am I being too optimistic hoping that the reason it's not fixed is that this that dependency reporting is close to being implemented in a GUI in AGOL? 🤣

In any case I'll probably implement the approach being taken in the toolbox; looks straightforward. Thanks for the solution @JakeSkinner

Edit: Poking around in the API Reference later in the day and I found the method .get_dependencies() (vs .dependencies property), and it IS returning stuff (where I expect it to return stuff). Still haven't done much with it but will report back later today or tomorrow if it works for what I (and OP) were trying to do.