Is anyone successfully using arcpy.ExportMetadata_conversion?

Question

I don't know if it is a bug or my lack of python skills, but I keep getting 'ERROR 000816 The tool is not valid' in my python script when I call ExportMetadata_conversion

Initially, I was attempting this on an sde database, but then I tried to take a step back just match the example in the documentation and use a file geodb:

import arcpy
from arcpy import env
env.workspace = "C:/data"
#set local variables
dir = arcpy.GetInstallInfo("desktop")["InstallDir"]
translator = dir + "Metadata/Translator/ESRI_ISO2ISO19139.xml"
arcpy.ExportMetadata_conversion ("data.gdb/roads", translator, 
    "roads_19139.xml")

But I received the same error.

Is anyone successfully calling this method? If so, does your code match the documentation?

Answer 1

I've had better success using the XSLTransform_conversion operation in my Python geoprocessing scripts. There are a few ESRI-supplied XSL files in the C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\ArcToolBox\Stylesheets directory (on a 32-bit machine). Here's an example of the line using the XSL transform I used in a python script I published to ArcGIS Server:

results = gp.XSLTransform_conversion(inputFC, xslFile, outputFileName)

This returns a formatted file. I chose to have HTML as an output, but it will output XML if you want.

Answer 2

Python Errors in IDLE, but Works in ArcCatalog???

You need to use GacUtil to register the DLL's properly for Metadata so that ArcPy can use them. All instructions are in the ArcGIS forum post link above.