topic Re: How to copy arcgis.gis.Item into memory in ArcGIS API for Python Questions

How to copy arcgis.gis.Item into memory

chris_del101 — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 22:36:45 GMT

I want to update an arcgis.gis.Item but not change the original. Running update on an item does alter the original. I tried item.copy but this makes a literal copy in portal which I do not want. I just want to copy in memory so that I can make changes without altering the original. What I really want is deepcopy...

But using copy or deepcopy immediately crashes my program without any error. Below demonstrates why I want to do this, in case there's concern around that.

Please note: this is a made up simplified demo example, so if I made any typos in the code by mistake here, don't infer those are connected to my local problem.

gis = GIS(url=url, username=username, password=password) item = gis.content.get(some_id) item_copy = copy.copy(item) # crashes the program, so does deepcopy print("hello") # never runs further than prev line item_copy.update({'title': 'New_Item_Title"}) gis.content.clone_items(items=[item_copy])

I don't understand why this kills the program, if it's an Esri error or an error with my environment, since there is no error message, except the exception __deepcopy_
If I can't use these copies is there another way to do this?

Re: How to copy arcgis.gis.Item into memory

Clubdebambos — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 07:51:41 GMT

Hi @chris_del101,

When you say copy an item, do you want to perform on any item or more specifically a Feature Service (Feature Layer Collection) item?

Re: How to copy arcgis.gis.Item into memory

chris_del101 — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 14:14:19 GMT

Hi @Clubdebambos,

In this case the the artifacts are objects of the arcgis.gis.Item, but the type is Feature Layer Collection and others are FeatureLayer . These are the only types I am worried about for this question. I am not using the FeatureLayer or Feature Layer Collection types directly, but I am open to if it will do what I need.

This what an item looks like:

Re: How to copy arcgis.gis.Item into memory

Clubdebambos — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 08:29:20 GMT

Hi @chris_del101,

Thanks for the info. Does the below meet your requirements? Code is commented to follow along but basically it copies the Feature Layer Collection item which transfers the shell (layers/tables without data) and then we take the records from the original and add them in.

from arcgis.gis import GIS ## Access AGOL agol = GIS("home") ## get the Feature Service as an Item object item = agol.content.get("FS_ITEM_ID") # get the Item id for the FLC item to copy ## get the layer indexes layers = list(range(len(item.layers))) ## get the table indexes tables = list(range(len(item.tables))) ## copy the item - copies the shell, not data is added to the layers/tables copied_item = item.copy_feature_layer_collection( service_name = "MY_COPIED_SERVICE", # rename your new Item here layers = layers, tables = tables, description = item.description, snippet = item.snippet ) ## for each layer in the original item for lyr in item.layers: ## get the layer name item_layer_name = lyr.properties.name ## get the FeatureLayer object for the corresponding layer in the copied item copied_layer = [lyr for lyr in copied_item.layers if lyr.properties.name == item_layer_name][0] ## get all records from the original layer item_layer_records = lyr.query() ## add the records to the copied layer copied_layer.edit_features( adds = item_layer_records ) ## repeat for any tables for tbl in item.tables: item_table_name = tbl.properties.name copied_table = [tbl for tbl in copied_item.tables if tbl.properties.name == item_table_name][0] item_table_records = tbl.query() copied_table.edit_features( adds = item_table_records )