Display custom labels on a feature layer.

Use case
Labeling features is useful to visually display a key piece of information or attribute of a feature on a map. For example, you may want to label rivers or streets with their names.
How to use the sample
Pan and zoom around the United States. Labels for congressional districts will be shown in red for Republican districts and blue for Democrat districts. Notice how labels pop into view as you zoom in.
How it works
- Create a
ServiceFeatureTableusing a feature service URL. - Create a
FeatureLayerfrom the service feature table. - Create a
TextSymbolto use for displaying the label text. - Create an
ArcadeLabelExpressionfor the label definition.- You can use fields of the feature by using
$feature.field_namein the expression.
- You can use fields of the feature by using
- Create a new
LabelDefinitionfrom the arcade label expression and text symbol. - Add the definition to the feature layer with
featureLayer.labelDefinitions.add(labelDefinition). - Lastly, enable labels on the layer using
featureLayer.labelsEnabled.
Relevant API
- FeatureLayer
- LabelDefinition
- TextSymbol
About the data
This sample uses the USA 116th Congressional Districts feature layer hosted on ArcGIS Online.
Additional information
Help regarding the Arcade label expression script for defining a label definition can be found on the ArcGIS Developers site.
Tags
arcade, attribute, deconfliction, label, labeling, string, symbol, text, visualization
Sample Code
MainActivity.kt
/* * Copyright 2023 Esri * * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. * You may obtain a copy of the License at * * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 * * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and * limitations under the License. * */
package com.esri.arcgismaps.sample.showlabelsonlayer
import android.os.Bundleimport android.util.Logimport com.esri.arcgismaps.sample.sampleslib.EdgeToEdgeCompatActivityimport androidx.databinding.DataBindingUtilimport androidx.lifecycle.lifecycleScopeimport com.arcgismaps.ApiKeyimport com.arcgismaps.ArcGISEnvironmentimport com.arcgismaps.Colorimport com.arcgismaps.arcgisservices.LabelingPlacementimport com.arcgismaps.data.ServiceFeatureTableimport com.arcgismaps.mapping.ArcGISMapimport com.arcgismaps.mapping.BasemapStyleimport com.arcgismaps.mapping.Viewpointimport com.arcgismaps.mapping.labeling.ArcadeLabelExpressionimport com.arcgismaps.mapping.labeling.LabelDefinitionimport com.arcgismaps.mapping.layers.FeatureLayerimport com.arcgismaps.mapping.symbology.TextSymbolimport com.esri.arcgismaps.sample.showlabelsonlayer.databinding.ShowLabelsOnLayerActivityMainBindingimport com.google.android.material.snackbar.Snackbarimport kotlinx.coroutines.launch
class MainActivity : EdgeToEdgeCompatActivity() {
// set up data binding for the activity private val activityMainBinding: ShowLabelsOnLayerActivityMainBinding by lazy { DataBindingUtil.setContentView(this, R.layout.show_labels_on_layer_activity_main) }
private val mapView by lazy { activityMainBinding.mapView }
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
// authentication with an API key or named user is // required to access basemaps and other location services ArcGISEnvironment.apiKey = ApiKey.create(BuildConfig.ACCESS_TOKEN) lifecycle.addObserver(mapView)
// create a map with a light gray map style val map = ArcGISMap(BasemapStyle.ArcGISLightGray) // create a service feature table from an online feature service of // US Congressional Districts val serviceFeatureTable = ServiceFeatureTable(getString(R.string.congressional_districts_url)) // create the feature layer from the service feature table val featureLayer = FeatureLayer.createWithFeatureTable(serviceFeatureTable) // add this feature layer to the map map.operationalLayers.add(featureLayer) // add the map to the mapview mapView.map = map
lifecycleScope.launch { // if the map load failed show an error and return map.load().onFailure { return@onFailure showError("Error loading map:${it.message}") } // if the feature layer load failed show an error and return featureLayer.load().onFailure { return@onFailure showError("Error loading feature layer:${it.message}") } // zoom to the layer when it's done loading featureLayer.fullExtent?.let { extent -> mapView.setViewpoint(Viewpoint(extent)) } }
// create label definitions for the different party type attribute in the feature service val republicanLabelDefinition = createLabelDefinition("Republican", Color.red) val democraticLabelDefinition = createLabelDefinition("Democrat", Color.blue)
featureLayer.apply { // add the label definitions to the feature layer labelDefinitions.addAll( listOf( republicanLabelDefinition, democraticLabelDefinition ) ) // enable the labels labelsEnabled = true } }
/** * Creates and returns a [LabelDefinition] for the given party [name] attribute * with the [labelColor] */ private fun createLabelDefinition( name: String, labelColor: Color ): LabelDefinition { // create a text symbol for styling the label val textSymbol = TextSymbol().apply { color = labelColor size = 12f haloColor = Color.white haloWidth = 2f } // create a arcade label expression for the label text val arcadeLabelExpression = ArcadeLabelExpression( "\$feature.NAME + \" (\" + left(\$feature.PARTY,1) " + "+ \")\\nDistrict \" + \$feature.CDFIPS" ) // create and return a new label definition with the arcadeLabelExpression and textSymbol return LabelDefinition(arcadeLabelExpression, textSymbol).apply { // set the label placement placement = LabelingPlacement.PolygonAlwaysHorizontal // set the attribute name for which this label will be generated whereClause = "PARTY = '$name'" } }
private fun showError(message: String) { Log.e(localClassName, message) Snackbar.make(mapView, message, Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT).show() }}