topic Export feature service with attachments!!!! in ArcGIS Online Questions

Export feature service with attachments!!!!

MikeBell — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:57:41 GMT

Our ArcGIS Online credits are dropping fast...and it appears to be a direct result of the photo attachments on one of our feature services (about 2000 photos).

Can you let me know when this functionality will be available?

Has anyone tried to script this?

We want to move the whole lot (feature service and photos) to our own server however doesn't look like it'll be happening for a while!

Mike

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

MikeMinami — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:53:32 GMT

There are no export tools currently for attachments. You could write your own code against the REST API to extract the attachments. As far as having an out-of-the-box solution, there are still no current plans. Not that we won't do it, but it's not scheduled in the near term.

Thanks,

Mike

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

MikeBell — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:32:02 GMT

Thanks Mike

So should I do this in Python in ArcGIS?

Is a real pain I'm having to do this at all tbh - we're already finding ArcGIS Online limiting but now it's becoming expensive.

Mikw

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

JonathanQuinn — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:52:40 GMT

You should be able to create a local copy for editing from your feature service, go into the Attachment Manager, and Save All attachments somewhere local. I haven't tried this but it may work.

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

MikeBell — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:13:21 GMT

Thanks

We have captured 3500 photos against 1400 records so doing manually is not an option....yet.

I had a quick look at python - doesn't look like it is possible.

Any suggestions?

Mike

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

DenizSaglam — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:41:59 GMT

Is there any solution to export attachments?
Exporting as a shapefile is lame!
if attachments are not downloaded, why would we use online ?

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

WoodyBailey1 — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 20:44:33 GMT

There are no export tools currently for attachments. You could write your own code against the REST API to extract the attachments. As far as having an out-of-the-box solution, there are still no current plans. Not that we won't do it, but it's not scheduled in the near term.

Thanks,

Mike

I second the response of another who asks if the attachments are not exportable why would we want to use online? Again you make an app called collector to collect data that can't be extracted? Seems short sighted to me, then to respond that adding that there are no current plans to add the capability??? Any collector app should collect data ready to be exported to the format you want. In the ArcGIS online there are lots of export formats in the analysis tab but the export geodatabase ignores the attachments altogether.
I even looked in the service .sd file and saw the attachment table and relationship class but they appear empty. The attachments work great with the online apps. But any attempt to see them outside fails. I hope someone has developed a script or something to help with this, or better yet ESRI makes it a priority and makes it work. Attachments are a pretty good idea, especially via the relationship class within the geodatabase... just can't help but wonder why can't I get at it???
I CAN'T EVEN SEE THEM WHEN I ADD MY SERVICE FROM ARCGIS ONLINE TO ARCGIS DESKTOP. I can see the files and their size, but when I try to open them OR (as also suggested by an ESRI rep on this forum) SaveAS... i get zilch... See my attached figure it shows all of my problems clearly in an annotated screen shot. I hope its all just something I have overlooked.[ATTACH=CONFIG]26441[/ATTACH]

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

CadeFurnas — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:45:39 GMT

As mentioned above, just create a local copy of your feature service for editing. It will create a geodatabase with a feature class exported from the feature service. Then, all of your photos will be stored as attachments in your local geodatabase. Once your photos are stored locally, at attachments in the feature class, you can then delete the records from the feature service if you want.

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

PaulLohr — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:54:58 GMT

Our ArcGIS Online credits are dropping fast...and it appears to be a direct result of the photo attachments on one of our feature services (about 2000 photos).

Can you let me know when this functionality will be available?

Has anyone tried to script this?

We want to move the whole lot (feature service and photos) to our own server however doesn't look like it'll be happening for a while!

Mike

Ask ESRI to export your ArcSDE table or database to a format that you can import to your DBMS. You'll want the attachments table and the parent feature class.

If you are working with SQL Server, the link below will get you started towards exporting the images from the DBMS.

http://www.sqlusa.com/bestpractices/imageimportexport/

Not quite sure, but you might even get the attachment and feature tables as gdb or mdb files. That could work if the photo attachments are converted to BLOB format.

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

WoodyBailey1 — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:57:11 GMT

***************
As mentioned above, just create a local copy of your feature service for editing. It will create a geodatabase with a feature class exported from the feature service. Then, all of your photos will be stored as attachments in your local geodatabase. Once your photos are stored locally, at attachments in the feature class, you can then delete the records from the feature service if you want.
***************

I thought that was what I was doing, as my screen shot was trying to show. I will go back and see if there was something I missed. Thank you for the response... Curious it appears your response was deleted?? Why is that? I found Attachment management tools in the toolbox under "Data Management Tools"-"Attachments" however I do not see anything that would help. Perhaps someone can link me to an explanation to "Create a Local Copy of my feature service" again as shown in my screen shot I have a geodatabase that shows the attachments they just are empty files.

