Here is a script sample I've been working on to do this:
import urllib, urllib2, httplib
import json
import socket
# User Variables
username = ""
password = ""
# Monkey Patch httplib read
def patch_http_response_read(func):
def inner(*args):
try:
return func(*args)
except httplib.IncompleteRead, e:
return e.partial
return inner
httplib.HTTPResponse.read = patch_http_response_read(httplib.HTTPResponse.read)
# Get token
hostname = "Http://" + socket.getfqdn()
token_URL = 'https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/generateToken'
token_params = {'username':username,'password': password,'referer': hostname,'f':'json'}
token_request = urllib2.Request(token_URL, urllib.urlencode(token_params))
token_response = urllib2.urlopen(token_request)
token_string = token_response.read()
token_obj = json.loads(token_string)
token = token_obj['token']
# Build the json string
text = {"operationalLayers": [],
"baseMap": {"title": "Basemap",
"baseMapLayers": [{"visibility": "true",
"opacity": 1,
"isReference": "true",
"url": "http://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Shaded_Relief/MapServer",
"minScale":1155581,
"maxScale":144448},
{"visibility": "true",
"opacity": 1,
"url": "http://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Canvas/World_Light_Gray_Base/MapServer",
"minScale":144448,
"maxScale":200},
{"visiblity": "true",
"opacity": 1,
"url": "http://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer",
"minScale": 500000000,
"maxScale": 1155581}]},
"version": "1.7"}
query = {"token" : token,
"f" : "json",
"text" : text,
"title" : "Test Basemap",
"type" : "Web Map",
"tags" : "basemap, test"}
serviceURL = 'http://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/users/{}/addItem'.format(username)
createBasemap = urllib2.Request(serviceURL, urllib.urlencode(query))
createBasemap.add_header('Referer', hostname)
createBasemap_response = urllib2.urlopen(createBasemap)
print createBasemap_response.read()
The result will be a webmap that has a basemap that starts with the imagery basemap. As you zoom in it switches to the World Shaded Relief and then the light gray basemap. You can use your own services in this sample to create your own basemap. You can set your own scale levels as well. This is just an example of something I picked. I hope this helps get you started!
