Find the elevations of multiple points | ArcGIS REST JS

Learn how to find elevation values for points along a path in New Zealand's South Island

Find the elevations of multiple locations using API key authentication

The ArcGIS Elevation service is a location service that returns elevation values for a single location or multiple locations. Elevation coverage is provided for both topography (land elevations) and bathymetry (water depths) and takes location inputs as longitude and latitude coordinates.

In this tutorial, you call the Elevation service to return elevation values for points along a path. The values will be returned as measures above mean sea level in meters.

Prerequisites

You need an ArcGIS Location Platform account.

ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise accounts are not supported.

Steps

Get the starter app

Select a type of authentication and follow the steps to create a new app.

Choose API key authentication if you:

Want the easiest way to get started.
Want to build public applications that access ArcGIS Location Services and secure items.
Have an ArcGIS Location Platform or ArcGIS Online account.

Choose user authentication if you:

Want to build private applications.
Require application users to sign in with their own ArcGIS account and access resources their behalf.
Have an ArcGIS Online account.

To learn more about both types of authentication, go to Authentication.

If you are using the CDN libraries, to get started.

Set up authentication

Create a new API key credential with the correct privileges to get an access token.

Go to the Create an API key tutorial and create an API key with the following privilege(s):
- Privileges:
  - Location services > Basemaps
  - Location services > Elevation service
Copy the API key access token to your clipboard when prompted.

Set developer credentials

Use the API key or OAuth developer credentials so your application can access ArcGIS services.

Update the accessToken variable to use your API key.

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    const accessToken = "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN";

In both the index.html and callback.html files, replace YOUR_CLIENT_ID and YOUR_REDIRECT_URL with the client ID and redirect URL of your OAuth credentials.

index.html
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    /* Use for user authentication */
    const clientId = "YOUR_CLIENT_ID"; // Your client ID from OAuth credentials
    const redirectUri = ""YOUR_REDIRECT_URI""; // The redirect URL registered in your OAuth credentials
    const authentication = await arcgisRest.ArcGISIdentityManager.beginOAuth2({
      clientId,
      redirectUri,
      portal: "https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest" // Your portal URL
    });

callback.html
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    arcgisRest.ArcGISIdentityManager.completeOAuth2({
      clientId: "YOUR_CLIENT_ID", // Your client ID from OAuth credentials
      redirectUri: "YOUR_REDIRECT_URI", // The redirect URL registered in your OAuth credentials
      portal: "https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest" // Your portal URL
    });

Run the app and ensure you can sign in successfully.

If you are unable to sign in, make sure you have the correct redirect URL and port. This URL varies based on your application and typically takes the format of https://<server>[:port]/callback.html or http://my-arcgis-app:/auth. For example, if you are running an application on http://127.0.0.1:5500/, set http://127.0.0.1:5500/callback.html as your redirect URL in the index.html and callback.html file and your developer credential. They all have to match!

Make a request

You can copy and paste the code below, following the steps to make a request to the ArcGIS Elevation service.

Reference the arcgis-rest-request and arcgis-rest-elevation libraries either through CDN, ES Modules, or Node JS.
Define the parameters needed for the request. Optionally, you can add the relativeTo parameter to request elevation in measures of mean sea level or ground level (ellipsoid).
Make a request to the Elevation service and handle the results.

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    arcgisRest.findElevationAtManyPoints({
      coordinates: points,
      authentication: authentication })
      .then((response) => {
        console.log("Candidates:", response);
        document.getElementById("result").textContent = JSON.stringify(response, null, 2);
      });
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Run the app

Run the app.

The result should look similar to this.

What's next?

Learn how to use additional location services in these tutorials:

Find the elevation of a point

Find elevation value of a single location on land or water.