Find a route and directions

Learn how to find a route and directions with the route service.

find a route and directions

Routing is the process of finding the path from an origin to a destination in a street network. You can use the Routing service to find routes, get driving directions, calculate drive times, and solve complicated, multiple vehicle routing problems. To create a route, you typically define a set of stops (origin and one or more destinations) and use the service to find a route with directions. You can also use a number of additional parameters such as barriers and mode of travel to refine the results.

In this tutorial, you define an origin and destination by clicking on the map. These values are used to get a route and directions from the route service. The directions are also displayed on the map.

Prerequisites

The following are required for this tutorial:

An ArcGIS account to access API keys. If you don't have an account, sign up for free.
Confirm that your system meets the system requirements.
An IDE for Android development in Kotlin.

Steps

Open an Android Studio project

To start this tutorial, complete the Display a map tutorial. Or download and unzip the Display a map solution in a new folder.
Modify the old project for use in this new tutorial. Expand More info for instructions.
1. On your file system, delete the .idea folder, if present, at the top level of your project.
2. In the Android tool window, open app > res > values > strings.xml.
  In the <string name="app_name"> element, change the text content to Find a route and directions.
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  1 2 3 4 5 <resources> <string name="app_name">Find a route and directions</string> </resources>
3. In the Android tool window, open Gradle Scripts > settings.gradle.
  Change the value of rootProject.name to Find a route and directions.
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  1 2 3 include ':app' rootProject.name = "Find a route and directions"
4. Click File > Sync Project with Gradle files. Android Studio will recognize your changes and create a new .idea folder.

If you downloaded the solution project, set your API key.

An API Key enables access to services, web maps, and web scenes hosted in ArcGIS Online.

Go to your developer dashboard to get your API key. For these tutorials, use your default API key. It is scoped to include all of the services demonstrated in the tutorials.
In Android Studio: in the Android tool window, open app > java > com.example.app > MainActivity.

In the setApiKeyForApp() method, find the ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment.setApiKey("YOUR_API_KEY") call and paste your API key inside the quotes, replacing YOUR_API_KEY.

MainActivity.kt
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    override fun onDestroy() {
        mapView.dispose()
        super.onDestroy()
    }

    private fun setApiKeyForApp(){
        // set your API key
        // Note: it is not best practice to store API keys in source code. The API key is referenced
        // here for the convenience of this tutorial.

        ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment.setApiKey("YOUR_API_KEY")

    }

Add import statements and class properties

Modify import statements to reference the packages and classes required for this tutorial. Then add properties to the class that are used in multiple functions within this tutorial.

Replace app-specific import statements with the imports needed for this tutorial.

MainActivity.kt
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package com.example.app

import android.os.Bundle
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity

import android.R.layout
import android.graphics.Color
import android.util.Log
import android.view.MotionEvent
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter
import android.widget.ListView
import android.widget.Toast

import com.esri.arcgisruntime.ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.ArcGISMap
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.BasemapStyle
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.Viewpoint
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.view.DefaultMapViewOnTouchListener
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.view.Graphic
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.view.GraphicsOverlay
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.mapping.view.MapView
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.symbology.SimpleLineSymbol
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.symbology.SimpleMarkerSymbol
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.tasks.networkanalysis.RouteTask
import com.esri.arcgisruntime.tasks.networkanalysis.Stop

import kotlin.math.roundToInt

import com.example.app.databinding.ActivityMainBinding

Within the MainActivity class, add the following class properties.

MainActivity.kt
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class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private val activityMainBinding: ActivityMainBinding by lazy {
        ActivityMainBinding.inflate(layoutInflater)
    }

    private val mapView: MapView by lazy {
        activityMainBinding.mapView
    }

    private val listView: ListView by lazy {
        activityMainBinding.listView
    }

    private val directionsList: MutableList<String> by lazy {
        mutableListOf("Tap to add two points to the map to find a route between them.")
    }

    private val arrayAdapter by lazy {
        ArrayAdapter(this, layout.simple_list_item_1, directionsList)
    }

    private val routeStops: MutableList<Stop> by lazy {
        mutableListOf()
    }

    private val graphicsOverlay: GraphicsOverlay by lazy {
        GraphicsOverlay()
    }

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(activityMainBinding.root)

Update the map

A streets basemap layer is typically used in routing applications. Update the basemap to use the ARCGIS_STREETS basemap style, change the position of the map to center on Los Angeles and add a GraphicsOverlay.

