Automatically Add AGOL Members as Enterprise Accounts

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04-04-2017 05:31 PM
ZorbaConlen1
Occasional Contributor III

Hi. In ArcGIS Online, is there any way to add enterprise accounts automatically? We use Active Directory. Currently, we invite users individually. It works, but often causes users some frustration, as the sign in interface is confusing and unless they follow directions well (which they don't), they end up doing it wrong, frustrated and with a bad first impression of AGOL. It is also problematic because we often need to add them to a particular group, once they have accepted the invite, but this requires them to notify us once they have done so and they may or may not do that. Better if admin can add them automatically and then configure group membership right away. Our current option to invite users is the fourth one in the list "Invite members to join using their enterprise logins".

So, best option would be providing an AD security group, and adding all members automatically, but we would be fine with providing a spreadsheet if that is an option. 

Second part - if not possible in AGOL, is this possible with Portal? We are considering whether to deploy portal or stick with AGOL for various reasons and this would help us decide.  

Thanks

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RebeccaStrauch__GISP
MVP Emeritus

I'm assuming you have looked at the help docs??

Invite and add members—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS 

there are some tips in there, including adding them without sending the email, etc.

But have you looked at the new Python API?  That is another way to add users and do other maintenance.  It takes a little time to see the pattern, but there are samples and it's actually pretty powerful once you get the hang of it (and there are samples).

ArcGIS API for Python | ArcGIS for Developers 

https://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2016/12/19/arcgis-python-api-1-0-released/ 

https://community.esri.com/groups/arcgis-python-api/pages/overview 

With the API, you can even create a new user or group, assign level, and move content from one user to another.  This is what I am using it for, to move content from a user htat has left the Department, and assign their content to a holding user until it can be sorted out, then deleting the old user.

There some good sessions showing this process at the Dev Summit 2017 (last month).  It should be posted on video.esri.com but I'll see if I can find a direct link.

There may be other admin tools that can help too...

Resources · Esri/ago-admin-wiki Wiki · GitHub 

Tools · Esri/ago-admin-wiki Wiki · GitHub 

GeoJobe has some free (or more advanced, paid version) that many users seem to like.  I have played with the free version.

Keep in mind that you will want to make sure you have enough named users for all those you are adding, and will want to designate whether they are level 1 or 2, etc.

edit:

Recent Proceedings   (for the Dev Summit)

Esri Events - YouTube     (if you prefer youtube)

Esri Videos | E360 Videos: GIS, Events, ArcGIS Products & Industries   (the official esri video site...you can search for topics).

 ...  filtered for python api E360 Video Search | Esri Videos 

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RebeccaStrauch__GISP
MVP Emeritus

I'm assuming you have looked at the help docs??

Invite and add members—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS 

there are some tips in there, including adding them without sending the email, etc.

But have you looked at the new Python API?  That is another way to add users and do other maintenance.  It takes a little time to see the pattern, but there are samples and it's actually pretty powerful once you get the hang of it (and there are samples).

ArcGIS API for Python | ArcGIS for Developers 

https://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2016/12/19/arcgis-python-api-1-0-released/ 

https://community.esri.com/groups/arcgis-python-api/pages/overview 

With the API, you can even create a new user or group, assign level, and move content from one user to another.  This is what I am using it for, to move content from a user htat has left the Department, and assign their content to a holding user until it can be sorted out, then deleting the old user.

There some good sessions showing this process at the Dev Summit 2017 (last month).  It should be posted on video.esri.com but I'll see if I can find a direct link.

There may be other admin tools that can help too...

Resources · Esri/ago-admin-wiki Wiki · GitHub 

Tools · Esri/ago-admin-wiki Wiki · GitHub 

GeoJobe has some free (or more advanced, paid version) that many users seem to like.  I have played with the free version.

Keep in mind that you will want to make sure you have enough named users for all those you are adding, and will want to designate whether they are level 1 or 2, etc.

edit:

Recent Proceedings   (for the Dev Summit)

Esri Events - YouTube     (if you prefer youtube)

Esri Videos | E360 Videos: GIS, Events, ArcGIS Products & Industries   (the official esri video site...you can search for topics).

 ...  filtered for python api E360 Video Search | Esri Videos 

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ZorbaConlen1
Occasional Contributor III

Rebecca, thanks for such a complete reply! The admin interface does allow adding users in batches automatically, but the admin must create and supply passwords. Our users use their domain accounts and manage their own passwords so that does not work.

The Python API, however, does look like a good approach. I just browsed some of the documentation and it looks like it may be possible to script adding enterprise members. I'll likely dive into this and see if it works for us.

That said, I'm surprised ESRI does not provide this capability out of the box. It would seem to be a useful feature for many organizations. Maybe I'll post to the ideas site. 

Thanks again for the ideas and all the links.

TobiasFimpel
Occasional Contributor

Hi Zorba. I'm curious if you got this to work (adding enterprise members without requiring confirmation/invitation email):

The Python API, however, does look like a good approach. I just browsed some of the documentation and it looks like it may be possible to script adding enterprise members. I'll likely dive into this and see if it works for us.

Thanks!

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ZorbaConlen1
Occasional Contributor III

Hi Tobias. No, I'm sorry to say I never followed up with that idea. Still on the radar, but have other priorities.

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