Upgrade from v2 to v3

Our family of users and contributors has grown (a lot!) since our first release so we decided to roll up our sleeves (groan) and overhaul the API. Our goals were to:

1. Make ArcGIS REST JS as consistent (and simple) as possible
2. Introduce building blocks for compositional/fluent APIs
3. Provide a few new options to reuse common parameters

Fluent APIs

In v2.0.0 we introduced a new class called SearchQueryBuilder to help compose complex parameters.

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import { searchItems, SearchQueryBuilder } from "@esri/arcgis-rest-portal";

const q = new SearchQueryBuilder()
  .match("Trees")
  .and()
  .match("US Forest Service")
  .in("owner")
  .and()
  .startGroup()
   .match("Web Mapping Application")
   .in("type")
   .or()
   .match("Mobile Application")
   .in("type")
 .endGroup()

// "Trees AND owner: US Forest Service AND (type: "Web Mapping Application" OR type: "Mobile Application")"
searchItems({ q })

Currently only searchItems() and searchGroups() accept SearchQueryBuilder as an input, but we've included building blocks (groan) to create additional implementations as well.

Paging

The promises returned by searchItems() and searchGroups() also got a handy new nextPage() method to make it easier to sift through paginated results.

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searchItems({ q })
  .then(response => {
    if (response.nextPage) {
      r.nextPage()
        .then(responsePageTwo)
    }
  })

Reuse parameters

We added two new methods to @esri/arcgis-rest-request as helpers for passing repeat options through.

setDefaultRequestOptions()

Now, if you want to ensure that all requests include a custom option, you can use setDefaultRequestOptions().

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import { request, setDefaultRequestOptions } from "@esri/arcgis-rest-request";

setDefaultRequestOptions({
  headers: { "Custom-Header": "Test Value" }
});

const url = `https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/info`;

// the custom header will *always* be passed along
request(url)

You should not pass authentication to this method if your code runs in a shared environment like a web server that handles requests for more than one user.

withOptions()

If you'd like to selectively append common options to a specific method, you can use the new withOptions() method.

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import { request, withOptions } from "@esri/arcgis-rest-request";

const authenticatedRequest = withOptions({
  authentication: session
}, request);

// includes authenticated session
authenticatedRequest(url)

// does NOT include authenticated session
request(url)

Breaking Changes

In order to make the API more consistent and a little easier to navigate, we had to break a few 🍳s.

One portal package to rule them all (even for ArcGIS Online)

We consolidated four existing packages into a new one called @esri/arcgis-rest-portal. Whether you want to talk to ArcGIS Online or Enterprise, now you'll do this:

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# new
npm install @esri/arcgis-rest-portal

instead of this:

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# old
npm install @esri/arcgis-rest-items &&
@esri/arcgis-rest-users &&
@esri/arcgis-rest-groups &&
@esri/arcgis-rest-sharing

The table below lists methods in this package that have been deprecated, given a facelift, or given a new home.

@esri/arcgis-rest-request

The only breaking changes we made to request were to refactor an internal method and move a couple others into the new portal package.

If you work with private services (shhhh)

We didn't make many changes in @esri/arcgis-rest-auth, but one method moved and two others got simpler.

@esri/arcgis-rest-routing

In this package, we renamed one constant.

Geocoding addresses

In the interest of consistency, we renamed the geocoding package too.

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# new
npm install @esri/arcgis-rest-geocoding

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# old
npm install @esri/arcgis-rest-geocoder

We renamed one method (and one constant) as well.

Querying and editing feature layers

This package was also renamed. If you're already using queryFeatures() or making edits inside hosted feature layers, now you'll install this:

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# new
npm install @esri/arcgis-rest-feature-service

instead of this:

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# old
npm install @esri/arcgis-rest-feature-service

The feature-layer methods that were refactored or re-homed are listed below.

Publishing and updating new hosted feature services

If you're already using rest-js to publish new hosted feature services, that package has a new (shorter) name too.

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# new
npm install @esri/arcgis-rest-service-admin

instead of this:

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# old
npm install @esri/arcgis-rest-feature-service-admin

After you save those seven keystrokes, everything else will be familiar.

Helper methods

In this release we also made the decision to stop documenting internal helper methods like appendCustomParams. In the future, undocumented methods may change without notice.

Breaking Changes for TypeScript developers

Each package now installs shared TypeScript typings automatically and re-exports them, so its no longer necessary to install a separate package yourself.

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// old
import { IPoint } from "@esri/arcgis-rest-common-types";
import { reverseGeocode } from "@esri/arcgis-rest-geocoder";

reverseGeocode({ x: 34, y: -118} as IPoint);

// new
import { IPoint, reverseGeocode } from "@esri/arcgis-rest-geocoding";

reverseGeocode({ x: 34, y: -118} as IPoint);

If you'd like to install the typings yourself, there is a more concise package name for that too.

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# new package name
npm install @esri/arcgis-rest-types

The table below lists interfaces and types that have been removed or renamed in the name of consistency and brevity. This also better aligns the names of options and response interfaces with their corresponding function.

That's it! We know that moving so much 🧀 is a hassle, but developers of the future send their thanks! 🎩