Using Python to generate access token for an account that uses organization login

[FelipeDias]

Hi there!

I've been trying to generate a REST API access token for an item on ArcGIS online through a basic Python script and I'm having a hard time.

Here are the URLs of the item that I want to access:

• ArcGIS Online URL: https://mycompany.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=41f6ee459c664aeb98a3fab39139c896
• REST API URL: https://services9.arcgis.com/eNX73FDxjlKFtCtH/arcgis/rest/services/layername/FeatureServer 

Note: You won't be able to access the item above because it's not shared publicly (which is why I want to generate an access token in the first place). 

I followed the instructions found here (Generate Token in REST) and arrived at the following Python code (substituting the placeholders with my actual username and password):

import requests
tokenURL = 'https://services9.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/generateToken'
params = {'f': 'pjson', 
          'username': 'placeholder_username', 
          'password': 'placeholder_password', 
          'referer': 'http://www.arcgis.com'}
response = requests.post(tokenURL, data = params, verify = False)
token = response.json()['token']

The problem is that the code above doesn't work. When I investigate the response object, I notice two things: 

• It doesn't have a "token" key.
• It tells me that the URL I used is invalid.

print(response.json()) 
# {'error': {'code': 400, 'message': 'Invalid URL', 'details': ['Invalid URL']}}

So I tried using tokenURL='https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/generateToken', but that didn't work either: 

print(response.json()) 
# {'error': {'code': 400, 'message': 'Unable to generate token.', 'details': ['Invalid username or password.']}}

 I believe this might be because I typically log into ArcGIS online through my organization's URL: mycompany.maps.arcgis.com (as seen below):

So I finally tried to use tokenURL='https://mycompany.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/generateToken', but that didn't work either:

print(response.json()) 
# {'error': {'code': 400, # 'message': 'Unable to generate token.', # 'details': ['Invalid username or password.']}}

Does anyone know what I need to do to successfully generate an access token for the item above? 

[LongDinh]

Hi @FelipeDias ,

Try using this endpoint instead /sharing/generateToken . Your request should be something like:

import requests
organisationName = "orgName"
url = f"https://{organisationName}.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/generateToken"

username = "NamedUserAccount"
password = "Password123"

payload={'f': 'json',
'username': username,
'password': password,
'referer': f"https://{organisationName}.maps.arcgis.com/"}

response = requests.request("POST", url, data=payload)

print(response.json())

You can check to see if the token works by requesting some content from your named user's contents with the following request:

organisationName = "orgName"

url = f"https://{organisationName}.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/users/{username}"

token = response.json()['token']
params={
    'f':'json',
    'num':1,
    'token': token
}

userContents = requests.request("GET", url, params=params)

print(userContents.json())

[FelipeDias]

Thanks for the quick reply!!! Sadly, it didn't work, though... This is what got inside the `response` item:

print(response.json())

{'error': {'code': 400, 
 'message': 'Unable to generate token.', 
 'details': ['Invalid username or password.']}}

 Any idea what's going on?

[LongDinh]

Are you using a valid account? It needs to be a named user account 

[FelipeDias]

I am. Here's a snapshot of my user profile (I've edited the actual username for privacy):

But as I mentioned in my original post, I don't log in to ArcGIS online though the default portal. Instead, I use my company's organization URL. I have the feeling that that is what's causing the issues here.

[LongDinh]

That looks like a Azure Directory account linked to your organisation's ArcGIS Online. You should either:

1. Use your organisation's ArcGIS Online named user administration account, or
2. Have your ArcGIS Online named user administration account create a named user for purposes of generating tokens.

The later is generally the preferred solution as you should set up the contents/groups shared to the named user so that it has limited access to items in your organisation's ArcGIS Online

[FelipeDias]

Great, I'll reach out to our IT folks and see if they can generate that for me. I'll report back here if it worked later! Thanks!!!!

[alex_friant]

Did it end up working?

[MarkGambordella]

Also would like to know if it worked.  I work for the City and sign in through our organizations login.  I have a script that i run but get the following error message:  

Error: Line 34 -- "token = response.json()['token']": 'token'
Failed script Attachments to Popup...
Failed to execute (AttachmentstoPopup).

[MarkGambordella]

I found a work around.  Had to create a built-in account and use that as the user/password instead of the SAML account.  It worked and was able to generate a token using this geoprocessing tool below.

 Show Attachments in Web Map Popup - Page 9 - Esri Community