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Schedule an ArcGIS Online Notebook to Update a Data Dictionary

A scheduled ArcGIS Online notebook task rewrites a data dictionary every week and updates one Excel item, so its link never changes.

6:59 · Published 2026-10-16

Chapters

  1. 0:00 What a scheduled run updates
  2. 0:28 What the notebook does
  3. 0:52 Upload the notebook to ArcGIS Online
  4. 1:17 The settings cell
  5. 1:49 Tag parameters and injected-parameters
  6. 2:23 Connect with GIS home and publish one item
  7. 2:54 First run by hand
  8. 3:16 Create the task and its parameters
  9. 3:51 Set the schedule
  10. 4:06 Advanced: run time, workspace, update notebook
  11. 4:54 The scheduled run and its results
  12. 5:26 Credits and limits, as recorded
  13. 6:02 Pause and delete
  14. 6:27 Recap

Transcript

What a scheduled run updates (0:00)

This Excel file is a data dictionary for every hosted layer in an ArcGIS Online account. Nobody updated it this morning. A scheduled notebook did, and its link never changed.

Here's how to build it, step by step, from a folder of data to a weekly task.

What the notebook does (0:28)

The notebook describes every hosted feature service you own. For each layer and table it lists the fields, their types, and any coded value or range domains. It writes all of that into one Excel workbook, with sheets for services, layers and fields. The notebook is on the All Things Spatial blog, ready to download.

Upload the notebook to ArcGIS Online (0:52)

In ArcGIS Online, open Content. This demo uses a folder with five hosted feature services. Choose New item, and drop the notebook file in. ArcGIS Online recognises it as a notebook. Give it a title and save it to the folder. The notebook item page opens. Open it in the notebook editor.

The settings cell (1:17)

The first cell is the settings. Every choice the notebook makes is in this one cell. Scope picks what to describe: the entire account, chosen folders, one service, or a title search. The output item ID starts blank. We'll fill it after the first run. The output folder is a full path, slash arcgis slash home. Scheduled runs have nobody at the keyboard, and Esri's guidance is to use the full path.

Tag parameters and injected-parameters (1:49)

Now look at the tags. Open the command palette and choose Edit Notebook Metadata. The settings cell carries the tag parameters. That marks its values as the defaults. The cell right below it is empty, apart from a comment. Its tag is injected parameters. When a task runs, ArcGIS Online puts the task's values into that empty cell. They run after the defaults, so they win.

One notebook, many schedules, no code changes.

Connect with GIS home and publish one item (2:23)

Close the panel. Further down, the code connects with one word. ArcGIS Online already knows who you are, so the code creates the GIS object with home. No user name and no password live in this notebook. The last cell publishes. With no item ID, it adds the workbook as a new Excel item. With an item ID, it updates that item instead.

Same item, same link, new contents.

First run by hand (2:54)

For the first run, set the scope to the demo folder. Then, from the Run menu, choose Run All Cells. Each service prints as it's described. The run finishes with the workbook path and a new item. Copy that item ID. Every scheduled run will update this one item.

Create the task and its parameters (3:16)

Now the notebook becomes a task. On the ribbon, choose Tasks, then Create task. Give the task a title. Then the parameters. Each one is a key and a value. The key is the setting's name, exactly as it's written in the settings cell. The value is what this task should use. Here, the item ID from the first run.

Two more rows narrow the scope to the demo folder. Values typed here can arrive as text, so the notebook converts them before it uses them.

Set the schedule (3:51)

Next is the schedule. Start times are approximate, and they follow your browser's time zone. Set the repeat type to week, and pick Monday. For the demo, today is selected as well, with a start a few minutes from now.

Advanced: run time, workspace, update notebook (4:06)

Then open the advanced settings. Three of them matter. The maximum run time defaults to fourteen hundred and twenty-five minutes. That's almost a full day. Set it to fifteen. A stuck run then stops before it uses up credits. Use workspace is off by default. Turn it on, so the workbook is kept between steps. Without it, files go to a temporary folder that is removed after the run.

Update notebook on completion stays off. If it's on, the run saves itself back into the notebook, and the empty tagged cell disappears. Then the next task run has nowhere to put its values. Leave it off. Create the task. It appears in the list under Scheduled tasks.

The scheduled run and its results (4:54)

A few minutes later, the first scheduled run starts. Each run gets a status: succeeded, executing, failed, or skipped. Skipped means the run before it was still going. Results opens the notebook exactly as it ran. The scope line shows the task's own values, and the last line says updated item. Back on the Excel item page, the item updated time is from a minute ago.

The item ID and the link are the same as before the run.

Credits and limits, as recorded (5:26)

Scheduled runs use credits. When this was recorded, Esri's credits page listed one and a half credits an hour on the standard runtime, calculated per minute. In this account, three short runs were billed as three full minutes, so even a half-minute run counts as a minute. Check Esri's page for the current rate. A large account takes longer, and you're charged for the minutes it actually runs.

Each person can have ten active tasks, and an organization fifty. If a task fails five times, ArcGIS Online stops it.

Pause and delete (6:02)

To stop it for a while, choose Pause. The run history stays. Delete removes the task and its history together. Deleting the notebook also deletes its tasks, and they can't be restored. The notebook and every step are on the All Things Spatial blog. The same dictionary runs on demand in ArcGIS Pro, too. That's the episode before this one.

Recap (6:27)

The four details, in short: connect with home, tag one empty cell, write to a full path, and update one item. Built by All Things Spatial.

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