topic Re: Create token and access feature Layer in Python Questions

Create token and access feature Layer

kapalczynski — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 19:49:55 GMT

I have this code snip below.

Trying to get a token
return that token
and use gis.content.get(feature_layer_id) to secure access to a service

Line 14 The variable "custom_token" prints with no issues
Line 18 prints fine as well "Token successfully generated! Expires at timestamp: 1780364453189"
Line 21 prints back NONE
and Line 23 gives error: Exception: You do not have permissions to access this resource or perform this operation.
(Error Code: 403)

The user Name and password are owner level permissions and have access to everything in our Enterprise... so im confused.

AND confused why line 21 returns NONE

The reson I am going this route is I need to increase the token expiration time... not sure how to do it any other way...

otherwise I would just do this

if portal_username == '' and portal_password == '': gis = GIS(profile='Survey123_prof') else: gis = GIS(portal_url, portal_username, portal_password) token = gis._con.token item_object = gis.content.get(feature_layer_id)

ANY thoughts?

token_url = f"{portal_url}/sharing/rest/generateToken" payload = { "username": portal_username, "password": portal_password, "client": "referer", "referer": portal_url, "expiration": expiration_minutes, "f": "json" } response = requests.post(token_url, data=payload) token_data = response.json() custom_token = token_data["token"] print("custom token " + custom_token) gis = GIS(url=portal_url, credentials={"token": custom_token}) print(f"Token successfully generated! Expires at timestamp: {token_data['expires']}") tokenvalue = gis._con.token print(tokenvalue) item_object = gis.content.get(feature_layer_id) print(item_object)

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

kapalczynski — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 22:36:13 GMT

definitely has to do with permissions...

The username and password credentials I am using.... I tool that user and added it to a group and assigned the group to that Service and still did not work...

once I made public it worked... not sure why it has to be public if I have it shared to the Organization and I have a group with that user in it...

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

CodyPatterson — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 23:38:11 GMT

Hey @kapalczynski

I think this may be the way you're adding the token in, from the documentation here:

https://developers.arcgis.com/python/latest/api-reference/arcgis.gis.toc.html

It's showing that the way to use the token is like this:

gis = GIS(url=portal_url, token="token_if_string")

Just make sure if it's just a plain copy paste string then to surround with quotes, otherwise calling the variable should work just fine with token=token_var etc.

Let me know if this ends up getting you farther!

Cody

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

kapalczynski — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:21:53 GMT

Yea I had that originally and it did not work... was getting errors... google suggested the way I am doing it now.

I am going to test again and see what error it is throwing...

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

kapalczynski — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:30:55 GMT

Line 14 prints the token I am receiving...

Line 16 seems to fail : gis = GIS(url=portal_url, token=custom_token)

BUT you can see from the error that the correct token is being printed... its a valid token

custom token xQiM4Ft72qRDLEmW9BOTojBmvVMHp2YGEwBXTyIHrf3eYJLpV9NrTUV2y_XzKBdsRaiME2Rc5UUmnMQYW3dv-aTOBSmb_GdLWMyguTSZyfAMn1d-LayS1w......................................c1rulv6_dMf0XW4qhLi2g..
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\xyzx\Desktop\~GIS_projects\~xyzx\~AttachmentsNotVisible_Processing\script.py", line 72, in <module>
gis = GIS(url=portal_url, token=custom_token)
File "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3\lib\site-packages\arcgis\gis\__init__.py", line 550, in __init__
self._portal.get_properties(force=force_refresh)
File "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3\lib\site-packages\arcgis\gis\_impl\_portalpy.py", line 1227, in get_properties
raise e
File "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3\lib\site-packages\arcgis\gis\_impl\_portalpy.py", line 1207, in get_properties
resp = self.con.post(path, self._postdata(), ssl=True)
File "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3\lib\site-packages\arcgis\gis\_impl\_con\_connection.py", line 1079, in post
force_bytes=kwargs.pop("force_bytes", False),
File "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3\lib\site-packages\arcgis\gis\_impl\_con\_connection.py", line 625, in _handle_response
self._handle_json_error(data["error"], errorcode)
File "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3\lib\site-packages\arcgis\gis\_impl\_con\_connection.py", line 648, in _handle_json_error
raise Exception(errormessage)
Exception: Invalid token.
(Error Code: 498)

