Querying Date Created Field Returns Value Even If Record Count is Zero (0)

McKinneyPatrick_PA — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 14:28:49 GMT

I have a Python script that fetches various attributes from surveys and their associated feature service for both ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise. I am encountering a behavior where when querying the feature service, a value from the date created field ("created_date" in Portal; "CreationDate" in ArcGIS Online) is returned even if the record count is zero.

I'm not sure how there can be a date for records last added even if there is no record count. Furthermore, this date does not match the date for then the survey was created, or when it was last modified. I have provided code as an attachment.

Re: Querying Date Created Field Returns Value Even If Record Count is Zero (0)

HaydenWelch — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 20:38:59 GMT

Something I tend to do with scripts like this is make it digestable. Here's a rough re-write of the get_details script that breaks out the process into functions:

from typing import TypedDict, TYPE_CHECKING from arcgis.gis import GIS, ContentManager, Item, Group, Layer if TYPE_CHECKING: from arcgis.gis._impl._content_manager import SharingManager, SharingGroupManager import sys import logging from functions import get_local_date, set_groups_data, get_edit_dates, extract_user_props SurveyRecord = TypedDict( 'SurveyRecord', { "Survey_ID": str, #survey_id, "Title": str, #survey_title, "Owner": str, #survey_owner, "Survey_Created": str, #get_local_date(survey.created), "Survey_Last_Modified_By_Owner": str, #get_local_date(survey.modified), "Summary": str, #survey_summary, "Description": str, #survey_desc, "Sharing_Access": str, #survey_access, "Record_Count": int, #record_count, "Records_Last_Added": str, #records_last_added, "Survey_Table_Schema_Last_Modified_By_Owner": str, #field_schema_last_modified, "Shared_with_Groups": str, #set_groups_data(group_names), "Group_Members": str, #set_groups_data(formatted_group_members) if formatted_group_members else set_groups_data(group_members), "Count_Group_Members": int,#group_members_count, "Platform": str, #platform }, total=False # Allow an empty record ) def get_survey_props(gis: GIS, platform: str) -> list[SurveyRecord] | None: c_manager: ContentManager = gis.content surveys: list[Item] = c_manager.search(query='type:"Form"', max_items=5000) # Handle no surveys if not surveys: logging.info(f'No surveys found on {platform}') return None logging.info(f'generated list of surveys for {platform}') date_field = 'created_date' if platform == 'Portal' else 'CreationDate' # Get a list of survey data in the SurveyRecord format or None recs = [get_survey_data(gis, survey, date_field, platform) for survey in surveys] # Log no records found if not recs: logging.info( f'No survey records found!' ) return None # Filter out survey records that couldn't be processed return list(filter(None, recs)) def get_survey_data(gis: GIS, survey: Item, date_field: str, platform: str) -> SurveyRecord | None: # Initialize a record survey_record = SurveyRecord() # Get base attributes survey_record['Survey_ID'] = get_survey_attr(survey, 'id', 'UNK') survey_record['Title'] = get_survey_attr(survey, 'title', 'UNK') survey_record['Owner'] = get_survey_attr(survey, 'owner', 'UNK') survey_record['Summary'] = get_survey_attr(survey, 'snippet', 'UNK') survey_record['Description'] = get_survey_attr(survey, 'description', 'UNK') survey_record['Sharing_Access'] = get_survey_attr(survey, 'access', 'UNK') survey_record['Platform'] = platform # Find Groups s_manager: SharingManager = survey.sharing g_manager: SharingGroupManager= s_manager.groups groups: list[Group] = g_manager.list() if len(groups) == 0: logging.info(f'Failed to find groups for {survey.title}') return None # Return partial rec? group_names, group_members, group_member_count = process_groups(groups) survey_record['Shared_with_Groups'] = set_groups_data(group_names) survey_record['Group_Members'] = set_groups_data(group_members) survey_record['Count_Group_Members'] = group_member_count # Process service related info service = ( get_service_by_related(get_related_services(survey), survey) or get_service_by_id(gis, survey) ) if not service.layers or len(service.layers) == 0: logging.info( f'Invalid layer configuration for Survey {survey.title}' ) return None # Return partial rec? # Calculated by process_service #survey_record['Record_Count'] = None #survey_record['Records_Last_Added'] = None #survey_record['Survey_Table_Schema_Last_Modified_By_Owner'] = None return process_service(service, date_field, survey_record) def get_survey_attr(survey: Item, attr: str, default: str='UNK') -> str: val: str|None = getattr(survey, attr, None) return val.lstrip().rstrip() if val else default def get_related_services(survey: Item) -> list[Item] | None: return [ rel for rel in survey.related_items('Survey2Service', 'forward') if rel.type == 'Feature Service' ] or None def get_service_by_related(related_services: list[Item]|None, survey: Item) -> Item | None: if not related_services: logging.info( f'No related services found for {survey.title} falling back to serviceItemID...' ) return None service = None for rel_service in related_services: if rel_service.type != 'Feature Service': continue service = rel_service return service def get_service_by_id(gis: GIS, survey: Item) -> Item | None: service_id: str = survey.properties.get("serviceItemId") if not service_id: logging.info( f'Failed to get Service Item ID for {survey.title}' ) return None c_manager: ContentManager = gis.content service = c_manager.get(service_id) if service.type != 'Feature Service': logging.info( f'Failed to find a valid Feature Service for {survey.title}' ) return service def process_groups(groups: list[Group]) -> tuple[str, str, int]: if not groups or len(groups) == 0: return 'None', 'None', 0 group_names = [group.title for group in groups] group_members = [] for group in groups: # get list of members # {'owner': 'user', 'admins': ['user'], 'users': ['user']} members = group.get_members() # add owner group_members.append(members['owner']) # add admins for member in members['admins']: group_members.append(member) # add users for member in members['users']: group_members.append(member) # remove duplicates group_members = sorted(set(group_members)) group_members_count += len(group_members) formatted_group_members = extract_user_props(group_members) return group_names, formatted_group_members or group_members, group_members_count def process_service(service: Item, date_field: str, survey_record: SurveyRecord) -> SurveyRecord: layer: Layer = service.layers[0] record_count: int = layer.query(return_count_only=True) dates = get_edit_dates(layer.properties) # query most recent date that a record was added query_result = layer.query( where="1=1", # Filter only 'new' records here? out_fields=date_field, order_by_fields=f"{date_field} DESC", return_geometry=False, result_record_count=1 ) if not query_result.features: return survey_record # Return partial? or None? recent_date = query_result.features[0].attributes[f'{date_field}'] records_last_added = get_local_date(recent_date) #records_last_added = get_local_date(dates['dataLastEditDate']) field_schema_last_modified = get_local_date(dates['schemaLastEditDate']) survey_record['Record_Count'] = record_count survey_record['Records_Last_Added'] = records_last_added survey_record['Survey_Table_Schema_Last_Modified_By_Owner'] = field_schema_last_modified survey_record['Shared_with_Groups'] = None survey_record['Group_Members'] = None survey_record['Count_Group_Members'] = None return survey_record

This way you can more easily narrow down exactly which logical part of your script is causing issues. I trued to leave some comments in places that could be causing issues.

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Querying Date Created Field Returns Value Even If Record Count is Zero (0)

Re: Querying Date Created Field Returns Value Even If Record Count is Zero (0)