FAQ

This guide is for:

• New developers interested in building mapping applications using ArcGIS REST JS.
• Open source developers who want to combine ArcGIS REST JS along with their library of choice to access ArcGIS services.

The ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript is Esri's flagship product for building web applications to visualize, edit, map and analyze geospatial data. It is a feature complete client side API for working with ArcGIS Location Services. The ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript includes significant client side functionality including smart mapping, 3D rendering, geometric analysis and feature editing, as well as full support for working with web maps and web scenes.

However, the goal of ArcGIS REST JS is to provide a convenient and light-weight binding to the ArcGIS Location Services REST APIs for developers who need to work directly with it using JavaScript or TypeScript. This includes functional equivalents of the low-level request methods, identity management, server federation, along with additional thin wrappers to assist developers in scripting against the ArcGIS REST APIs directly in Node.js and browser applications.

This project is similar to the ArcGIS API for Python in many ways. Like the ArcGIS API for Python, this library aims to be a scripting tool that simplifies interacting with ArcGIS services. However, the ArcGIS API for Python highlights integration with dataframes and Jupyter Notebooks for visualization and sharing, whereas ArcGIS REST JS provides APIs for TypeScript or JavaScript applications running on a server, CLI, in a browser, or as a script.

ArcGIS REST JS attempts for as few tradeoffs as possible over making requests with tools like fetch. ArcGIS REST JS automatically handles proper parameter encoding for ArcGIS REST APIs, has error handling, token management and more.

Before tree shaking, all of this logic is ~8kb. Additional methods are around 1kb each or less, making the cost of adding ArcGIS REST JS to your application low.

You need either an ArcGIS Location Platform account or ArcGIS Online account to access ArcGIS Location Services. This will give you the ability to access the portal, create developer credentials, and manage your data.

You can not use an ArcGIS Enterprise account to access ArcGIS Location Services.

The table below shows the account types you can use to access each service:

You can find the official community at Esri Community.

Go to the GitHub repo, post issues and review the contributing guidelines.

Visit the Mapping and location services guide.

Go to the Glossary.

ArcGIS services are software that support an ArcGIS REST API and provides geospatial functionality or data. ArcGIS provides many types of services, such as location services, data services and spatial analysis services.

ArcGIS REST JS has built in functionality to access the following ArcGIS services:

• ArcGIS GeoEnrichment service
• ArcGIS Routing service
• ArcGIS Geocoding service
• ArcGIS Elevation service
• ArcGIS Places service
• Vector tile service
• Map tile service
• Map service
• Feature service

If you need to work with other capabilities, such as the spatial analysis service, you can do so using the generic request method from the @esri/arcgis-rest-request package.

You need either an ArcGIS Location Platform account or ArcGIS Online account to access ArcGIS Location Services. This will give you the ability to access the portal, create developer credentials, and manage your data.

You can not use an ArcGIS Enterprise account to access ArcGIS Location Services.

The table below shows the account types you can use to access each service:

ArcGIS Location Services

Yes, you need to provide an API key or implement another type of authentication to access ArcGIS Location Services.

ArcGIS Enterprise services

For services that are private, yes, you need to provide authentication to access ArcGIS Enterprise services. You typically implement OAuth 2.0 to do so. Public services do not require authentication.

To learn more about the different types of authentication, go to Types of authentication.

To learn more about ArcGIS Location Services and capabilities, go to the Mapping and location services guide.

To learn more about ArcGIS Enterprise services and capabilities, go to the REST API documentation.

Data services are services created dynamically to securely store, manage, and provide access to your data in portal. Some of the types of services that can be created are:

• Feature services
• Vector tile services
• Map tile services
• Image services

Data services are typically created by importing data with the data management tools. A unique URL for the service is assigned by the system when it is created.

The type of data service you use depends on the product you have, the format of your existing data, storage and output data format requirements, the size and complexity of the data, and the service functionality required.

Below is an overview of the main services and the data type each supports.

Yes, Esri offers data hosting through ArcGIS Location Platform, ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise (Portal for ArcGIS) that allow you to securely store, manage, and access your geographic data as hosted data services.

ArcGIS Location Platform and ArcGIS Online allow you to publish your data as hosted layers, which are hosted and managed by Esri's cloud infrastructure. This includes hosted feature layers, vector tile layers, and map tile layers.

With ArcGIS Enterprise, you can host data services in your own portal's infrastructure and managed database. This gives you more control but requires maintaining your own servers.

You can import and host many different types of geographic data as data services. The main requirement is that the incoming data has geometry coordinates and/or attributes (fields). The main storage formats are features, vector tiles, and map tiles. Some common file types include CSV, XLS, GeoJSON, Shapefile, and File Geodatabase files.

To learn more about supported data types, go to Portal and data services > Data services.

No, your data is your data. You retain complete ownership of your content.

The cost to access ArcGIS location services depends on the type of ArcGIS account you have and the service operation you use.

1. If you have an ArcGIS Location Platform account, you are billed in US dollars. To determine the cost of accessing different services, go to Pricing. A free tier of access is available for some services.

2. If you have an ArcGIS Online account, you are billed in credits. To determine the cost of accessing different services, go to Understanding credits.

If you have ArcGIS Enterprise, there is no cost for accessing your own ArcGIS services.

To find the Esri Terms of Use, go to Terms of use.