Display device location

Learn how to display the current device location on a map or scene.

You can display the device location on a map or scene. This is important for workflows that require the user's current location, such as finding nearby businesses, navigating from the current location, or identifying and collecting geospatial information.

By default, location display uses the device's location provider. Your app can also process input from other location providers, such as an external GPS receiver or a provider that returns a simulated location. For more information, see the Show device location topic.

Prerequisites

Steps

Open a Visual Studio solution

1. To start the tutorial, complete the Display a map tutorial or download and unzip the solution.

2. Open the .sln file in Visual Studio.

3. If you downloaded the solution project, set your API key.

   Instructions for setting the API key

   An API Key enables access to services, web maps, and web scenes hosted in ArcGIS Online.

   If necessary, set the API Key.

   1. Go to your developer dashboard to get your API key. For these tutorials, use your default API key. It is scoped to include all of the services demonstrated in the tutorials.

   2. In Visual Studio, in the Solution Explorer, click App.xaml.cs.

   3. In the App class, add an override for the OnStartup() function to set the ApiKey property on ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment.

      App.xaml.cs

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          public partial class App : Application
          {
      
              protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e)
              {
                  base.OnStartup(e);
                  // Note: it is not best practice to store API keys in source code.
                  // The API key is referenced here for the convenience of this tutorial.
                  Esri.ArcGISRuntime.ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment.ApiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY";
              }
      
          }
      }

Update the tutorial name used in the project (optional)

The Visual Studio solution, project, and the namespace for all classes currently use the name DisplayAMap. Follow the steps below if you prefer the name to reflect the current tutorial. These steps are not required, your code will still work if you keep the original name.

Show the current location

Each map view has its own instance of a LocationDisplay for showing the current location (point) of the device. The location is displayed as an overlay in the map view.

1. In the Visual Studio > Solution Explorer, double-click MainWindow.xaml.cs to open the file.

2. In the MainWindow constructor, remove code that sets the map's initial viewpoint. The map will zoom to the extent of the current location, so this code is no longer needed.

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           public MainWindow()
           {
               InitializeComponent();
   
               MapPoint mapCenterPoint = new MapPoint(-118.805, 34.027, SpatialReferences.Wgs84);
               MainMapView.SetViewpoint(new Viewpoint(mapCenterPoint, 100000));
   
           }
   

3. Add code to enable LocationDisplay for the map view and assign a LocationDisplayAutoPanMode that centers the map at the device location.

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           public MainWindow()
           {
               InitializeComponent();
   
               MainMapView.LocationDisplay.IsEnabled = true;
               MainMapView.LocationDisplay.AutoPanMode = Esri.ArcGISRuntime.UI.LocationDisplayAutoPanMode.Recenter;
   
           }
   

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4. Click Debug > Start Debugging (or press <F5> on the keyboard) to run the app.

You should see your current location displayed on the map. Different location symbols are used depending on the auto pan mode and whether a location is acquired. See LocationDisplayAutoPanMode for details.

What's next?

Learn how to use additional API features, ArcGIS location services, and ArcGIS tools in these tutorials:

• Search for an address
• Find a route and directions