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Example: Transfer item ownership

This ArcGIS 10.9 documentation has been archived and is no longer updated. Content and links may be outdated. See the latest documentation.

This example transfers the ownership of all of the content owned by a portal member to another member. You may need to transfer ownership if you are attempting to remove a member (a member cannot be removed if they own content or groups).

You're required to specify the following information when running the script:

  • URL used to access Portal for ArcGIS. This can be the ArcGIS Web Adaptor URL, for example, https://webadaptorhost.domain.com/webadaptorname or the URL of the machine hosting the portal, for example, https://portal.domain.com:7443/arcgis. You must include the fully-qualified domain name of the machine when specifying the URL.
  • User name and password of an account that has administrative privileges to the portal.
  • User name of account that content will be transferred from, for example, sarah.
  • User name of account that content will be transferred to, for example, robert.

The following example transfers all content from member sarah to member robert:

python changeOwnership.py https://webadaptorhost.domain.com/webadaptorname admin pass.word sarah robert
#!/usr/bin/env python
# Requires Python 2.7+

# Sample Usage:
# python changeOwnership.py <portal> <username> <password>
#                           <oldOwner> <newOwner>

import urllib
import json
import argparse

def generateToken(username, password, portalUrl):
    '''Retrieves a token to be used with API requests.'''
    parameters = urllib.urlencode({'username' : username,
                                   'password' : password,
                                   'client' : 'referer',
                                   'referer': portalUrl,
                                   'expiration': 60,
                                   'f' : 'json'})
    response = urllib.urlopen(portalUrl + '/sharing/rest/generateToken?',
                              parameters).read()
    try:
        jsonResponse = json.loads(response)
        if 'token' in jsonResponse:
            return jsonResponse['token']
        elif 'error' in jsonResponse:
            print jsonResponse['error']['message']
            for detail in jsonResponse['error']['details']:
                print detail
    except ValueError, e:
        print 'An unspecified error occurred.'
        print e

def changeOwnership(itemId, newOwner, newFolder, token, portalUrl):
    '''
    REQUIRES ADMIN ACCESS.
    Transfers ownership of all content from one user to another.
    Use '/' as the destination folder when moving content into root.
    '''
    itemInfo = getItemInfo(itemId, token, portalUrl)
    params = urllib.urlencode({'targetUsername': newOwner,
                               'targetFoldername': newFolder,
                               'token' : token,
                               'f' : 'json'})
    if not itemInfo['ownerFolder']:
        itemInfo['ownerFolder'] = '/'
    reqUrl = (portalUrl + '/sharing/rest/content/users/' +
              itemInfo['owner'] + '/' + itemInfo['ownerFolder'] +
              '/items/' + itemId + '/reassign?')
    response = urllib.urlopen(reqUrl, params).read()
    try:
        jsonResponse = json.loads(response)
        if 'success' in jsonResponse:
            print 'Item ' + itemId + ' has been transferred.'
        elif 'error' in jsonResponse:
            print 'Error transferring item ' + itemId + '.'
            for detail in jsonResponse['error']['details']:
                print detail
    except ValueError, e:
        print 'An unspecified error occurred.'
        print e

def getUserContent(username, folder, token, portalUrl):
    '''Returns a list of all folders for the specified user.'''
    parameters = urllib.urlencode({'token': token, 'f': 'json'})
    request = (portalUrl + '/sharing/rest/content/users/' + username +
               '/' + folder + '?' + parameters)
    userContent = json.loads(urllib.urlopen(request).read())
    return userContent

def getItemInfo(itemId, token, portalUrl):
    '''Returns general information about the item.'''
    params = urllib.urlencode({'token' : token,
                               'f' : 'json'})
    itemInfo = json.loads(urllib.urlopen(portalUrl +
                                         '/sharing/content/items/' +
                                         itemId + '?' + params).read())
    return itemInfo

# Run the script.
if __name__ == '__main__':
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument('portal',
                        help=('url of the Portal (e.g. '
                              'https://portal.domain.com:7443/arcgis)'))
    parser.add_argument('username', help='username')
    parser.add_argument('password', help='password')
    parser.add_argument("oldOwner", help="source account to migrate from")
    parser.add_argument("newOwner", help="destination account to migrate to")
    # Read the command line arguments.
    args = parser.parse_args()
    portal = args.portal
    username = args.username
    password = args.password
    oldOwner = args.oldOwner
    newOwner = args.newOwner

    # Sample usage
    token = generateToken(username=username, password=password,
                          portalUrl=portal)

    # Get a list of the oldOwner's folders and any items in root.
    userContent = getUserContent(oldOwner, '/', token,
                                 portalUrl=portal)

    # *** CAUTION ***
    # The following code will transfer ownership of ALL CONTENT
    # from oldOwner to newOwner.
    # Be sure you are absolutely sure you want to do this before proceeding.
    if not 'items' in userContent:
        print oldOwner + ' doesn\'t have any content visible to this account.'
        print 'Be sure you are signed in as admin.'
    else:
        for item in userContent['items']:
            changeOwnership(item['id'], newOwner, '/', token=token,
                            portalUrl=portal)
        for folder in userContent['folders']:
            folderContent = getUserContent(oldOwner, folder['id'],
                                           token=token, portalUrl=portal)
            for item in folderContent['items']:
                changeOwnership(item['id'], newOwner, folder['title'],
                                token=token, portalUrl=portal)
        print 'Migration completed.'
        print 'All items transferred from {0} to {1}'.format(oldOwner,newOwner)