Skip to content

Learn how to use an ArcGIS portal item to access and display a feature layer in a map.

add a feature layer from a portal item

You can host a variety of geographic data and other resources using ArcGIS Online. These portal items can also define how the data is presented. A web map or web scene, for example, not only defines the layers for a map or scene, but also how layers are symbolized, the minimum and/or maximum scales at which they display, and several other properties. Likewise, a hosted feature layer contains the data for the layer and also defines the symbols and other display properties for how it is presented. When you add a map, scene, or layer from a portal item to your app, everything that has been saved with the item is applied in your app. Adding portal items to your app rather than creating them programmatically saves you from writing a lot of code, and can provide consistency across apps that use the same data.

In this tutorial, you will add a hosted feature layer to display trailheads in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. The hosted layer defines the trailhead locations (points) as well as the symbols used to display them.

Prerequisites

Before starting this tutorial:

  1. You need an ArcGIS Location Platform or ArcGIS Online account.

  2. Your system meets the system requirements.

  3. You need an IDE for Flutter - we recommend VS Code.

Develop or Download

You have two options for completing this tutorial:

  1. Option 1: Develop the code or
  2. Option 2: Download the completed solution

Option 1: Develop the code

To start the tutorial, complete the Display a map tutorial. This creates a map to display the Santa Monica Mountains in California using the topographic basemap from the ArcGIS Basemap Styles service.

Open a Flutter project

  1. Open the project you created by completing the Display a map tutorial.

  2. Continue with the following instructions to use an ArcGIS portal item to access and display a feature layer in a map.

Add a feature layer to the map

  1. Open lib\main.dart.

  2. Create a PortalItem referencing the feature layer by passing in the portal and item ID.

    main.dart
    Use dark colors for code blocks
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    11
    12
    13
    14
    15
    16
    17
    18
    19
    20
    21
    22
    23
    24
    25
    26
    27
    28
    29
    30
    31
    32
    33
    34
    35
    36
    37
    38
    39
    40
    41
    42
    43
    44
    45
    46
    47
    48
    49
    50
    51
    52
    53
    54
    55
    56
    57
    58
    59
    60
    61
    62
    63
    64
    65
    66
    67
    68
    69
    70
    71
    72
    73
    74
    75
    76
    77
    78
    79
    80
    81
    82
    83
    84
    85
    86
    87
    88
      void onMapViewReady() {
    
        final map = ArcGISMap.withBasemapStyle(BasemapStyle.arcGISTopographic);
    
        // Create a portal item passing in a portal and item ID.
        final portalItem = PortalItem.withPortalAndItemId(
          portal: Portal.arcGISOnline(),
          itemId: '2e4b3df6ba4b44969a3bc9827de746b3',
        );
    
  3. Create a FeatureLayer from the portal item and a layer ID. The layer ID uniquely identifies one of the layers within the portal item. Add the layer to the map's operational layers.

    main.dart
    Use dark colors for code blocks
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    11
    12
    13
    14
    15
    16
    17
    18
    19
    20
    21
    22
    23
    24
    25
    26
    27
    28
    29
    30
    31
    32
    33
    34
    35
    36
    37
    38
    39
    40
    41
    42
    43
    44
    45
    46
    47
    48
    49
    50
    51
    52
    53
    54
    55
    56
    57
    58
    59
    60
    61
    62
    63
    64
    65
    66
    67
    68
    69
    70
    71
    72
    73
    74
    75
    76
    77
    78
    79
    80
    81
    82
    83
    84
    85
    86
    87
    88
        // Create a portal item passing in a portal and item ID.
        final portalItem = PortalItem.withPortalAndItemId(
          portal: Portal.arcGISOnline(),
          itemId: '2e4b3df6ba4b44969a3bc9827de746b3',
        );
    
        // Create a feature layer from the portal item. The layer ID uniquely identifies
        // the layer within the portal item, as there can be more than one.
        final featureLayer = FeatureLayer.withItem(item: portalItem, layerId: 0);
    
        // Add the feature layer to the map as an operational layer.
        map.operationalLayers.add(featureLayer);
    
        // Code from `Display a map` tutorial and remains unchanged.
        _mapViewController.arcGISMap = map;
        _mapViewController.setViewpoint(
          Viewpoint.withLatLongScale(
            latitude: 34.02700,
            longitude: -118.80500,
            scale: 72000,
          ),
        );
    

Run the app

  1. Make sure you have an Android emulator, iOS simulator or physical device configured and running.

  2. In VS Code, select Run > Run Without Debugging.

You should see a map of trail heads in the Santa Monica mountains. Tap, drag, and zoom on the map view to explore the map.

Alternatively, you can download the tutorial solution, as follows.

Option 2: Download the solution

  1. Click the Download solution link under Solution and unzip the file to a location on your machine.

  2. Open the project in VS code.

Since the downloaded solution does not contain authentication code, you must first set up authentication to create credentials, then add authentication code and set the developer credentials to the solution.

Set up authentication

To access the secure ArcGIS location services used in this tutorial, you must implement API key authentication or user authentication using an ArcGIS Location Platform or an ArcGIS Online account.

To complete this tutorial, click on the tab in the switcher below for your authentication type of choice, either API key authentication or User authentication.

Create a new API key access token with privileges to access the secure resources used in this tutorial.

  1. Complete the Create an API key tutorial and create an API key with the following privilege(s):

    • Privileges
      • Location services > Basemaps
  2. Copy and paste the API key access token into a safe location. It will be used in a later step.

Add authentication code and set developer credentials

To allow your app users to access ArcGIS location services, you will add authentication code and use the developer credentials that you created in the Set up authentication step to authenticate requests for resources.

  1. Open lib/main.dart.

  2. In the main() function, set the ArcGISEnvironment.apiKey value to your access token.

    main.dart
    Use dark colors for code blocks
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    11
    12
    void main () {
    
      ArcGISEnvironment.apiKey = 'YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN';
    
      runApp(
    
        const MaterialApp(home: MainApp())
    
      );
    }

Best Practice: The access token is stored directly in the code as a convenience for this tutorial. Do not store credentials directly in source code in a production environment.

Run the application

Follow these steps to run the application.

  1. In VS Code's terminal, run:

    Use dark colors for code blocksCopy
    1
    flutter pub upgrade
  2. Run:

    Use dark colors for code blocksCopy
    1
    dart run arcgis_maps install
  3. Make sure you have an Android emulator, iOS simulator or physical device configured and running.

  4. In VS Code, select Run > Run Without Debugging.

You should see a map of trail heads in the Santa Monica mountains. Tap, drag, and zoom on the map view to explore the map.

Your browser is no longer supported. Please upgrade your browser for the best experience. See our browser deprecation post for more details.