TL;DR: 2.4.0 apparently broke the ability to work with content in the API without installing a bunch of unnecessary dependencies. I would love to be wrong!
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Following the guidance on using the Python API with minimum dependencies, I've happily set up several projects to only use the content management tools available in the API. I love this capability because it greatly reduces install time and disk size when using virtual environments.
Before 2.4.0, my process looked something like this:
python -m venv venv
venv/scripts/activate
pip install arcgis --no-deps
Which I would then follow with installing other minimum dependencies for the Python API, including those listed in the documentation (plus several that were not listed). I could then easily access and manipulate WebMap objects.
In 2.4.0
With the 2.4.0 release of the API, it seems that I can no longer work with Web Maps in a setup with minimum dependencies. When I try to import the new Map class `from arcgis.map import Map`, I get a message that there is no `arcgis.map` module. Indeed, looking in my `venv/Lib` folder, there is no `map` module inside `arcgis`.
After some digging around, I figured I needed to install the separate `arcgis-mapping` package. This is where the real problems begin:
- I tried `pip install arcgis-mapping`. That brought a whole bunch of unnecessary dependencies along.
- I tried `pip install arcgis-mapping --no-deps`. That worked!
- I ran my script `python main.py`. Oops, I'm missing some minimum dependencies for `arcgis-mapping`. No big deal.
- I start installing the dependencies as the error messages call for them. Before too long, I'm installing IPython and a bunch of other dependencies that (I think) shouldn't be necessary to work with a Web Map.
So at this point, it seems to me that I can't work with a Map object without installing a lot of dependencies that I don't need. Is there a way to still use the API with minimum dependencies?
