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Enabling editing for bulk published feature services

tigerwoulds

We are running ArcGIS Enterprise 10.8.1. I followed this doc here to bulk publish around 50 feature services: Publish layers in bulk from a user-managed data store—Portal for ArcGIS | Documentation for ArcGIS Enterprise

As the doc states, editing is not enabled by default. Is there a way (either through Portal/Server Manager or using Python) to go into the service properties and enable editing?

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Accepted answers

LongDinh

I'm a little confused on what to put in the JSON file. Say I just want to have just the Query capability on the Feature service, how do I do that?

There is an "extensions" array which contains an object with a typeName == "FeatureServer". One of the object's properties is capabilities. You can add in the "Query" string to enable the capability. The structure looks something like the below:

{"extentions": [ ... ,{
"typeName": "FeatureServer",
"capabilities": "Query",
"enabled": "true",
"maxUploadFileSize": 0,
"allowedUploadFileTypes": "",
"properties": {...}}
... ]
}

In the JSON file, do I just copy the entire map service's JSON ( from sever manager) and edit the Feature Service capabilities section?

Yes, I believe so. The JSON file should be an updated copy of the service properties found at the edit service url. Be sure to leave a copy of the original if you want to revert your changes.

It might also be a good idea to create a service which has Query/Edit capability enabled and see the differences before posting the changes. The ESRI admin enterprise notes are detailed but are human readable.

Also note, I may have been incorrect with the payload variable. If the server returns a parameter-like error (i am guessing), try using json.dumps for the service parameter.

payload = {
'f': 'json',
   'service':json.dumps(service_json),
   'token':token

}

All comments

DrewDowling

This seems to still be an issue in 2025, you can't use the ArcGIS python API to modify referenced feature services, or at least I couldn't get it working.

Here some code I wrote to use the ArcGIS Server admin rest endpoint instead. It updates the capability of all feature services in a folder to add Extract to the default Query capability. Hope it helps someone.

from arcgis import GIS
import requests
import json


domain = 'gis.domain.org'
folder = 'MyServerFolder'
# login to GIS
gis = GIS(url="https://gis.domain.org/portal/home", profile='sangis_portal_aiteadmin')
token = gis._con.token

# Get a list of services from ArcGIS Server
# from a specific folder
gis_servers = gis.admin.servers.list()
print(gis_servers)
# Assuming a single server for simplicity
server1 = gis_servers[0]
damoa_services = server1.services.list(folder=folder)

for service in damoa_services:
    # Get the service definition
    service_def = requests.get(f'{service.url}?f=json&token={token}').json()
    service_name = service_def['serviceName']
    # Loop through the service extensions to find the FeatureServer extension
    i=0
    for ect in service_def['extensions']:
        if ect['typeName'] == 'FeatureServer':
            print("Enabling Feature Access capabilities...")
            print(f"original capabilities: {service_def['extensions'][i]['capabilities']}")
            # Update capabilities by editing the service definition
            service_def['extensions'][i]['capabilities'] = "Query,Extract"
            print(f"Updated capabilities: {service_def['extensions'][i]['capabilities']}")
            # Construct the URL for editing the service definition
            # This URL is specific to ArcGIS Server REST API
            edit_service_url = f"https://{domain}/arcgis/admin/services/{folder}/{service_name}.MapServer/edit"
            try:
                payload = {
                    'f': 'json',
                    'service':json.dumps(service_def),
                    'token':token
                    }
                # Make the POST request to update the service definition
                response = requests.post(url=edit_service_url, data=payload)
                # Check if the request was successful
                # This doesn't work, 200 is returned even if the update fails
                # Check the responce conteent instead
                if response.status_code == 200:
                    print("Capabilities updated successfully.")
                else:
                    print(f"Failed to update capabilities: {response.text}")
            except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
                raise e
            i=0
            break
        else:
              i += 1

MichaelSnook

@tigerwoulds ..I am looking to do the exact same thing but I'm getting a bit lost on the upgrade. Can you share your working Python3 script by chance? Thanks!

