Latest Contributions by BlakeBilbo

A Message from Blake Bilbo, Head of Customer Support Posted by Blake Bilbo, March 25, 2020 During these times, it’s absolutely critical for all GIS teams to make the best possible use of their time and available resources. Taking advantage of the right tools to ensure objectives and responsibilities are accomplished quickly is imperative. To any ArcGIS Online Administrators, or Administrators you may know: Please be aware that there is a FREE version of Admin Tools for ArcGIS Online on the ArcGIS Marketplace that we encourage everyone to take advantage of, if they are not already doing so. To put this in perspective, many day-to-day administrative tasks will be streamlined and performed in bulk. Rapid access to items, users, and groups throughout an entire Organization via advanced filtering and sorting is supported. There is also the capability to add tags to users, as well as items and groups for important classification on-the-fly as situations develop, and emailing users in bulk ensures everyone in the Organization can be contacted with important information and updates as needed. For very fluid environments and response, users can rapidly be invited to groups and items can be shared to those groups in bulk. Admin Tools also supports bulk updates to users’ roles as well as their Esri access. In situations where responsibilities and tasks may frequently shift from one user to another, item ownership can be quickly updated and changed. To protect an Organization’s items, delete protection can be turned on in bulk across all items. Again, we ask that every ArcGIS Online Administrator be taking advantage of these free tools if they are not already doing so. I am also encouraging anyone coordinating with other ArcGIS Administrators and colleagues to share this message to ensure everyone has access to these tools. For any questions, please reach out to us at connect@geo-jobe.com. Thank you, best wishes, stay healthy, and stay productive! ... View more

Originally posted by Courtney Kirkham, September 18, 2019 from the MapThis! Blog While OAuth 2.0 is Esri’s recommended methodology for handling security and authentication for their ArcGIS platform, not everyone using it understands what it does or how to implement it. Here at GEO Jobe, we’ve had to explain it to more than a few of the people we’ve worked with. As such, we thought we’d lay out a quick guide to what OAuth is and how it works. OAuth 2.0 handles security and authentication for the ArcGIS platform. Image Source What is OAuth 2.0? OAuth 2.0 is the protocol that ensures only users you give permission to can access your ArcGIS content. Esri chooses to use OAuth 2.0 for a number of reasons, including this list they’ve provided: OAuth 2.0 meets the needs of both users and applications. There are strong security practices around OAuth 2.0. OAuth 2.0 is designed to function at Internet-scale across domains, networks, cloud services, and applications. As a widely accepted standard OAuth 2.0 has many libraries and helpers for a variety of languages and platforms. This is an important part of security for controlling who can access or edit content, as well as managing credit usage. By using OAuth 2.0 in your applications, you can make a map of company assets available to anyone in your company while still keeping it hidden from the public. A company working on building a new neighborhood could create a map to track the progress of the homes being built, while ensuring only supervisors can edit the status of the houses. Perhaps the most important way OAuth 2.0 manages security is controlling access to premium content and services. Since interacting with these resources consumes credits, and credits cost real money, OAuth 2.0 is an important part of making sure that only the people you want accessing those resources are able to do so. (Bonus: For additional control over security while reducing the overhead in your in your org, check out security.manager) You’re not getting that data without valid credentials. Image Source How does OAuth 2.0 work? Here at GEO Jobe, we’ve found the best way to explain how OAuth 2.0 is with an analogy. Say your friend, Chris, got access to some exclusive event – a networking opportunity, a party, or something like that. There is a private guest list for the event, and the doormen are checking everyone. Your friend tells you all you need to do is tell the doorman you’re there with Chris, and the doorman will let you in. When you get to the event and check in with the doorman, one of three things can happen. We’ve outlined them each below, and explained what they mean in the context of OAuth 2.0. The Doorman Finds Your Friend; You Get a Wristband and Go In This is what happens when OAuth 2.0 works. You’re able to get in and see your friend. In the case of ArcGIS, this means you requested access to content that you have permission to see. After OAuth checks your credentials, they give you a token (the wristband) that’s added to all your requests for content after that. Then, you get whatever you need (that you have permission to view), and everything is good. The Doorman Finds Your Friend and You Don’t Get In This is when the doorman comes back and tells you they found Chris, but Chris says they don’t know you. While this may be an awkward social situation, in OAuth 2.0, it’s pretty simple. It means you tried to access content, and OAuth 2.0 doesn’t think you are supposed to be able to see it. This will often result in an “Invalid Redirect URI” error. In terms of development, this happens because the request is coming from a URL the app doesn’t recognize. To fix it, go to the app in your ArcGIS used to register for OAuth 2.0. Then, in the Settings menu, view the “Registered Info”. The domain sending the request will need to be included in the Redirect URIs. The Doorman Can’t Find Your Friend Maybe your friend left the party. Maybe the doorman thought the “Chris” they were looking for was a “Christopher” instead of a “Christine”. Regardless of the reason, the doorman can’t find your friend, and they’re not letting you into the party. When this happens, OAuth 2.0 will return an error stating that there is an “Invalid Client ID”. This is also easy for a developer to fix. This situation occurs because there isn’t an app in the ArcGIS Organization in question with an App ID that matches what OAuth 2.0 was told to look for. This can happen if the app was deleted from your ArcGIS Org, or if the code where the App ID was specified was altered. In order to fix it, check where the App ID is specified in the code for the OAuth 2.0 call. Also, check the application in ArcGIS Org used to register for OAuth 2.0. If the application was deleted, you will need to create and register a new application, then use that App ID. If the application exists, check under the “Settings” menu and the “Registered Info” to find the App ID. This should match the value for the App ID in the code. If it doesn’t, recopy the App ID from the application in the ArcGIS, then paste the value into the code where the OAuth 2.0 information is initialized. How to Implement an OAuth 2.0 Application Setting up an OAuth 2.0 application in your ArcGIS Organization is fairly simple. In fact, it only takes five steps! It’s so easy, we’ve outlined the process below. 1. To start, sign into your ArcGIS Org and go to the Content menu. From there, click on “Add Item” and choose the option for “An Application”. 2. Next, you’ll select the type “Application” and fill out some basic information. 3. After you add the item, go to the Settings page and click the “Registered Info” button. Note: While on the settings page, you may want to select the option for “Prevent this item from being accidentally deleted.“ 4. After clicking the “Registered Info” button, the App ID you will need should be visible on the left. The final step will be to update the Rediret URIs for the application. Click the “Update” button on the right side of the screen. 5. A popup with the Registered Info should appear. Any applications a developer builds that will need to OAuth into your ArcGIS organization will need to have their domains added to the approved Redirect URIs of an OAuth application. Add the appropriate domains in the textbox, then click “Add”. After your domains are all added, click the “Update” button at the bottom of the popup. And there you have it! Five easy steps and you’re ready to use OAuth 2.0 in your ArcGIS Organization. You can relax, knowing your ArcGIS content is safe and only accessible by who you choose. Image Source Conclusion Securing your ArcGIS data is important. OAuth 2.0 can make it simple. If you need any assistance setting up OAuth for your ArcGIS Organization, or need some custom applications built while keeping your data secure, reach out to us at connect@geo-jobe.com. We’ll be glad to help! Liked this article? Here’s more cool stuff The ArcGIS Enterprise Solution You May Not Know You’ve Always Needed Rock Your World at GIS in the Rockies Admin Tools for ArcGIS: Copying vs Cloning – Which is right for you? ... View more