Content Migration item types, and comparison of .epk (Rest API) vs API for Python

[VerinaCristie]

I'm trying to understand the different item types supported for these 2 APIs,

Cloning Content | ArcGIS API for Python | Esri Developer

Cloning via Offline Backups | ArcGIS API for Python | Esri Developer

Are both supporting the same file types to be migrated? For the offline backups, is there limitations in terms of number of items and backup size?

For the offline API, is it fundamentally different than the REST API? When should the Python vs the REST API version be used?

/export: Export Group Content | ArcGIS REST APIs | Esri Developer

Many thanks for sharing..

[CodyPatterson]

Hey @VerinaCristie 

The REST API is only used for Enterprise versions, some people prefer to use the REST endpoints when managing their environment, it's more just an alternative to the Python API itself.

In terms of the file types, they do almost the same thing from what I'm seeing, but in terms of Offline, they export to some type of compressed version, be it FGDB or shapefile, while online export will export it to the actual type it is, Web Map, Survery123 Forum, etc. Offline also seems to export to an intermediate step file that would be reimported, explained here as .contentexport and so on: https://developers.arcgis.com/python/latest/api-reference/arcgis.gis.toc.html#arcgis.gis.OfflineCont...

Cody

[JackDrost]

Is there any way to open / read a ".contentexport" file, apart from using the ArcGIS API for Python?

[PeterKnoop]

@JackDrost it is a zip file. If you manually open it in something like 7-Zip, then it will figure it out. Otherwise, you can always replace the suffix ".contentexport" with ".zip", and use your favorite method for zip files.

[JackDrost]

Thanks!  Renaming it to ".ZIP" actually did not work for me but I made a wild guess and tried renaming it to ".7z" and that worked.  I can now open the folder and see the .json files, folders, etc.

[VerinaCristie]

thanks Cody!