topic Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service in ArcGIS Online Questions

Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

Anonymous User — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 15:08:02 GMT

I have a hosted feature service with creator and editor tracking enabled. I am the owner of this hosted feature service. Our fieldworkers are using Survey123 to collect into that hosted feature service. Recently one of them had issues syncing some of their collected data. I followed the instructions here to pull the SQLite database from their device and synced those collected points from my computer. This worked very well! However, even though I did not collect these points, because they were uploaded from my account, the Creator field shows my username. I want that field to show the username of the person who actually did the collection. I tried to use field calculator to replace my username with the fieldworker's username. I also tried to manually input values. This seems to not work because editing is not enabled for the Creator field. I have tried to enable editing for this field in ArcGIS Pro and using the admin interface for ArcGIS REST services (<host>/arcgis/rest/admin/services/<service> -> Update Definition). In both cases, there is some indication that the Creator field should be editable, but the field remains uneditable.

Is there any way for a user to edit the Creator field in a hosted feature services with tracking enabled?

I understand why this wouldn't normally be desirable, but as the owner of the item it seems like there should be a way for me to do this.

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

KellyGerrow — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:32:53 GMT

Hi Ryan,

The Creator filed isn't editable as you mentioned, in everyother case than your own, you wouldn't want this updated. I'm adding James Tedrick‌ in case he knows of a solution. It is possible to publish data and maintain editor tracking so I'm wondering if there is something we may be able to look into during this recovery process.

Re: Publishing to AGOL overwrites editor tracking data‌

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

JamesTedrick — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 18:18:34 GMT

Hi Ryan,

This can be done through desktop tools like ArcGIS Pro. You can Disable Editor Tracking—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop to turn off editor tracking, manually edit the Creator fields and then Enable Editor Tracking—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop to restore editor tracking. This is commonly done in data migration workflows.

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

LorettaWinton1 — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:41:37 GMT

Hello James,

I have the same issue. However, the Disable Editor Tracking tool doesn't seem to recognize the hosted feature layer created by my Survey123 survey. It says it will only work on a feature class, table, or mosaic dataset. How can I get it to work on my hosted feature layer?

Thanks,

Lori

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

GoulburnBroken — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 05:00:58 GMT

As Loretta Loretta Winton has experienced we are also unable to Disable Editor Tracking on our hosted feature layer with ArcGIS Pro.

James Tedrick‌ disabling editor tracking is possible with data stored in file geodatabases, ArcSDE etc but it does not seem possible with a ArcGIS online hosted feature layer. Is this the case?

The capability to edit the 'Creator' and 'Editor' fields for administrators would be of high value to our organization.

A work around is to append data within ArcGIS Pro 'Signed In' as the user you wish to fill the 'Creator' attribute with.

However this process is very timely, particularly if you have many unique users that require appending of related data. Not a recommended work around - only if desperate.

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

JamesTedrick — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 18:19:49 GMT

Hi,

With hosted layers, editor tracking can be managed on the item's detail page in the ArcGIS Online/ArcGIS Enterprise website.

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

WKennedy — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 16:02:05 GMT

I'm surprised this is marked as "Answered." The "answer" (i.e., Disable/Enable Editor Tracking) does not work for Feature Service layers.

We are having the same issue -- we cannot disable editor tracking on the hosted feature layer with ArcGIS Pro. While this can be done on the item's detail page in AGOL, the fields remain read only online and in ArcGIS Pro, which prevents edits to the tracking fields.

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

LorettaWinton1 — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 23:38:35 GMT

Hi Wright,

Brandon Armstrong answered this for me some time ago on a different thread. Here is what he worked out

Hi Lori,

After speaking with you over the phone and then doing some additional testing, we found the following workflow to successfully append the data from your exported file geodatabase to the existing feature layer referenced by your survey while maintaining the Editor Tracking information.

These steps start after data from all previous surveys have been exported to file geodatabase format using ArcGIS Online...

1. Login to ArcGIS Online or your portal in ArcGIS Enterprise and select 'Content' from the top panel of choices
2. Select the survey folder which contains the feature layer and form of the survey which you will be appending data to
3. Select the feature layer within the folder > Settings > disable 'Keep track of who created and last updated features' > Save

4. Open ArcGIS Pro
5. Add the previously downloaded file geodatabase data and any table containing attachments to the Current Map

IMPORTANT: Instead of using Field Mapping in the Append gp tool options, ensure that the source field(s) have the same name as the target field they will be appended too. For instance, if Field_1 of the source dataset (file geodatabase feature class) will be going to Field_2 of source dataset (feature service), rename Field_1 within feature class, to Field_2 prior to proceeding.

6. Run the Disable Editor Tracking geoprocessing tool against your File Geodatabase data.
7. From the Contents pane—Right-click the feature class from your downloaded dataset > Design > Fields.
8. Check 'Read-Only' for all editor tracking fields (CreationDate, Creator, EditDate, Editor) > Save
9. Run the Append geoprocessing tool with your file geodatabase dataset as the input and the feature layer as the target

10. Login to ArcGIS Online and navigate to feature layer to ensure that all editor tracking information from file geodatabase has been preserved
11. Re-enable the option to 'Keep track of who created and last updated features' from the Settings of the feature layer > Save

The editor tracking information from the appended data should now reflect it's original information and any new records will record the appropriate editor tracking information at time of collection.

