You can use different types of data layers to access and display different types of data in your applications. Data layers can access ArcGIS data sources and other types of data sources such as OGC data and files.
Different data layers provide different types of functionality. The functionality available is largely dependent on the capabilities of the data source. For example, a feature layer can access a feature service and perform queries, edits, and data export, whereas a vector tile layer can only access tiles from a vector tile service.
The Layer class is the base class for all types of layers. The type of layer you create depends on the type of data you want to display. To display feature data (point, line, or polygon geometry), for example, you can create a FeatureLayer that points to an online service (such as a feature service) or a supported local dataset. The tables below summarizes common types of layers.
ArcGIS data layers
The following layers work with ArcGIS data sources.
| Layer | Data type | Display | Query | Edit | Offline | Data sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AnnotationLayer | Feature | 2D | True | True | True | ArcGIS Enterprise service, mobile map package (.mmpk), mobile geodatabase (.geodatabase) |
ArcGISMapImageLayer | Image | 2D | False | False | True | Map service |
ArcGISSceneLayer§ | Indexed 3D Scene Layers (I3S) | 3D | False | False | True | Scene service, mobile scene package (.mspk), scene layer package (.slpk) |
ArcGISTiledLayer | Image Tile | 2D | False | False | True | Tile service, tile package (.tpk/.tpkx) |
ArcGISVectorTiledLayer | Vector Tile | 2D | False | False | True | Vector tile service, vector tile package (.vtpk) |
DimensionLayer | Feature | 2D | True | False | True | ArcGIS Enterprise service, mobile map package, mobile geodatabase |
DynamicEntityLayer§ | Dynamic entity | 2D/3D | False | False | False | ArcGIS stream service |
FeatureCollectionLayer | Feature | 2D | True | True | True | Portal item, web map, feature set / query result |
FeatureLayer | Feature | 2D | True | True | True | • Online sources: — OgcFeatureCollectionTable — ServiceFeatureTable — WfsFeatureTable • Offline sources: — GeodatabaseFeatureTable — GeoPackageFeatureTable — ShapefileFeatureTable |
IntegratedMeshLayer§ | I3S | 3D | False | False | True | Scene service, mobile scene package, scene layer package |
PointCloudLayer§ | I3S | 3D | False | False | True | Scene service, mobile scene package, scene layer package |
RasterLayer | Raster | 2D | False | False | True | • Remote ArcGIS Image services, see ImageServiceRaster. • Raster files - path to a file on the device, see Raster Class. • Raster files within GeoPackages, see GeoPackageRaster. • Mosaic datasets, see MosaicDatasetRaster. |
OGC data layers
The following layers work with OGC data sources.
| Layer | Data type | Display | Query | Edit | Offline | Data sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ArcGISSceneLayer§ | I3S | 3D | False | False | True | Scene service, mobile scene package, scene layer package |
FeatureLayer | Feature | 2D | True | True | True | OGC API - Features, Web Feature Service (WFS), GeoPackage (.gpkg) |
IntegratedMeshLayer§ | I3S | 3D | False | False | True | Scene service, mobile scene package, scene layer package |
KmlLayer§ | Feature/Image | 2D/3D | True | True | True | KML file (.kml, .kmz) |
Ogc3dTilesLayer§ | 3D Tiles | 3D | False | False | True | 3D Tiles Archive Format (.3tz), 3D Tiles tileset JSON (.json), 3D Tiles service |
PointCloudLayer§ | I3S | 3D | False | False | True | Scene service, mobile scene package, scene layer package |
RasterLayer | Raster | 2D | True | False | True | GeoPackage |
WmsLayer | Image | 2D | False | False | False | Web Map Service (WMS) |
WmtsLayer | Image Tile | 2D | False | False | False | Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) |
Other data layers
The following layers work with non-ArcGIS data sources.
| Layer | Data type | Display | Query | Edit | Offline | Data sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BingMapsLayer§ | Image Tile | 2D/3D | False | False | False | Bing maps service |
EncLayer§ | Binary (SENC) | 2D | False | False | True | ENC exchange set |
OpenStreetMapLayer | Image Tile | 2D | False | False | True | OpenStreetMap (OSM) image tile service |
RasterLayer | Raster | 2D | False | False | False | Raster files e.g. GeoTiff (.tiff, .tif), MrSID (.sid) |
WebTiledLayer | Image Tile | 2D | False | False | False | {level},{row},{col} Image tile service |