topic Re: 'Update date' misleading in ArcGIS Hub Questions

'Update date' misleading

ChrisMathers — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 17:21:02 GMT

Our open data portal is set up to pull data from our server site live but a member of the public noticed that the 'About' block on the right side of a download page for a dataset shows the date I registered the service with AGOL in April. It looks like the data hasn't been updated in two months even though the data is as current as we see in our own office. Is there a way to fool it into updating often or drop it from the page entirely?

Dataset | Bay County, FL Open Data Portal

Re: 'Update date' misleading

DanielFenton1 — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 17:25:48 GMT

Hi Chris,

The best way to "fool" the system is by updating the ArcGIS Online Item that references your data. That will cause the date_updated to reflect your change. You don't really have to change anything about the item, just make sure you "touch" it by saving.

We're working on better workflows as we definitely understand your pain.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Daniel Fenton

Product Engineer | Open Data

Re: 'Update date' misleading

ChrisMathers — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 18:14:51 GMT

OK thanks. This works for now, glad to know you folks are on it.

Re: 'Update date' misleading

MalcolmJ — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 02:31:29 GMT

Has there been any update to this in the last few months?

I think I read somewhere that Open Data was going to use the editor tracking fields to work out when data has been updated. Is this something that's planned or has it been done already?

Thanks

Re: 'Update date' misleading

ChrisMathers — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 23:53:22 GMT

That would be very helpful. I hadn't heard that but I hope they are implementing it.

Re: 'Update date' misleading

MalcolmJ — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 02:14:03 GMT

I found where I had read this.

Server configuration details—ArcGIS Open Data | ArcGIS

"Enabling editor tracking on your data will create a new date field that will automatically be updated anytime the data is changed. This can be easily enabled in data hosted in ArcGIS Online as well as with your local data published to ArcGIS Server. When enabling editor tracking on your local data, use the default field name to ensure we can accurately report when the data was last updated and ensure your users are always receiving the most up-to-date data."

Re: 'Update date' misleading

CourtneyClaessens — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 13:27:40 GMT

Hi Chris, Malcolm,

We do take the updated date from the editor tracking attribute if editor tracking is turned on. For hosted services, we take the last edited date on the hosted features. For services that are not hosted and do not have editor tracking, we default to the ArcGIS Online item's last updated date.

For services that have formal metadata attached and has a published date, we show both the last updated date and the published date.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

Courtney

Re: 'Update date' misleading

MalcolmJ — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 20:35:16 GMT

Excellent! Thanks for confirming that Courtney.

Re: 'Update date' misleading

AparnaBokey — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 18:32:44 GMT

Courtney - I have added the last updated date (under Citation->Dates->Revised Dates) in my layers ArcGIS format metadata, but the same is still not visible on the Open Data site. The Published date comes in correctly. Am I entering the last updated date in the correct location? Please advise. http://geodata.dep.state.fl.us/datasets/2cc06364577648dbaf63b4b40b72d638_0 http://geodata.dep.state.fl.us/datasets/2cc06364577648dbaf63b4b40b72d638_0

Thanks.

Re: 'Update date' misleading

CourtneyClaessens — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 19:40:14 GMT

Hi Aparna,

We currently only harvest the published date from the ArcGIS format metadata. At this time, I would suggest to enable editor tracking on your services. This will add another attribute with the last edited date, which we will use as the last updated date on the dataset page. If you don't have editor tracking enabled, we use the last update date from the ArcGIS Online item (the last time the description was edited, etc).

We will be harvesting more values from the official metadata in the future.

Hope this helps,

Courtney

Re: 'Update date' misleading

YvesLeger — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 19:54:40 GMT

I've overwritten a few hosted feature layers after having added field aliases in order for the public to better understand the data. While the "Date Last Updated" is correct and the field aliases show up when I look at the hosted feature layer in my ArcGIS Online content, the date isn't updated and the original field names are still showing on our Open Data site for these datasets.

I have found that if I click on "Edit" and then "Save" in the Description through ArcGIS Online content, the aliases and date are then updated on our Open Data site, but this can't be the normal workflow, can it?

Re: 'Update date' misleading

young_mossy — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 16:16:42 GMT

Has there been any movement on this issue or is it add a field or enable editor tracking?

Re: 'Update date' misleading

LACountyCIO — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 16:22:00 GMT

10 years later and this issue still hasn't been resolved. how can we remove/hide updated date/created date and or make it reference the correct value?

Re: 'Update date' misleading

MeleKoneya — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 18:26:02 GMT

Is there any scripts that 'touch' the open data layers to make them show a current last update date? I recall finding something years ago, but don't know where it is now. Thank you

Re: 'Update date' misleading

MeleKoneya — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 15:25:47 GMT

This is how I was able to update the data via python

#connect to GIS
from arcgis.gis import GIS
gis = GIS("https://website.maps.arcgis.com/", "UserName", "**********")

#Get user that owns folder
user = gis.users.get("UserName")

#Get list of items
list = user.items(folder='Open Data')

for i in list:
i.update(item_properties = {'accessInformation': "COS"})

Updating the accessinformation sets the updated date to today

Re: 'Update date' misleading

TimConfare2 — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 16:14:47 GMT

I totally agree. I can't believe we still can't change the date manually. None of the current methods accurately display the correct date. Just because I upload the data or change the info doesn't mean that is the actual date of the data. This is the main reason I cannot use the Open Data configuration recommended by ESRI. I have to create my own "cards" and add a download button manually.