Find place categories

What is a place category?

A place category is a structure that represents a group of places that are related. Each category contains a categoryId, fullLabel, and parents (IDs). You use categories to help refine the results returned from nearby search and bounding box search.

There are four levels of place categories. The Level 1 category names and IDs include the following:

Arts and Entertainment:4d4b7104d754a06370d81259
Business and Professional Services:4d4b7105d754a06375d81259
Community and Government:63be6904847c3692a84b9b9a
Dining and Drinking:63be6904847c3692a84b9bb5
Events:4d4b7105d754a06373d81259
Health and Medicine:63be6904847c3692a84b9bb9
Landmarks and Outdoors:4d4b7105d754a06377d81259
Retail:4d4b7105d754a06378d81259
Sports and Recreation:4f4528bc4b90abdf24c9de85
Travel and Transportation:4d4b7105d754a06379d81259

How to find categories

To search for categories you use the places service /categories and /categories/{categoryId} requests. /categories returns all categories or filters categories that match a string, whereas /categories/{categoryId} returns the details for a specific category ID.

To return place categories or icons in a preferred language, you use the language or icon parameters with either /categories or categories/{categoryId} requests.

The general steps are:

Get the places service category URL.
Set the parameter for the request:
- filter (categories)
- categoryId (categories/categoryId)
- language (categories and categories/categoriesId)
- icon (categories and categories/Id)
Execute the request.

URL requests

Get category details for a category ID

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https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories/<CATEGORY_ID>&token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>&f=pjson

Find categories by filtering by a text string

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https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories?filter=<TEXT>&token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>&f=pjson

Get categories in a preferred language

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https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories?language=<LANGUAGE_CODE>&token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>&f=pjson

Return place icons

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https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories?icon=<ICON_FORMAT>&token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>&f=pjson

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Default value	Description
`filter`	query	`string`		A text filter that will be used for searching categories.
`icon`	query	`string`	`none`	Determines whether icons are returned and the type of icon to use with a place or category.
`language`	query	`string`	`en`	Optional case-sensitive parameter to specify the preferred language to
`f`	query	`string`	`json`	The requested response format - either `json` or `pjson` (pretty json).
`token`	query	`string`		The authentication token, created from an ArcGIS Location Platform account, with the `premium:user:places` privilege, used to access the Places service.

Code examples

Get all categories

In this example, you use the getCategories operation to return all parent and child categories. You should use this endpoint to fetch the latest set of categories.

Reference the places service.
Set the token parameter to your access token.

Get a list of all categories.

APIs

ArcGIS API for Python

ArcGIS REST JS

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import requests

url = "https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories"
params = {
    "f": "pjson",
    "token": "ACCESS_TOKEN"
}

response = requests.get(url, params=params)
print(response.text)

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REST API

cURL

HTTP

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curl 'https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories?token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>&f=pjson'

Run in Postman

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{
  "categories": [
    {
      "categoryId": "4d4b7104d754a06370d81259",
      "fullLabel": [
        "Arts and Entertainment"
      ],
      "parents": []
    },
    {
      "categoryId": "4bf58dd8d48988d182941735",
      "fullLabel": [
        "Arts and Entertainment",
        "Amusement Park"
      ],
      "parents": [
        "4d4b7104d754a06370d81259"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categoryId": "5109983191d435c0d71c2bb1",
      "fullLabel": [
        "Arts and Entertainment",
        "Amusement Park",
        "Attraction"
      ],
      "parents": [
        "4d4b7104d754a06370d81259",
        "4bf58dd8d48988d182941735"
      ]
    },
    // More categories
  ]
}

See full category list

Search for a category by ID

In this example, you search for a category using an ID. The categoryId is 52e81612bcbc57f1066b7a0c, which is the ID for bubble tea shops. The parent categories are cafes, coffee, and tea houses. These fall within the broad category of Dining and Drinking.

Steps

Reference the places service.
Define a category ID.
Set the token parameter to your access token.

Return the category name using its ID.

APIs

ArcGIS API for Python

ArcGIS REST JS

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import requests

category_id = "52e81612bcbc57f1066b7a0c"
url = f"https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories/{category_id}"
params = {
    "f": "pjson",
    "token": "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
}

response = requests.get(url, params=params)
print(response.text)

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REST API

cURL

HTTP

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curl 'https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories/52e81612bcbc57f1066b7a0c?token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>&f=pjson'

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{
  "categoryId": "52e81612bcbc57f1066b7a0c",
  "fullLabel": [
    "Dining and Drinking",
    "Cafe, Coffee, and Tea House",
    "Bubble Tea Shop"
  ],
  "parents": [
    "63be6904847c3692a84b9bb5",
    "63be6904847c3692a84b9bb6"
  ]
}

Get place categories in Japanese

In this example, you use the language parameter to return all categories in Japanese. If no language is specified, categories are returned in English.

Return the category name using its ID.

Steps

Reference the places service.
Set the language parameter to a preferred language.
Set the token parameter to your access token.

APIs

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import { ApiKeyManager } from "@esri/arcgis-rest-request";
import { getCategories,searchCategories,getCategory } from "@esri/arcgis-rest-places";

const apiKey = "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN";

const authentication = ApiKeyManager.fromKey(apiKey);


arcgisRest.request("https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories",{
    httpMethod: "GET",
    params: {
      token: authentication,
      language: "ja"
    }
  }).then((results)=>{
    console.log(results)
  });

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REST API

cURL

HTTP

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curl 'https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories?language=ja&token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>&f=pjson'

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{
  "categories": [
    {
      "categoryId": "4d4b7104d754a06370d81259",
      "fullLabel": [
        "アート/エンターテイメント"
      ],
      "parents": []
    },
    {
      "categoryId": "4bf58dd8d48988d1f1931735",
      "fullLabel": [
        "アート/エンターテイメント",
        "General Entertainment"
      ],
      "parents": [
        "4d4b7104d754a06370d81259"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categoryId": "5f2c14a5b6d05514c7042eb7",
      "fullLabel": [
        "アート/エンターテイメント",
        "VR カフェ"
      ],
      "parents": [
        "4d4b7104d754a06370d81259"
      ]
    },
  ]
  //More categories
}

Filter categories by language

In this example, you search for a category in French to return its full label and category ID.

Return the category in French.

Steps

Reference the places service.
Set the filter parameter to the category you want in the language.
Set the language parameter to the preferred language.
Set the token parameter to your access token.

APIs

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import { ApiKeyManager } from "@esri/arcgis-rest-request";
import { getCategories,searchCategories,getCategory } from "@esri/arcgis-rest-places";

const apiKey = "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN";

const authentication = ApiKeyManager.fromKey(apiKey);


arcgisRest.request("https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories",{
    httpMethod: "GET",
    params: {
      filter: "boulangerie",
      token: authentication,
      language: "fr"
    }
  }).then((results)=>{
    console.log(results)
  });
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REST API

cURL

HTTP

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curl 'https://places-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/places-service/v1/categories?filter=boulangerie&language=fr&token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>'

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{
  "categories": [
    {
      "categoryId": "4bf58dd8d48988d16a941735",
      "fullLabel": [
        "Restaurants et bars",
        "Boulangerie"
      ],
      "parents": [
        "63be6904847c3692a84b9bb5"
      ]
    }
  ]
}