Stack Overflow for Teams Inactive Users (so4t_inactive_users)

A Python script that uses the Stack Overflow for Teams API to create inactive user reporting. You can see an example of what the output looks like in the Examples directory).

Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Setup
• Usage
• Support, security, and legal

Requirements

• A Stack Overflow for Teams instance (Basic, Business, or Enterprise)
• Python 3.8 or higher (download)
• Operating system: Linux, MacOS, or Windows

Setup

Download and unpack the contents of this repository

Installing Dependencies

• Open a terminal window (or, for Windows, a command prompt)
• Navigate to the directory where you unpacked the files
• Install the dependencies: pip3 install -r requirements.txt

API Authentication

For the Business tier, you'll need a personal access token (PAT). You'll need to obtain an API key and an access token for Enterprise. Documentation for creating an Enterprise key and token can be found within your instance at this url: https://[your_site]/api/docs/authentication

Before proceeding, please note a critical step when creating your API Application in Stack Overflow Enterprise for Access Token generation:

Generating an Access Token

To generate an Access Token for Enterprise, you must first ensure your API Application is correctly configured:

• API Application "Domain" Field Requirement: When creating your API Application (where you obtain your Client ID and Client Secret), the "Domain" field must be populated with the base URL of your Stack Overflow Enterprise instance (e.g., https://your.so-enterprise.url). Although the UI may mark this field as 'Optional,' failure to populate it will prevent Access Token generation and lead to a "redirect_uri is not configured" error during the OAuth flow.

Once your API Application is configured with a valid Domain, follow these steps to generate your Access Token:

• Go to the page where you created your API key. Take note of the "Client ID" associated with your API key.
• Go to the following URL, replacing the base URL, the client_id, and the base URL of the redirect_uri with your own: https://YOUR.SO-ENTERPRISE.URL/oauth/dialog?client_id=111&redirect_uri=https://YOUR.SO-ENTERPRISE.URL/oauth/login_success
• You may be prompted to log in to Stack Overflow Enterprise if you're not already. Either way, you'll be redirected to a page that simply says "Authorizing Application."
• In the URL of that page, you'll find your access token. Example: https://YOUR.SO-ENTERPRISE.URL/oauth/login_success#access_token=YOUR_TOKEN

Note on Access Token Requirements: While API v3 now generally allows querying with just an API key for most GET requests, certain paths and data (e.g., /images and the email attribute on a User object) still specifically require an Access Token for access. If you encounter permissions errors on such paths, ensure you are using an Access Token.

Usage

In a terminal window, navigate to the directory where you unpacked the script. Run the script using the following format, replacing the URL, token, and/or key with your own:

• For Basic and Business: python3 so4t_inactive_users.py --url "https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/TEAM-NAME" --token "YOUR_TOKEN"
• For Enterprise: python3 so4t_inactive_users.py --url "https://SUBDOMAIN.stackenterprise.co" --key "YOUR_KEY"

As the script runs, it will continue to update the terminal window with its tasks. When the script completes, it will indicate that the reports have been generated, along with the name of the file.

Three reports are generated:

• all_users_inactive_for_##_days.csv - as the name implies, this is all users who have not logged in within the specified number of days
• contributing_users_inactive_for_##_days.csv - this is a subset of the all_users report and includes only users who have contributed content. The use case for this report is identifying a subset of inactive users who might be adversely impacted if their account was deleted (i.e. they'd lose their user profile, reputation gains, content attribution, etc.)
• noncontributing_users_inactive_for_##_days.csv - this is a subset of the all_users report, including only users who have not contributed any content; in other words, the delta between the all_users and contributing_users reports. It's likely that these users can be safely deleted, and if they're deleted prematurely (or in error), they can simply register for a new account and create a new user profile without experiencing any loss of reputation points, content attribution, etc.

Support, security, and legal

If you encounter problems using the script, please leave feedback in the Github Issues. You can also clone and change the script to suit your needs. It is provided as-is, with no warranty or guarantee of any kind.

All data is handled locally on the device from which the script is run. The script does not transmit data to other parties, such as Stack Overflow. All of the API calls performed are read only, so there is no risk of editing or adding content on your Stack Overflow for Teams instance.