Can a Bot programically use and consume large amounts of ArcGIS Online Credits via Living Atlas Content map requests or in any other way?

[AaronPaul2]

We have a publicly facing application that uses Premium Content from Esri's Living Atlas.

We are not as concerned about humans consuming credits as we are Bots.

Bots that can be programmed to make map requests or other method to Premium Content.

Is this possible?

Thank you in advance,

Aaron Paul

[BenTurrell]

Hey Aaron Paul‌,

This page gives a really good oversight of information about sharing premium content in a web app: Share apps—ArcGIS Online Help | Documentation 

There are a few ways you could scrape that content as a "bot". I would suggest limiting the amount of credits the layer can use:

Check the box beside each premium content layer to allow full access to your app through your subscription. Optionally enter a request limit and interval for each layer—for example, to limit the number of requests for a premium content layer in your app to 100 requests per minute, set the Request Limit value to 100 and the Interval value to Minute. Save your changes when finished.

I'd also suggest you actively monitor the app using the status page so you can keep track of the usage:

To view usage, including any credit consumption for premium content, open the item page for the app and click the Usage tab. You can adjust the report to see credits or users and change the time frame for the reporting period. If you have privileges to view status reports, you can view the Apps with Premium Content Proxy section on the Apps tab to track the number of requests, credits used, and other premium content usage information.

Hope the above helps!

Thanks,

Ben

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[AaronPaul2]

Hi Ben,

Thank you for responding and tips on how to secure the content to lessen chances of credits being used.

Your answer implies it is possible.

But I'm not sure how a bot would open a web map or application, then pan, zoom an click on the map.

Premium Content uses credits by number of map requests.

A map request is pan, zoom or a click.

Can a Bot be programmed to make map requests?

Better yet, can it do it within the ecosystem of Esri's AGOL sites?

Thank you again,

Aaron

[SteveCole]

I suppose you could script to repeatedly direct a browser to an AGOL webmap url & add action parameters like this.

[BenTurrell]

Hey Aaron Paul‌,

There are a few different ways. Generally you can find the endpoint to a service using a browsers developer tools and then checking the network tab to get the url. Once you have that you can send requests through and save the results. If its a tiled service then you can send the layer and tiles as part of the url or if it is a map service you can send a map extent as part of a POST request.

You could also create a tool using something like https://www.autohotkey.com/  to move the mouse and pan the map. I would personally just use the top method as scripting mouse movements or key presses can be a pain.

I wouldn't be too concerned about it if you just set the maximum amount of requests.

Thanks,

Ben