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ArcGIS Pro RSS update notifications for IT

Jen_Zumbado-Hannibal

UPDATE: I found that this is not a new idea after all. There was a post back in 2016 that requested the same enhancement. Apparently, it once existed. However, they developed this support portal instead and they still missed the mark!

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It would be very wise for ESRI to think about the IT folks who are responsible for keeping software updates on client machines and servers.

My IT team is really frustrated because they don't know when ArcGIS Pro updates are coming out. They ask me if there is an RSS feed. The only time they know a new version is out is when a user put's in a Help Desk ticket to have their desktop app updated. The user doesn't have admin rights so an IT staff has to go to each individual pc to update clients.

ESRI...please work on a IT silent install workflow for all your updates. Blog sites are just not an effective use of communication for folks that are not GIS users or those who are for that matter.

GIS relies on IT to have their systems running properly and everyone on the same version. Don't leave them out from your communications. DO BETTER AT COMMUNICATING UPDATES TRHOUGH AUTOMATIC FEEDS.

Thanks.

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Status: Open

Comments

KoryKramer

On the current Support site, if you go to the Downloads section https://support.esri.com/en/Products/Desktop/arcgis-desktop/arcgis-pro/2-9#downloads you are able to subscribe to received updates when a new download is available.

In the example below, I am subscribed.

Is that something that would work for you?

Jen_Zumbado-Hannibal

Thanks @KoryKramer that can work for me. But, what about IT staff? Would they need to create a web account just to subscribe to updates?

What about if staff changes? That would mean the new employee would have to know that they are suppose to subscribe to receive updates.

There just has to be a better way without having to create an account.

KoryKramer

Thanks @Jen_Zumbado-Hannibal That makes sense.

JoshuaBixby

@KoryKramer, I know we have chatted about this before, but the subscription model implementation in Esri Support is weak, or should I say not robust. The organization I support has multiple versions of ArcGIS Desktop and multiple versions of ArcGIS Pro deployed, and subscribing to 6+ separate download channels sure feels like busy-work. Not to mention, I have to remember to subscribe to new products when they are released.

The old RSS feeds ( RSS is not inherently insecure and is still used plenty) were great, simple and straightforward. Since hunting for Esri Support subscriptions doesn't make my priority list during the day, and the old RSS feeds are gone, I have resorted to downloading and parsing the patches.json file the patch notification tool uses. The file includes most products I help deploy and support; unfortunately, ArcGIS Pro patches aren't in it.

KoryKramer

Thanks @JoshuaBixby I've brought this up with colleagues who support the support.esri.com site - we'll see what options there are to improve the experience. I don't have anything else to share just now, other than I do understand the pain points with how the system is currently set up and we'll see how it can be improved.

Cheers

KoryKramer

@Jen_Zumbado-Hannibal and @JoshuaBixby we were discussing this further today and I wanted to understand how you would typically consume the RSS feed. Are you consuming that in email, or some other way?

For this comment "Would they need to create a web account just to subscribe to updates?... There just has to be a better way without having to create an account." What if there were a way to subscribe to updates using only an email address, such as an alias that the IT department uses, without the need to set up any kind of account?

Thank you for any additional details you might provide. We want to make sure we understand options as thinking moves forward on this.

PatrickMcKinney99

I'll add support for some sort of automatic notification system to learn about Patch updates. In my organization, the ArcGIS Pro updates notifications are suppressed per IT policy. I was talking to IT, and they agreed having notifications when there are updates available would be helpful. Most IT organizations uses schedules to release software updates to end users.

Thanks for the comment about email updates. But I think something else would be helpful.

JordanCarmona

Was there some movement in this area? Also looking for email notifications for patches and updates.

KoryKramer

@JordanCarmona see https://community.esri.com/t5/esri-technical-support-documents/receive-arcgis-patch-notifications-in-the-esri/ta-p/1216483 In short, it is currently possible to subscribe to update notifications from the Support app.

JordanCarmona

@KoryKramer, I would agree that having the app and receiving notifications is possible; however, there is not any way to filter out which push notifications you get.

The result is that you are spammed by every notification conceivable in the app: technical articles, blogs, videos, my own cases, and then patches. If there was a way to filter that, I'd be willing to meet halfway on it.

As an administrator Esri is asking me to choose one of the following:

trawl ArcGIS Blog posts daily
review trust.arcgis.com daily
open the esri support app and flip over to the patches notification tab daily

While any of these options are feasible, they are not really what I would like to spend my time on as only one facet of my job is the responsibility for our organization's ArcGIS infrastructure. My preference would be to receive an email, and then act upon it, when I receive it.

Having a notification based on our licensing via MyEsri would be the lowest effort, instead of constant vigilance, our deployed licensing would be the indicator on when to alert me of relevant information.

bdewitt_olsson

Another GIS admin in IT here, I would like to further emphasize the need for email notifications for updates and patches, preferably with a few days of lead time. Trying to keep 250 ArcGIS Pro users all on the latest version can only realistically be done with a centralized deployment, and a centralized deployment can only be done in a timely manner if notifications are received. IT administrators don't realistically have time in their day to scan websites for software updates.

patrmckinn@pa.gov_PADOH

I have created a python script that scrapes the Esri support website for patch listings.

You can modify the URL scraped to match the products and versions you are interested in.

You can also check if the date of the patch is X days or X weeks old. That is, if you run this script every week, you would enable the logic to check for any new patches released within the last week.

The script is available at https://github.com/pmacMaps/esri-arcpy-python/blob/main/check-esri-patches-website.py.

JordanCarmona

I wrote this a few months ago and it has been working very well for me:

Spatial-Grimoire/arcgis-patch-notifier-sample.py at main · FeralCatColonist/Spatial-Grimoire

A similar approach to @McKinneyPatrick_PA, this requests the .json feed of Esri patches and then compares it against a local copy for differences.