Adding users to your ArcGIS Online Organization can be both a joy and a challenge. A joy, because you are exposing more people to the world of geospatial analysis. A challenge, because adding and configuring those users can be time-consuming. That is where Admin Tools for ArcGIS comes in to help.
Using Admin Tools Pro or Admin Tools for Portal, you can you can add hundreds, even thousands of users in bulk using the Import Users from CSV tool. All the workflow requires is some account information on the users and spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc.
With the Import Users from CSV tool, a comma-separated value (CSV) file is uploaded and requests are sent to your ArcGIS Online Organization to create new users and update existing users with the fields provided. New users will be sent email invitations to log into their accounts and begin using ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS for Portal.
In this article, we will explain how to add users based on ArcGIS authentication (OAuth) and SAML-based Enterprise authentication. While the workflows are the same, the data fields provided to your ArcGIS Online or Portal organization differ.
Adding Users with ArcGIS Online Authentication
Adding hundreds, even thousands of users to your ArcGIS Online organization can be easily handled through Admin Tools Pro’s Import Users from CSV tool. Users will be invited to log into their accounts and use the ArcGIS OAuth to validate them. With OAuth, users can also use third-party identification providers such as Google and Facebook to log into their ArcGIS Online account.
To add new users to an ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS for Portal organization using OAuth, the following minimum fields are required:
- User Name (username) – the unique user account name displayed in the application
- Password (password) – a temporary password applied to the account. It is recommended that the user change the password after confirming their account.
- First Name (firstname) – First or familiar name of the user.
- Last Name (lastname) – Last or surname of the user.
- Role (role) – Basic role to apply to the user. Either org_viewer, org_publisher, or org_admin. Custom roles will be discussed later in this article.
- Level (level) – Level 1 users have access to view maps, apps, and data, but have no creative or edit capabilities. Level 2 users can also create and edit maps, apps, and other data.
- Email address (email) – a valid email which is required to confirm the account.
Adding Users with Enterprise Authentication
If your ArcGIS for Portal server is behind a firewall, or if your organization manages user logins through a SAML-based provider, you can add those users
To add new users to an ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS for Portal organization using your enterprise authentication, the following minimum fields are required:
- User Name (username) – the user account name displayed
- First Name (firstname) – First or familiar name of the user
- Last Name (lastname) – Last or sir name of the user
- Role (role) – Basic role to apply to the user. Either org_viewer, org_publisher, or org_admin. Custom roles will be discussed later in this article.
- Level (level) – Level 1 users have access to view maps, apps, and data, but have no creative or edit capabilities. Level 2 users can also create and edit maps, apps, and other data.
- Email address (email) – used to send an invitation to log in.
- Authentication provider (provider) – use “enterprise” (no quotes) for the provider field to use your organization’s SAML-based authentication. (This field defaults to ‘arcgis’ for ArcGIS Online’s OAuth authentication.)
- idpUsername – Username as stored in your SAML-based login. Example: Active Directory DOMAIN\UserName.
Please note that a password field will be ignored since your enterprise login will handle that test.
Additional Notes
If you have some users that will use your enterprise authentication system, as well as others using ESRI’s OAuth, you can add them both using the same CSV file. Be sure to specify in the provider field whether that user uses the enterprise or ArcGIS login. Also, make sure each row has the required fields filled in, based on the authentication provider.
When saving the spreadsheet, be sure to specify CSV as the file format. Some spreadsheet programs will warn you that some formatting and/or functions will be lost. That is okay; the tool is only interested in the text data anyway. There are no plans to support Excel files at this time.
The fields listed above aren’t the only user profile items that can be assigned. Additional fields that can be added at the same time include the following:
- Description (description) – Brief description of the user.
- Role ID (roleId) – alpha-numeric code for the custom role assigned in your ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS for Portal organization. This value may be different between machines.
- User Type (userLicenseTypeId) – With the 1.4.0 release of Admin Tools, we support adding ArcGIS Online’s newest feature, assigning user types.
- Login Enabled / Disabled (disabled) – Set true if you want to keep this user from logging into this account, but you want to maintain their content.
- Tags (tags) – Custom bits of text that make searching for users and organizing users easier.
- Groups (groups) – If groups have been created or imported, you can automatically assign users to them, based on the groups’ Id values.
- Storage Quota (storageQuota) – the amount of file space allotted to the user.
- Assigned Credits (assignedCredits) – the maximum number of credits a user is allowed.
- And so many more…
Conclusion
Admin Tools for ArcGIS was designed to help you administer your ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS for Portal organization. Adding users does not have to be a hassle. With the Import Users from CSV tool in Admin Tools Pro and Admin Tools for Portal, you can add multiple users quickly and easily.
