Scripting spatial join in ArcPy to set field attribute in field mapping object?

I'm scripting a spatial join in ArcGIS with Python. I only want the resultant feature class to have a single field containing one attribute from the join features. In general, many join features overlap a single target feature and I want to preserve the attributes from all of them. I'm joining one-to-one, with the 'join' merge rule and a comma delimiter.

The problem arises when the new field exceeds 50 characters (the default) and the spatial join fails. I need to update the field's 'length' attribute, but I can't - if I assign a new value to it, nothing changes.

Here's a snippet that generates the field mapping object that I'll pass to spatial join:

# Generate a field mappings object and add the two join layers
fieldmappings = arcpy.FieldMappings()
fieldmappings.addTable(outPolys)
fieldmappings.addTable(overlapping_SAs)

# facID_str is the field that we want
# Set its merge rule to 'join' and add a comma delimiter


# Get all field names from the join features
fnames = arcpy.ListFields(overlapping_SAs)

for field in fnames:
  if field.name == "facID_str":
    fidx = fieldmappings.findFieldMapIndex(field.name)
    fmap = fieldmappings.getFieldMap(fidx)

    # Set the merge rule to sum and update the object

    fmap.mergeRule = "join"
    fmap.joinDelimiter = ","

    fieldmappings.replaceFieldMap(fidx, fmap)

  # Delete all other fields
  else:
     fidx = fieldmappings.findFieldMapIndex(field.name)
     if fidx > 0:
       fieldmappings.removeFieldMap(fidx)

I can see the field I want by calling fieldmappings.fields[1].length but if I try to set the length to something other than 50, nothing happens. For example:

>>> fieldmappings.fields[1].length
50
>>> fieldmappings.fields[1].length = 500
>>> fieldmappings.fields[1].length
50

The eventual call to spatial join looks like this: arcpy.SpatialJoin_analysis(outPolys, overlapping_SAs, outJoin, "JOIN_ONE_TO_ONE", "KEEP_COMMON", fieldmappings, "WITHIN")

How do I set length to a value more appropriate for my application?

Answer

Looking at the help for fieldmappings the property fields returns a read only list of field objects I guess this is why its not working. You need to access the length property of the field object via the fieldmap object. Below is the corrected code:

import arcpy
fieldmappings = arcpy.FieldMappings()
fieldmappings.addTable("Catchment")
fieldmappings.addTable("Field Sites")
fnames = arcpy.ListFields("Field Sites")
for f in fnames:
    if f.name == "SiteLabel":
        print "DOING SITE LABEL!"

        fidx = fieldmappings.findFieldMapIndex(f.name)
        fmap = fieldmappings.getFieldMap(fidx)
        fmap.mergeRule = "join"
        fmap.joinDelimiter = ","

        ##### Here is how you change the field length of the output field
        theField = fmap.outputField
        theField.length = 1000
        fmap.outputField = theField
        #####


        fieldmappings.replaceFieldMap(fidx,fmap)
    else:
        print "DROPPING " + f.name
        fidx = fieldmappings.findFieldMapIndex(f.name)
        if fidx > 0:
            fieldmappings.removeFieldMap(fidx)


arcpy.SpatialJoin_analysis("Catchment", "Field Sites", "in_memory/xxx6", "JOIN_ONE_TO_ONE", "KEEP_COMMON", fieldmappings, "INTERSECT")