token_url = f"{portal_url}/sharing/rest/generateToken" payload = { "username": portal_username, "password": portal_password, "client": "referer", "referer": portal_url, "expiration": expiration_minutes, "f": "json" } response = requests.post(token_url, data=payload) token_data = response.json() custom_token = token_data["token"] print("custom token " + custom_token) gis = GIS(url=portal_url, token=custom_token) print(f"Token successfully generated! Expires at timestamp: {token_data['expires']}") tokenvalue = gis._con.token print(tokenvalue) token = custom_token print(tokenvalue) item_object = gis.content.get(feature_layer_id) print(item_object)

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

kapalczynski — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:38:12 GMT

This works but the token does not stay alive long enough for me to run the script...

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

CodyPatterson — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:47:00 GMT

Hey @kapalczynski

So in this case, I'm wondering if it's binding the referrer token to a URL that you're not meaning to use or the code is misinterpreting.

I personally would do some debugging prints, and check to see if anything pops up that isn't intended:

print("Portal: ", portal_url) print("Referer: ", payload.get("referer")) print("GIS Referrer: ", getattr(gis, '_referer', 'Not set'))

Does your portal URL end with /portal or just https://<fqdn>.com/

Cody

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

CodyPatterson — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:52:10 GMT

Hey @kapalczynski

I didn't end up seeing the reply where you mentioned that the token doesn't stay alive long enough my apologies.

You had send an older expiry time, this one here 1780364453189 and it shows that it should expire June 02 GMT so it should be well old enough. Still I'd check your max token lifetime in the portal admin, then Portals > Self, and check the maxTokenExpirationMinutes, maybe temporarily set to 10080 for 7 days or more, then Update Organization.

Along with this, inside of your code, if it's super long running, you may put a token refresh function in that just recalls a new token, and adds the newer token to the gis object.

Cody

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

BrianLomas — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:46:05 GMT

I have run into token issues like this with portal in the past. Below is the basic method that has worked for me. .

gis = GIS("https://xyz:7443/arcgis", "xxUNxx", "xxPWxx", verify_cert=False) token = gis.session.auth.token auth_info = (gis.session.auth)

After this, I place the token in a dictionary {"token": token}, then store it in a csv for other scripts to access or just use it in my active python requests. Good luck. I know this issue can be frustrating.

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

kapalczynski — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:57:07 GMT

@BrianLomas doesn't the token expire on you though

I am not sure what this is and how that would play into my script.... how would that work with the simple example below
Or the more elaborate one in this post...

Or the more elaborate one below...

token_url = f"{portal_url}/sharing/rest/generateToken" payload = { "username": portal_username, "password": portal_password, "client": "referer", "referer": portal_url, "expiration": expiration_minutes, "f": "json" } response = requests.post(token_url, data=payload) token_data = response.json() custom_token = token_data["token"] print("custom token " + custom_token) #gis = GIS(url=portal_url, token=custom_token) gis = GIS(url=portal_url, credentials={"token": custom_token}) print(f"Token successfully generated! Expires at timestamp: {token_data['expires']}") print("Portal: ", portal_url) print("Referer: ", payload.get("referer")) print("GIS Referrer: ", getattr(gis, '_referer', 'Not set')) tokenvalue = gis._con.token print(tokenvalue) token = custom_token print(tokenvalue) item_object = gis.content.get(feature_layer_id) print(item_object)

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

kapalczynski — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:38:58 GMT

@CodyPatterson OK I will do some of that debugging and see...
My URL ends with /portal https://xyzxyz.xyzx.xyzxyz.gov/portal