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

MikeMinami — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 15:10:24 GMT

I believe there were issues with ArcMap 10.1 in creating a local copy for editing. Attachments were not available. This has been addressed in version 10.2.

Thanks,

Mike

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

WoodyBailey1 — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 20:44:48 GMT

I believe there were issues with ArcMap 10.1 in creating a local copy for editing. Attachments were not available. This has been addressed in version 10.2.

Thanks,

Mike

What am I missing? After jumping through all the hoops I managed to get ArcGIS Desktop 10.2 (Standard) installed. I connected to ArcGIS Online and added my data with attachments. The first screen shot shows that the layer is clearly from AGO and the attachments are working. [ATTACH=CONFIG]26652[/ATTACH] As soon as I go through the steps to "create a local copy for editing" the attachments appear to just disappear, the second screen shot shows how the attachments appear to be gone. Also seen in the second screen cap is how I attempted to enable attachments on the resulting local copy created above yet it returned that the were already enabled. [ATTACH=CONFIG]26653[/ATTACH] I also tried all of the above after going into the html popup of the layer properties and checking "Download attachment data" If someone can please tell me what I am missing, it would be very much appreciated, my trial is nearly over and if I can't get this to work, I can't justify to management that we need to sign up for ArcGIS Online. I also tried using the "extract data" tool from under the layer in ArcGIS Online within the data management group. I extracted the area as a .gdb and still no attachments. [ATTACH=CONFIG]26654[/ATTACH]

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

BrianFlood — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 16:23:06 GMT

hi

we're going to start beta testing this Backup service for ArcGIS Online. Scheduled and manual backups of your Feature Services and Attachments directly to DropBox (where they are automatically copied to your desktop etc). It's a great way to keep backup copies of your online services or to always have local access to your attachments from field data collection

http://www.arc2box.com

cheers
brian

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

WoodyBailey1 — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 14:40:59 GMT

Bflood... Your service sounds interesting, however since it appears you are extracting the ArcGIS Online data as .shp
I do not see how there is anyway you are maintaining the relationship between the attachment and the feature it was 'related' to.

The problem with this whole ArcGIS and Attachment thing as far as I can see is we can NOT get access to the related table.
When you choose to create 'local copy for editing' for some reason (1000 feature limit issue??) the related tables come down EMPTY.
I worked extensively with ESRI Support and after many trials we were FINALLY able to get the related tables for attachments to come down complete with data. As soon as I presume the issue is resolved I sign up my client, post their data only to be stuck now with the same problem. PLEASE ESRI give me access to the related tables so I can interact with data posted to AGO in the desktop.
I fear the same is true regarding where the data pertaining to who last edited a feature and when... I would really like access to this table as well.

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

BrianFlood — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 00:36:27 GMT

hi woodybwp

agreed, the best option for one-off downloads is definitely a FGDB w/attachments embedded. I believe esri is working on this right now. fwiw, the attachments that are copied to DropBox have the feature Id embedded in the name of the file. also, in the next revision, the geojson backup file also includes the attachment IDs/urls directly in the properties collection.

We got some great feedback and are revamping the Arc2Box service to include some additional features that will help for continuous syncing of feature edits made in ArcGIS Online (via any of it's apps/apis etc). We will still use the AGOL export facilities for shp backup (and the FGDB when that's ready) but the main backup/sync engine now uses another method to continually find changes to the feature service layers (inserts/updates/deletes/attachments). The changes are then exposed as edit feeds that can be monitored by desktop apps (or any app) to keep their local datasources synchronized. Near realtime access to the edit feed also opens up a whole host of other services as well, but more on that coming soon.

cheers
brian

Re: Export feature service with attachments!!!!

BrianFlood — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 19:09:54 GMT

we're looking for AGOL users to beta test Arc2Box. Backup, Sync and Alerts for your Feature Services

Backup - Daily exports of your feature service data and atatchments to DropBox. Shapefiles for now but we'll support whatever formats ESRI adds in the future

Sync - Near realtime edit detection for your services. Finds insert/updates/deletes and creates an Edit History that can be used for Undo/Redo. Sync WebHooks can be configured to receive notification of all edits, good for integrating with your own workflow or databases

Alerts - Configurable filters that are triggered when edits occur. You can filter by edit type, feature attribute or by spatial proximity to another feature service (ex: "Alert me when a complaint is added within 200 feet of my School Zone layer"). Notifications can be Emails, SMS messages or Zapier subscriptions for easy integration with hundreds of other web services.

cheers
brian