LongDinh

Awesome work! Glad to hear you reached a solution 🙂

tigerwoulds

@LongDinh unfortunately, same issue BUT I was able to figure this out using a slightly different method from this example. I converted this to python 3 and replaced the httplib/urllib pieces with the functions from the 'request' library for python 3 and everything is worked as expected. Including the payload as you described initially was key to get this working.

I can now loop through a folder on my GIS Server and update properties/capabilities for all services in the folder.

Big thank you for your help again.

tigerwoulds

Thanks for the reply. I dont think this will work for us me as I have several hundreds of layers to publish as individual services. Setting up the service definition file for each one is not feasible.

The bulk publishing doc I referenced is a good solution to publish these quickly, but I just need a way to update the feature service properties once the services are published.

They are all 'registered' services pulling from a SDE database so unfortunately using the update_definition() function outlined here doesnt work. Service definitions | ArcGIS Developer

tigerwoulds

I think I'm getting there. Still very new to python and programming in general so I appreciate the help.

I'm a little confused on what to put in the JSON file. Say I just want to have just the Query capability on the Feature service, how do I do that?

In the JSON file, do I just copy the entire map service's JSON ( from sever manager) and edit the Feature Service capabilities section?

Here is my code overall:

import requests
import os
import json

import ssl

ssl._create_default_https_context = ssl._create_unverified_context

# Get token from /arcgis/sharing/rest/generateToken
token = "####"
service_name="TestService"
folder_name="TestFolder"
domain="######################"
edit_service_url = f"https://{domain}/arcgis/admin/services/{folder_name}/{service_name}.MapServer/edit"
print (edit_service_url)
base_dir = r"C:\Test"
json_file = os.path.join(base_dir, r"myServicePropertiesX.json")

from os.path import exists

file_exists = exists(json_file)
print (file_exists)

with open(json_file) as jf:
   service_json=json.load(jf)

payload = {
'f': 'json',
   'service':service_json,
   'token':token

}
response = requests.post(
   edit_service_url, data=payload
)

print(response.json)

LongDinh

For Enterprise services, you could try editing the service properties through the ArcGIS Admin API. See notes on the endpoint here: https://developers.arcgis.com/rest/enterprise-administration/enterprise/edit-service.htm . I believe you are looking to enable (set true) the "typename":"FeatureServer object.

Using Python:

import requests
import os
import json
# Get token from /arcgis/sharing/rest/generateToken
token = "###"
service_name="myservice"
folder_name="myfoldername"
domain="myarcgis.com"
edit_service_url = f"https://{domain}/arcgis/admin/{folder_name}/{service_name}.MapServer/edit
base_dir = r"C:/workspace"
json_file = os.path.join(base_dir, r"myServiceProperties.json")

with open(json_file) as jf:
   service_json=json.load(jf)

payload = {
   'f': 'json',
   'service':service_json,
   'token':'token
}
response = requests.post(
   edit_service_url, data=payload
)

print(response.json())

tigerwoulds

Thanks! Curious if this will work for non hosted services..aka service that are registered with an SDE database. The doc states you can update service properties for hosted feature layers

LongDinh

Hi @tigerwoulds,

You might be able to update the definition using Python. Here are the reference notes from the developers site: https://developers.arcgis.com/python/guide/updating-feature-layer-properties/

If the the bulk publish publishes a Feature Layer but with editing disabled, I believe you search for it in portal and update the 'capabilities' property to enable create/delete/query/update. The capability definition is something like:

cap_def_update = {'capabilities':'Create,Delete,Query,Update,Editing,Extract'}

Hope this helps 😃 Good luck!

IhabHassan

Hi @tigerwoulds

I was able to enable editing for bulk service publishing using Python, by following this workflow:

- using Pro project Map, create web layer sharing draft using "getWebLayerSharingDraft" function
- configure the sharing draft as required, like the federated server URL, copy data to server or not, according to your needs
- export the draft to a file using "exportToSDDraft" function
- edit the exported file to enable editing then save the file
- stage the service using "StageService_server" function
- publish the service using "UploadServiceDefinition_server" function

I am attaching the function that can help editing the service draft file.
Hope that helps in what you are after

Regards
Ihab

edit-sd.txt

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