Display custom labels on a feature layer.
Use case
Labeling features is useful to visually display a key piece of information or attribute of a feature on a map. For example, you may want to label rivers or streets with their names.
How to use the sample
Pan and zoom around the United States. Labels for congressional districts will be shown in red for Republican districts and blue for Democrat districts. Notice how labels pop into view as you zoom in.
How it works
- Create a
ServiceFeatureTable
using a feature service URL. - Create a
FeatureLayer
from the service feature table. - Create a
TextSymbol
to use for displaying the label text. - Create an
ArcadeLabelExpression
for the label definition.- You can use fields of the feature by using
$feature.field_name
in the expression.
- You can use fields of the feature by using
- Create a new
LabelDefinition
from the arcade label expression and text symbol. - Add the definition to the feature layer with
featureLayer.getLabelDefinitions().add(labelDefinition)
. - Lastly, enable labels on the layer using
featureLayer.setLabelsEnabled()
.
Relevant API
- ArcadeLabelExpression
- FeatureLayer
- LabelDefinition
- TextSymbol
About the data
This sample uses the USA 116th Congressional Districts feature layer hosted on ArcGIS Online.
Additional information
Help regarding the Arcade label expression script for defining a label definition can be found on the ArcGIS Developers site.
Tags
arcade, attribute, deconfliction, label, labeling, string, symbol, text, visualization
Sample Code
/*
* Copyright 2018 Esri.
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not
* use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of
* the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
* WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
* License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under
* the License.
*/
package com.esri.samples.show_labels_on_layer;
import java.util.Arrays;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Alert;
import javafx.scene.layout.StackPane;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.arcgisservices.LabelDefinition;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.arcgisservices.LabelingPlacement;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.data.ServiceFeatureTable;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.geometry.Point;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.geometry.SpatialReferences;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.layers.FeatureLayer;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.loadable.LoadStatus;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.ArcGISMap;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.BasemapStyle;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.labeling.ArcadeLabelExpression;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.view.MapView;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.symbology.ColorUtil;
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.symbology.TextSymbol;
public class ShowLabelsOnLayerSample extends Application {
private MapView mapView;
@Override
public void start(Stage stage) {
try {
// create stack pane and application scene
StackPane stackPane = new StackPane();
Scene scene = new Scene(stackPane);
// size the stage, add a title, and set scene to stage
stage.setTitle("Show Labels on Layer Sample");
stage.setHeight(700);
stage.setWidth(800);
stage.setScene(scene);
stage.show();
// authentication with an API key or named user is required to access basemaps and other location services
String yourAPIKey = System.getProperty("apiKey");
ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment.setApiKey(yourAPIKey);
// create a map with the light gray basemap style
ArcGISMap map = new ArcGISMap(BasemapStyle.ARCGIS_LIGHT_GRAY);
// create a map view and set the map to it
mapView = new MapView();
mapView.setMap(map);
// set the initial viewpoint near the center of the US
mapView.setViewpointCenterAsync(new Point(-10846309.950860, 4683272.219411, SpatialReferences.getWebMercator()), 20000000);
// create a feature layer from an online feature service of US Congressional Districts
String serviceUrl = "https://services.arcgis.com/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/arcgis/rest/services/USA_116th_Congressional_Districts/FeatureServer/0";
var serviceFeatureTable = new ServiceFeatureTable(serviceUrl);
var featureLayer = new FeatureLayer(serviceFeatureTable);
// add the feature layer to the map
map.getOperationalLayers().add(featureLayer);
// show alert if layer fails to load
featureLayer.addDoneLoadingListener(() -> {
if (featureLayer.getLoadStatus() != LoadStatus.LOADED) {
new Alert(Alert.AlertType.ERROR, "Error loading Feature Layer.").show();
}
});
// create label definitions for each party
LabelDefinition republicanLabelDefinition = makeLabelDefinition("Republican", Color.RED);
LabelDefinition democratLabelDefinition = makeLabelDefinition("Democrat", Color.BLUE);
// enable labels on the feature layer
featureLayer.setLabelsEnabled(true);
// add the definitions to the feature layer
featureLayer.getLabelDefinitions().addAll(Arrays.asList(republicanLabelDefinition, democratLabelDefinition));
// add the map view to stack pane
stackPane.getChildren().add(mapView);
} catch (Exception e) {
// on any error, display stack trace
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
/**
* Creates a label definition for a given party (field value) and color to populate a text symbol with.
*
* @param party the name of the party to be passed into the label definition's WHERE clause
* @param color the color to be passed into the text symbol
*
* @return label definition created from the given arcade expression
*/
private LabelDefinition makeLabelDefinition(String party, Color color) {
// create text symbol for styling the label
var textSymbol = new TextSymbol();
textSymbol.setSize(12);
textSymbol.setColor(ColorUtil.colorToArgb(color));
textSymbol.setHaloColor(ColorUtil.colorToArgb(Color.WHITE));
textSymbol.setHaloWidth(2);
// create a label definition with an Arcade expression script
var arcadeLabelExpression =
new ArcadeLabelExpression("$feature.NAME + \" (\" + left($feature.PARTY,1) + \")\\nDistrict \" + $feature.CDFIPS");
var labelDefinition = new LabelDefinition(arcadeLabelExpression, textSymbol);
labelDefinition.setPlacement(LabelingPlacement.POLYGON_ALWAYS_HORIZONTAL);
labelDefinition.setWhereClause(String.format("PARTY = '%s'", party));
return labelDefinition;
}
/**
* Stops and releases all resources used in application.
*/
@Override
public void stop() {
// release resources when the application closes
if (mapView != null) {
mapView.dispose();
}
}
/**
* Opens and runs application.
*
* @param args arguments passed to this application
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
Application.launch(args);
}
}