Find out what a user has been doing in your organization

[KellyGerrow]

The History endpoint of the REST API is a great tool to dig into information about events occurring in your organization. Although you easily download a comprehensive CSV of events as an administrator in ArcGIS Online, the REST API, provides the option to customize the data returned and to ask more specific questions. For an example of how to use the history CSV, check out this blog: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-/administration/exploring-the-organization-activity... 

For this blog I am going to outline the query and results about a specific member of my ArcGIS Online organization.

Scenario: It’s time for Karate_Kelly’s year end review. She wants to prove to her boss that she has been busy creating and managing content in the organization. Using the History API, She’ll query all of the events that she has initiated in 2018.

Detective Steps:

1. Formulate the Query

Url: https:/webapps.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/portals/self/history?

Parameters:

all=true – returns events for all members in the organization

start=0 – Starts at the first record

num=10000 – largest amount of events returned (requires csv format)

f=csv – Returns result in a csv

sortOrder=asc – information output in ascending order

token = “6hVsODGfBpk5X_hGc0MOrnxmddIk4bL4hP8FyOAxM0QxL3VEw86iTdB” – admin token required

fromDate =2018-01-01 – start of date range

actors= Karate_KElly – events to be returned (Note, usernames are case sensitive, so if you hit a key by accident while creating your username, check the casing just to be sure... #Karate_KEllyIsNotAMistake)

Sample Url constructed:

https://webapps.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/portals/self/history?all=true&start=0&actors=Karate_KElly&sortOrder=asc&fromDate=2018-01-01&num=10000&f=csv&token=Qian2inO2Cqf0tsljaLVJC5YbmjpQvg-CQ565QE75vesENzX5Yorf40K4ai_7fHn8

2. Submit the request and view the resulting CSV
3. Perform analysis or use pivot tables to provide insight into actions

Action	Count of Actions
Add	412
Add Users	7
Create	12
Delete	104
Failed Login	15
Login	192
Remove Users	1
Share	252
Update	1448

Tracking my events by Month:

	Jan	Feb	March	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
# of Actions	10	18	57	274	276	148	291	49	129	101	261	445

Test: When did I go on Summer vacation last year?

This is a neat way to look at your actions and your organizations members actions over time.

*Note. Only available in ArcGIS Online

https://community.esri.com/community/gis/web-gis/arcgisonline/blog/2019/03/16/generate-a-token?sr=se...‌

[GregoryLund2]

Thank you for posting.

I'm not a developer, and apologies for the stupid questions.

I am the AGOL Administrator at my University and would like to try this, but need some assistance.

Is it me, or is this what I should see at your: "1. Formulate the Query, Url: https:/webapps.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/portals/self/history?" =

When I utilize my address: "uwt-gis-geotech" the result is the same:

is this the proper sample path?

I'm not seeing wehre the '&31' is from.

Again, thank you for posting, and apologies for the silly questions.

Regards,

Greg

[KellyGerrow]

Hi Greg,

My bad, there was a typo in the sample url. I have fixed it up now (no 31&) needed, but be warned the token isn't valid so you won't be able to successfully load the sample url.

For your url try,

https://uwt-gis-geotech.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/portals/self/history?all=true&start=0&actors=<enterusername>&sortOrder=asc&fromDate=2018-01-01&num=10000&f=csv&token=<add your admin token>

Using the URL should result in a csv being downloaded automatically. Let me know if that gets you up and running or if you have more questions. 

I'll post another blog about how to get the token, just in case it comes up.

Thanks,

Kelly

[JTessier]

Do you have plans to include this as part of On-premise ArcGIS Enterprise?  If so at what version?

Thanks!

J

Jason Worrel‌

[AndrewRudin1]

Is there a way to obtain this admin token programmatically via the REST API?  Is it different then the token obtained by the/sharing/rest/oauth2/authorize endpoint or the /sharing/rest/generateToken endpoint?

I ask because I'm trying to get an ETL tool to retrieve data from the AGOL REST API's portal_history endpoint via my federated admin account, but the authentication documentation for the API sends me in circles for this type of Portal administrative workflow where I just need to connect to the ArcGIS Online Org or Enterprise Portal and query out some details about users, items, licenses, etc.

I assume the code is as basic as two lines

1) Submit REST call containing my credentials to obtain the token

2) Submit REST call to the Portal_History endpoint containing my credentials

[PhilipSacca]

I am using Arcgis Portal on premise, when I try the history end point I get 

Unable to retrieve history?

Error: 500

https://xxxxvpor01.xxxsky.lab/portal/sharing/rest/portals/self/history?token=JJGZ7vaLd3E_WSpkC_n84ho... 

[MaxSquires]

the same message is returned from the python api for arcgis.

from arcgis.gis import GIS

gis = GIS(portal_url, "siteadmin", secret)

gis.admin.history(start_date=datetime.datetime.today())

>> 'C:\\Users\\<user>\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\history.csv'

contents of history.csv:

{"error":{"code":500, messageCode:"DB_0279", message:"Unable to retrieve history.", details:["Unable to retrieve history."]}}

[frdchp2021]

hi, Do you get any work around about history ?  (I got the same wonder if somebody answered this)

[SoledadPons_Martinez]

Hi @KellyGerrow , 

I am working in a ArcGIS Enterprise On-Premise Portal. When I tried the /history endpoint I get the following:

{"error": {
 "code": 500,
 "messageCode": "DB_0279",
 "message": "Unable to retrieve history.",
 "details": ["Unable to retrieve history."]
}}

 I know /history is only available for ArcGIS Online.

Could you tell us if there's an alternative tool to obtain the same within ArcGIS Enterprise?
I'm working with version 10.8.1 and I've heard about Activity Dashboard extension but I'm not sure if it could be useful as well to track users activity.

Thanks in advance, 

S.