Send Email When a Feature is Added to an ArcGIS Online Hosted Feature Service
With ArcGIS GeoEvent it is very easy to setup a notification when a new feature is added to an ArcGIS Online Hosted Feature Service. Instructions can be found here. If you do not have GeoEvent you can still accomplish this using Python. Below is an example on how to do this.
When editor tracking is enabled, new features are recorded in a field called created_date. The script queries this field within the service and compares the time to the current time (minus one hour). If the time is greater than the current time, it will send an e-mail with specified field values for the new feature(s).
Windows Task Scheduler can be setup to execute this script at a given interval (i.e. every hour). This will report any new features within that last hour.
The below example is written for the Citizen Problem Report application. It utilizes 2 fields (reqtype & status) when querying the service. These variables can be commented out, or updated to reference different fields, if working with a different service:
The SUBJECT and TEXT variables in the sendEmail function can be updated to whatever you would like to include in the e-mail:
from arcgis.gis import GIS
from arcgis.features import FeatureLayer
import datetime, time, smtplib
from datetime import timedelta
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
# Variables
username = 'jskinner_rats' # AGOL Username
password = '********' # AGOL Password
fsURL = 'https://services.arcgis.com/dfRzIozUOVYoi65F/arcgis/rest/services/Requests/FeatureServer/0' # Feature Service URL
dateField = 'created_date' # Date field to query
hours = 1 # Number of hours to check when a feature was added
fromEmail = 'no-reply@esri.com' # From e-mail address
toEmail = ['user1@esri.com', 'user2@esri.com'] # To e-mail address(es)
smtpServer = 'smtp.esri.com' # SMTP Server Name
portNumber = 25 # SMTP Server port
# Function to send email
def sendEmail():
SUBJECT = 'Problem Reported'
TEXT = f"{reqtype} was created with status {status}"
smtpObj = smtplib.SMTP(host=smtpServer, port=portNumber)
msg = MIMEText(TEXT)
msg['Subject'] = SUBJECT
msg['From'] = fromEmail
msg['To'] = ", ".join(toEmail)
smtpObj.sendmail(fromEmail, toEmail, msg.as_string())
print("Successfully sent email")
smtpObj.quit()
# Generate AGOL token
print('Connecting to AGOL')
gis = GIS('https://www.arcgis.com', username, password)
# Reference feature service from url
fLyr = FeatureLayer(fsURL)
# Query service and check if date field is within the last hour
print("Querying feature service")
queryResults = fLyr.query(where='1=1', out_fields="*", return_geometry=False)
for results in queryResults.features:
if results.attributes[dateField] != None:
createDate = results.attributes[dateField] / 1000
reqtype = results.attributes['reqtype']
status = results.attributes['status']
t = datetime.datetime.now() - timedelta(hours=hours)
t = time.mktime(t.timetuple())
if createDate > t:
sendEmail()
This is awesome to see! I have been working on a script of my own to do this based on fields other than creation date (it just fits the workflow better in our case) but I ended up getting access to the AGOL feature layer using the ArcRest module. If you are familiar with it I am curious if you would be able to explain to me the difference between using ArcRest and the method you've used in your own script.
I am very new to Python and coding In general so I am just trying to understand the mechanics of how you point the script to the feature layer here without using ArcRest.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I am sure it will be a life-saver for those of us without access to GeoEvent 
Great script, but unfortunately i am receiving an error that i can not trouble shoot. I have updated all of the parameters to fit my agol sign in, i have included my feature service url, the only difference with my feature service url is that the ending does not contain a /0/Query at the end of the string. When i run my script i receive a KeyError: 'features' error. Any help is appreciated. I have included screen captures of the error.
Snead you will need to add the index number (i.e 0) for the layer you are polling followed by /query. You can make sure the URL is correct by navigating to it. You should see a page similar to the following:
Thanks Jake and Bruce your comments, and they have helped move the error further down the code!
I have included a screen capture of my layer:
Here is the code with the error:
Appreciate your help, thanks.
Thanks Jake. I believe that is what I have as it is. Here is the whole thing, with sensitive parts redacted. I put it together piecemeal based on feedback in this thread as well as the previous thread.
import urllib2, json, urllib, datetime, time, smtplib
from datetime import timedelta
Department = []
oidList = []
Street = []
Address = []
URL = 'REDACTED'
params = {'f': 'pjson', 'where': "1=1", 'outfields' : 'OBJECTID, created_date, Department, Street, Address', 'returnGeometry' : 'false'}
req = urllib2.Request(URL, urllib.urlencode(params))
response = urllib2.urlopen(req)
data = json.load(response)
for feat in data['features']:
createDate = feat['attributes']['created_date']
createDate = int(str(createDate)[0:-3])
t = datetime.datetime.now() - timedelta(hours=24)
t = time.mktime(t.timetuple())
if createDate > t:
Department.append(feat['attributes']['Department'])
oidList.append(feat['attributes']['OBJECTID'])
Street.append(feat['attributes']['Street'])
Address.append(feat['attributes']['Address'])
mergelist = zip(Address, Street, Department)
FROM = 'REDACTED'
TO = ['REDACTED']
SUBJECT = 'New GIS Feature Added'
TEXT = "Features with Addresses at" + " " + str(mergelist) + " " + "were added to the DPW GIS layer"
message =""" 'Subject: New GIS Feature Added'.format(SUBJECT, TEXT)
From: %s
To: %s
Subject: %s
%s
""" % (FROM, ", ".join(TO), SUBJECT, TEXT)
gmailPwd = 'REDACTED'
if len(oidList) > 0:
smtpObj = smtplib.SMTP(host='smtp.gmail.com', port= 587)
smtpObj.starttls()
smtpObj.login(FROM, gmailPwd)
smtpObj.sendmail(FROM, TO, message)
print "Successfully sent email"
smtpObj.quit()
else:
print "No new data found"
I get this in the body of my email:
Thanks,
Fred
Actually, I do have another question. I am returning the text, but it is formatted with brackets and commas etc. ( This is in the email) 
I managed to format it using the following code, but it only returns 1 record. 
def newList():
mergelist = zip(Address, Street, Department)
for c1,c2,c3 in mergelist:
return '{} {} {}\n'.format(c1, c2, c3)
FROM = 'REDACTED'
TO = ['REDACTED']
SUBJECT = 'New GIS Feature Added'
TEXT = "Features with Addresses at" + str(newList()) + " " + "\n\nwere added to the DPW GIS layer"
Ideally, I'd like it do tabulate all the records that are appended to the lists in a readable format in the email:
62 Burford Avenue Water
26 Central Street Sewer
115 Elm Street Operations
I understand the formatting part, I just don't know why it isn't returning all the records in the list. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Jake! But for the life of me, I can't get it to work. I changed the variables appropriately (I think). I don't know how to troubleshoot since I don't have more information... The window prints this...
... and a bunch of text afterwards, and then closes a split second later. It closes so quickly that I haven't been able to print screen that text before the window disappears.
Any advice on how to move forward?
Oh, goodness. I think I'm getting the same error as Damon! I was able to get a bit more of the text before the box disappeared...
What did you end up doing, damoneisenach? Jake Skinner, any thoughts?
I'm attempting to implement your script into one of my work flows and received the error below. Any idea on how to resolve this?