In the setupMap() function, update the Basemap style property from ARCGIS_TOPOGRAPHIC to ARCGIS_STREETS, and update the latitude and longitude coordinates to center on Los Angeles.

MainActivity.kt
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    // set up your map here. You will call this method from onCreate()
    private fun setupMap() {

        val map = ArcGISMap(BasemapStyle.ARCGIS_STREETS)

        mapView.apply {
            // set the map on the map view
            this.map = map

            setViewpoint(Viewpoint(34.0539, -118.2453, 144447.638572))

        }

    }
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Add the graphicsOverlay to the mapView. A graphics overlay is a container for graphics. Graphics will be added later in this tutorial as a visual means to display the route stops and route result on the map.

MainActivity.kt
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        mapView.apply {
            // set the map on the map view
            this.map = map

            setViewpoint(Viewpoint(34.0539, -118.2453, 144447.638572))

            graphicsOverlays.add(graphicsOverlay)

        }
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Add a `ListView` to display driving directions

To display the turn-by-turn directions from the route, use an Android list view to display it on the screen.

In the activity_main.xml file, create an AndroidListView which will display a vertical list of directions.

activity_main.xml
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    <ListView
            android:id="@+id/listView"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="0dp"
            android:background="@android:drawable/screen_background_light"
            app:layout_constraintHeight_percent="0.35"
            app:layout_constraintWidth_percent="0.5"
            app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
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In MainActivity.kt, in the onCreate() function, set the arrayAdapter to the listView. The ArrayAdapter will create and populate the listView with TextViews as required.

MainActivity.kt
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    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(activityMainBinding.root)

        listView.adapter = arrayAdapter

        setApiKeyForApp()

        setupMap()

    }
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Create an `addStop` function

A RouteTask requires at least a single origin and destination stop to find a route. Create a function to handle user interaction with the map and to add stops and display them as graphics when the map is tapped.

When a user taps on the map, a stop will be added to a list of route stops. In this tutorial, the first tap will create the origin stop and the second will create the destination stop.

Create an addStop(stop) function.

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    private fun addStop(stop: Stop) {

    }
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Add the stop to the MutableList<Stop> named routeStops.

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    private fun addStop(stop: Stop) {

        routeStops.add(stop)

    }
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Create a SimpleMarkerSymbol and use the stop's Geometry to create a new Graphic and add it to the graphicsOverlay.

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    private fun addStop(stop: Stop) {

        routeStops.add(stop)

        // create a blue circle symbol for the stop
        val stopMarker = SimpleMarkerSymbol(SimpleMarkerSymbol.Style.CIRCLE, Color.BLUE, 20f)
        // get the stop's geometry
        val routeStopGeometry = stop.geometry
        // add graphic to graphics overlay
        graphicsOverlay.graphics.add(Graphic(routeStopGeometry, stopMarker))

    }
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Create a `findRoute` function

A route task makes a request to a service and returns the results. Solve the route between the origin and destination stops using a RouteTask, which accesses a routing service.

Create a findRoute() function.

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    private fun findRoute() {

    }
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Create a RouteTask with a string URL to reference the routing service.

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    private fun findRoute() {

        val routeTask = RouteTask(
            this,
            "https://route-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/Route/NAServer/Route_World"
        )

    }
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Get default RouteParameters from the routeTask and set the return directions property to true.

Also, set the routeStops list to the routeParameters with setStops(routeStops).

The createDefaultParametersAsync() method is asynchronous and you must handle its completion and check for errors.

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    private fun findRoute() {

        val routeTask = RouteTask(
            this,
            "https://route-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/Route/NAServer/Route_World"
        )

        val routeParametersFuture = routeTask.createDefaultParametersAsync()
        routeParametersFuture.addDoneListener {
            try {
                val routeParameters = routeParametersFuture.get().apply {
                    isReturnDirections = true
                    setStops(routeStops)
                }

            } catch (e: Exception) {
                val error = "Error creating default route parameters: " + e.message
                Toast.makeText(this, error, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show()
                Log.e(MainActivity::class.simpleName, error)
            }
        }

    }
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To find the route between the origin and destination stops, solve the route using the RouteTask with the routeParameters.
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