Overview of portal administration in the ArcGIS REST API
The ArcGIS REST API allows you to perform administrative tasks not available in the Portal for ArcGIS website. The API is organized into resources and operations. Resources are entities within Portal for ArcGIS that hold some information and have a well-defined state. Operations act on these resources and update their information or state. Resources and operations are hierarchical and have unique universal resource locators (URLs).
Getting started
The hierarchical root of the API begins with a well-defined URL called as the portal administration root URL. Typically, this is accessible at:
https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/portaladmin
The various resources and operations that are exposed by the API are organized hierarchically from the root URL. For example, the API provides the ability to change the portal environment such as security configuration, identity providers, content directory, and other system-wide properties. It also provides information about the current license level.
To access a resource or invoke an operation, you must do the following to create a request:
- Generate a token from the sharing API by providing your administrative credentials.
- Access the API by providing the token.
- Construct a URL to the selected resource or operation as defined in the API reference.
- Provide the relevant parameters in their specified format.
- Access the URL over the prescribed HTTP method (typically GET or POST).
The API is stateless, which means the portal does not keep track of transactions from one request to the next. Each request must contain all the information necessary for successful processing. The portal will process each request and return a well-defined response.
ArcGIS Portal Directory
ArcGIS Portal Directory, which is installed with Portal for ArcGIS, is a simple HTML interface that allows you to interact with the resources and operations exposed by the API. The Portal Directory is typically accessible at the following URL:
https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/portaladmin