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

kapalczynski — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:46:52 GMT

Code and Return

token_url = f"{portal_url}/sharing/rest/generateToken" payload = { "username": portal_username, "password": portal_password, "client": "referer", "referer": portal_url, "expiration": expiration_minutes, "f": "json" } response = requests.post(token_url, data=payload) token_data = response.json() custom_token = token_data["token"] print("custom token " + custom_token) #gis = GIS(url=portal_url, token=custom_token) gis = GIS(url=portal_url, credentials={"token": custom_token}) print(f"Token successfully generated! Expires at timestamp: {token_data['expires']}") print("Portal: ", portal_url) print("Referer: ", payload.get("referer")) print("GIS Referrer: ", getattr(gis, '_referer', 'Not set')) tokenvalue = gis._con.token print(tokenvalue) token = custom_token print(tokenvalue) item_object = gis.content.get(feature_layer_id) print(item_object)

This is the return

NOTE: The Portal and Referer are the same below. They are both returning the same URL for my Portal instance

custom token hyLT0vo4pfs2oA3dJjPRJwRvgX-91bWD6TvS1ZZ8mOgu8aykXrL8GdoRe85kpIOvAm0BxtfXP-8IVTnjwdRelX697mjRZwhW.....UGSR3bL6jZMecwiSJT19wK4EAyw.. Token successfully generated! Expires at timestamp: 1780515639263 Portal: https://ggg.g.ggg.gov/portal Referer: https://ggg.g.ggg.gov/portal GIS Referrer: None None None <Item title:"DEV" type:Feature Layer Collection owner:xyz.xy@xy.xyzx.gov> starting

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

kapalczynski — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:53:07 GMT

If I run it with this:

gis = GIS(url=portal_url, token=custom_token)

Instead of this

gis = GIS(url=portal_url, credentials={"token": custom_token})

I get this error

....snip

ing\script2.py", line 70, in <module>
gis = GIS(url=portal_url, token=custom_token)

....snip

File "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3\lib\site-packages\arcgis\gis\_impl\_con\_connection.py", line 648, in _handle_json_error
raise Exception(errormessage)
Exception: Invalid token.
(Error Code: 498)

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

CodyPatterson — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:31:03 GMT

Hey @kapalczynski

That looks pretty good! The timestamp doesn't expire soon and the URLs look fine, it's just the tokens are still missing for some reason.

Try to assemble the GIS object like this here:

gis = GIS( url=portal_url, token=custom_token, referer=portal_url, use_gen_token=True, verify_cert=True # I'd try this with false as well )

Personally, I've not used the credentials argument you're using, I've only done the method I've sent above, along with manually passing username and password in.

Also on line 30 you're reprinting the tokenvalue variable, instead of token.

Cody

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

kapalczynski — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 15:04:29 GMT

OK looks like that is working but another weird thing is going on... In my payload I am setting the expiration to 1440 minutes... BUT when I get the return the token expiration date is NOT 1 day out...

token_url = f"{portal_url}/sharing/rest/generateToken" payload = { "username": portal_username, "password": portal_password, "client": "referer", "referer": portal_url, "expiration": 1440, "f": "json" } print(f"Token successfully generated! Expires at timestamp: {token_data['expires']}") response = requests.post(token_url, data=payload) # Example Esri epoch timestamp esri_timestamp = token_data['expires'] # Convert to a readable date object date_obj = datetime.fromtimestamp(esri_timestamp / 1000) print(date_obj.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'))

I get

Token successfully generated! Expires at timestamp: 1780585244830
----------------------------
2026-06-04 11:00:44

Re: Create token and access feature Layer

CodyPatterson — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 15:07:37 GMT

Hey @kapalczynski

Using your timestamp, it's showing me that it's one day out from my current timezone, so around 10AM CT. I may be misunderstanding what you're saying though.

Cody