Find place addresses

Learn how to search for coffee shops, gas stations, restaurants and other nearby places with the geocoding service.

Place addresses for businesses by category with the geocoding service.

Place finding is the process of searching for a place name or POI to find its address and location. You can use the geocoding service to find places such as coffee shops, gas stations, or restaurants for any geographic location around the world. You can search for places by name or by using categories. You can search near a location or you can search globally.

In this tutorial, you use ArcGIS REST JS to access the geocoding service and find places by place category.

Prerequisites

This tutorial requires an ArcGIS Location Platform or ArcGIS Online account.

Steps

Create a new pen

To get started, you can complete the Display a map tutorial or use the .

Get an access token

You need an access token with the correct privileges to access the resources used in this tutorial.

Go to the Create an API key tutorial and create an API key with the following privilege(s):
- Privileges
  - Location services > Basemaps
  - Location services > Geocoding
Copy the API key access token to your clipboard when prompted.

In CodePen, update the accessToken variable to use your access token.

Use dark colors for code blocks
const accessToken = "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN";
const basemapId = "arcgis/outdoor";
const basemapURL = `https://basemapstyles-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/styles/v2/styles/${basemapId}?token=${accessToken}`;
olms.apply(map, basemapURL);

Run the code to ensure the basemap is displayed in the map.

To learn about the other types of authentication available, go to Types of authentication.

Add references to ArcGIS REST JS

This tutorial uses ArcGIS REST JS for place finding.

In the <head> element, add references to the ArcGIS REST JS library.

Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ol@v10.1.0/ol.css" type="text/css" />
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ol@v10.1.0/dist/ol.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ol-mapbox-style@12.3.5/dist/olms.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

    <script src="https://unpkg.com/@esri/arcgis-rest-request@4.0.0/dist/bundled/request.umd.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/@esri/arcgis-rest-geocoding@4.0.0/dist/bundled/geocoding.umd.js"></script>
Expand

Update the map

A navigation basemap layer is typically used in geocoding and routing applications. Update the basemap layer to use arcgis/navigation.

Update the basemap and the map initialization to center on location [-122.4194,37.7749], San Francisco.

Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
      const view = new ol.View({

        center: ol.proj.fromLonLat([-122.4194, 37.7749]), // San Francisco

        zoom: 14
      });
      map.setView(view);

      const basemapId = "arcgis/navigation";
Expand

Add controls

Use a select element to create the drop-down element. Each category is an option element inside it. The select element needs to have absolute positioning in order to appear in front of the map element.

Add a select control, with options for "Coffee shop", "Gas station", "Food", "Hotel", "Parks and outdoors". Use inline styling to position the control.

The option values have special meaning to the geocoding service so ensure the spelling is correct. To learn more, go to Category filtering in the ArcGIS services reference.

Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
  <body>

    <div id="map"></div>

    <select id="places-select" style="right: 20px; top: 20px; position: absolute; font-size: 16px; padding: 4px 8px">
      <option value="">Choose a place type...</option>
      <option value="Coffee shop">Coffee shops</option>
      <option value="Gas station">Gas stations</option>
      <option value="Food">Food</option>
      <option value="Hotel">Hotels</option>
      <option value="Parks and Outdoors">Parks and Outdoors</option>
    </select>
Expand

At the top right, click Run to verify that the select control is created and contains the different categories.

Add a places layer

To display places from the geocoding service on the map, you will add a vector layer, containing a vector source. Small blue circles is the default styling used.

Inside olms load handler, create a new vector layer containing a vector source. Store it in a placesLayer, and add it to the map with map.addLayer;

Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
      olms.apply(map, basemapURL).then(function (map) {

        const placesLayer = new ol.layer.Vector({
          source: new ol.source.Vector(),

        });

        map.addLayer(placesLayer);
Expand

Call the geocoding service

To find places near a location, you can use the arcgisRest.geocode. Use the center of the map view.getCenter with proj.toLonLat to get the point in longitude and latitude. Provide the category selected by the user using document.getElementById to get the control, then use its value property.

