topic Re: Record user access of a web app in ArcGIS Web AppBuilder Questions

Record user access of a web app

BarryYoung — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 14:15:19 GMT

Hi, I've developed an app using Web AppBuilder which contains sensitive data and is only available to users within a specific group.

Is it possible to log when a user accesses the app? The app is on our Enterprise site and users login using Windows AD (SAML). Ideally I'd want to have a record of the user and date/time of access.

Thanks,
Barry

Re: Record user access of a web app

BrianLeroux — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 14:27:28 GMT

I would imagine this is possible at the web server level such as IIS but I have not done so. I have been relying on the ArcGIS logs to identify who utilizes specific services. ESRI has the systemLogParser tool that I leverage for that.

Re: Record user access of a web app

Brian_Wilson — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 15:45:32 GMT

I use Matomo, which is a free analytics system. Matomo is self-hosted, so you don't have to share your data with outsiders.

I have great plans to do more with the IIS log files but it is low priority for me so it seems to never go anywhere.

Matomo works with WAB because you can insert the tracking code into the main Javascript file. I have not been able to make it work with StoryMaps because it's too locked down.

We have 1 machine per user and it tracks IP addresses so in theory I can see each person accessing it. One of the reports looks like this for example,

There is a "User ID" feature that I have not looked at yet. (Again not currently a priority here.) See https://matomo.org/guide/reports/user-ids/

(Incidentally we stopped using WAB and only use the developers edition now. But it's the same -- insert a block of code into the Javascript and it reports back to the Matomo server.)

Matomo does maps too!

I have no connection to this project other than being a fanboy apparently. Geez. I mean, it does maps!

I wish we had more traffic to track. Back in the olden days I would have loved this.

Re: Record user access of a web app

LefterisKoumis — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 16:02:59 GMT

Before I get to details, do you authenticate the user before they access your app?

Re: Record user access of a web app

BarryYoung — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 16:16:11 GMT

Hi, all our users are set up to use SAML linked to Azure Active Directory, so yes, they are authenticated that way. I've then set up a specific group that only has the approved members that should access the app.

Re: Record user access of a web app

Brian_Wilson — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 16:17:35 GMT

We have both public and intranet apps, they have to sign in to access the intranet apps. The tracking we're using right now does not care if you are logged in or not. I should look at that User Id thing in Matomo, I wonder how that's implemented. We're using Active Directory for signins so whenever an employee uses an internal app for the first time an account is created for them in Portal. If the User Id feature works with the normal log in it would be great.

Re: Record user access of a web app

LefterisKoumis — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 16:33:23 GMT

If you prompt for credentials to access the app though the portal I suggest to take look at the Smart Editor widget.js

I used its logic to something like this to capture the user's email. Since you are using and organization you should be able to figure out the identity of the user. A simple js can capture the time of the login. Hopefully this is what you are looking for.

var creatoremail = "" var editoremail = "" var portal = new arcgisPortal.Portal('https://svgcdeaprod.ct.dot.ca.gov/deaprod_portal') portal.signIn().then(function (loggedInUser) { // console.log("Signed in to the portal: " + loggedInUser) // console.log(loggedInUser.email); creatoremail = loggedInUser.email

Re: Record user access of a web app

BarryYoung — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 10:01:04 GMT

Thanks for this, definitely looks like a way forward 👍