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

Claire_Peterson — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 17:51:54 GMT

Does anyone have any new information on this issue? The above method described in Loretta's post by Brandon did not work for me - Editor Tracking fields in hosted feature layer captured my username and todays timestamp instead of retaining the tracking information already in the file geodatabase dataset.

We have 5+ feature layers that we host on our server that I am trying to transfer over to AGO but with 1000s of records involved, I do not want to go record by record fixing the editor tracking information.

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

MingHome — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 23:45:39 GMT

Hi, James,

Is it possible to select other fields for the user and time stamp of editing, tracking? Or change the name of these fields, either on the item detail page setting page or using Python API?

Ming

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

SamanthaGriffore — Mon, 17 May 2021 20:21:37 GMT

Hello, also looking for elaboration on how to update the Creator field on a hosted feature layer generated from Survey123 form submissions. Because we use the Inbox feature, it's important that the Creator be correct so that our WHERE query of Creator =${username} returns all records collected by a specific username. If Creator is incorrect, we cannot return the correct records.

I tried the solution from James of turning off the "Keep track of who created and last updated features" in the Settings on AGOL, bringing the layer into ArcGIS Pro and editing, but the field is still locked.

Any further insights on this?

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

Anneka_France — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 10:01:34 GMT

@JamesTedrick is there an updated workflow for modifying the editor tracking fields? It seems that this solution is out of date or does not work in all scenarios. It would be great if there was a way to do this through the ArcGIS API for Python.

We have a similar issue to those above. We need to update the 'created by' field for records submitted through Survey123. We are moving our initiative to ArcGIS Hub, after initially piloting it using a public Survey123 form. We need a way to assign the legacy data from the public Survey123 form to the users who will now be using ArcGIS Hub community accounts to upload and edit/update their own records.

Thanks

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

JarrettGreen — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 20:50:20 GMT

Hello,

I'm looking for a solution to this as well. I need to update editor tracking fields of a table in a hosted feature service without having to create a copy, download, update the editor tracking in a file GDB, and republish. Given the size of the feature service, this is a multi-day process and maintenance window.

I've looked at the Pro and Online GUIs, Python API and the REST API (addToDefinition, updateDefinition) with no luck. I feel like I had done this before with REST API calls, but now any modifications I try to make to the editFieldsInfo object return a {"success": "true"} response but nothing changes on the table.

Thanks,

Jarrett

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

kmsmikrud — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 19:30:22 GMT

Hi!,

I am also still searching for a way to efficiently edit the Creator/CreationDate/Editor/EditDate fields in AGOL feature layers. I was passed this link as a method shared by @ScottMoore__Olympia_

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-online-blog/updating-editor-tracking-data-in-a-hosted-feature/ba-p/901900

I haven't went thru all the steps yet. I wish there was just a way to disable editor tracking and then it would allow you to change the value like any other cell. I know in the past I've spent hours disabling tracking and then trying to get it to append records with the original Creator/CreationDates but even though that setting is disabled its like it persists and would still put myself as the Creator. I'm not sure if there is a lag or what, but it is really a very frustrating task. Similar to other folks sometimes I have survey data that I didn't collect that during appending gets tagged with my credentials/creation date.

Its over 4 years since this post and I don't think we have much better solutions as is noted by the posts in the thread for being able to manage these fields.

Hopefully Esri will provide a more efficient means. For instance how do you efficiently edit hundreds of records to get the original CreationDate? I mean Creator is one thing, but each record would have a different CreationDate and querying for each record to update to the original date/time is not efficient yet being able to have the original CreationDate is very important.

Thanks,

Kathy

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

BKS — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 20:12:54 GMT

Ok, now I'm in the same boat as you all.

@JamesTedrick, any update on how to resolve the issue where I have to append my survey's hosted feature service to a new hosted feature service whilst maintaining the Creator values???

Note - my users must only be able to view/edit their own data. When I migrate the data to the new feature service, the Creator gets my username, thus they can never view/edit data they've submitted previously.

Any info is appreciated.

Cheers, BKS

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

LLyons — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 14:46:41 GMT

Anyone have any updates on methods for editing/correcting the Editor and Creator fields?

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

RTjoshjones — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 09:52:32 GMT

I'm also looking for a solution. However, I can edit my Creator and Editor fields as they're not locked. It's created_user that is locked for me so I assume this is the field being used to assign ownership?

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

LLyons — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 10:53:40 GMT

I'm curious where (on the feature class AGO page or somewhere in Survey123, or somewhere else) are you able to edit your Creator and Editor fields?

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

RTjoshjones — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 14:47:53 GMT

I opened it in Pro and updated each field using the field calculator. They are not locked for me so this was not an issue.

Re: Edit Creator field of hosted feature service

LorettaWinton1 — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 18:10:44 GMT

Hi James, this solution didn't work for me and the original solution no longer works either. When I use the Disable Editor Tracking tool in ArcGIS Pro and browse to the hosted feature layer on AGOL, I can find the feature layer and click on it, but it says the container is empty and nothing fills the Name field.

Thanks for your help,

Loretta