Create a function called showPlaces. Inside, create a new arcgisRest.ApiKeyManager to access the geocoding service. Call arcgisRest.geocode() to set the API key and to call the service endpoint. Pass location and category, and specify Place_addr and PlaceName as the fields to be returned. Request a maximum of 25 places.

Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
        map.addLayer(placesLayer);

        function showPlaces() {

          const authentication = arcgisRest.ApiKeyManager.fromKey(accessToken);
          const category = document.getElementById("places-select").value;
          arcgisRest
            .geocode({
              authentication,
              outFields: "Place_addr,PlaceName", // attributes to be returned

              params: {
                category,
                location: ol.proj.toLonLat(view.getCenter()),
                maxLocations: 25
              }
            })

        }
Expand

Display results

When the query completes, the geoJson property of the response object contains a GeoJSON feature collection of points. You can use this to update the data of your places source. You will need to use a GeoJSON feature format to read the data, and also reproject it to the map's projection. Use an exception handler to detect problems accessing the service. This could happen due to network disruption or a problem with your API key, for instance.

Add a response handler. Inside, use a new GeoJSON feature format to read the geoJson property and reproject the data. Clear the places source with clear and add the new features with addFeatures

Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
              params: {
                category,
                location: ol.proj.toLonLat(view.getCenter()),
                maxLocations: 25
              }
            })

            .then((response) => {
              const features = new ol.format.GeoJSON({ featureProjection: view.getProjection() }).readFeatures(response.geoJson);
              placesLayer.getSource().clear();
              placesLayer.getSource().addFeatures(features);
            })
Expand

If there is an exception accessing the geocoding service, alert the user and log the error.

Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
            .then((response) => {
              const features = new ol.format.GeoJSON({ featureProjection: view.getProjection() }).readFeatures(response.geoJson);
              placesLayer.getSource().clear();
              placesLayer.getSource().addFeatures(features);
            })

            .catch((error) => {
              alert("There was a problem using the geocoder. See the console for details.");
              console.error(error);
            });
Expand

Add a change event handler

To update the map when the user chooses a category, you must add an event handler for the change event on the <select> control.

After the map initialization code, add showPlaces as the change event handler to the <select> control.

Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
            .catch((error) => {
              alert("There was a problem using the geocoder. See the console for details.");
              console.error(error);
            });

        }

        document.getElementById("places-select").addEventListener("change", showPlaces);
Expand

At the top right, click Run. When you choose a place category, circles should be shown for places.

Display labels

In order to show the name of each place on the map, you will modify the layer definition to include a style property. You provide a function that takes a feature and returns a Style. It will include a Text style to display the labels, using the text property to determine which is text is displayed. Use the PlaceName property of the feature for this. You will also set properties such as textAlign and font to control the appearance of the labels. The style will also include a Circle style to draw a circle at the place location.

By default, the labels would overlap each other and be hard to read. You use the declutter property on the Vector layer to prevent this.

Add a style property to the placesLayer definition. Make this function return a new Style which includes a Circle style and a Text style for the image and text properties. Enable the declutter setting.

Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
        const placesLayer = new ol.layer.Vector({
          source: new ol.source.Vector(),

          style: (feature) =>
            new ol.style.Style({
              image: new ol.style.Circle({
                radius: 5,
                fill: new ol.style.Fill({ color: "white" }),
                stroke: new ol.style.Stroke({ color: "hsl(220, 80%, 40%)", width: 2 })
              }),
              text: new ol.style.Text({
                font: "14px sans-serif",
                textAlign: "left",
                text: feature.get("PlaceName"),
                offsetX: 8, // move text to the right to avoid overlapping circle
                offsetY: 2, // move down to align with circle's center
                fill: new ol.style.Fill({ color: "hsl(220, 80%, 40%)" }),
                stroke: new ol.style.Stroke({ color: "white" })
              })
            }),
          declutter: true
Expand

Run the app

In CodePen, run your code to display the map.

When you choose a place category, you should see the name of each place shown as a label, next to a white circle with a blue outline.

What's next?

Learn how to use additional ArcGIS location services in these tutorials:

Search for an address

Find an address or place using a search box and the geocoding service.

Find places in a bounding box

Perform a text-based search to find places within a bounding box.

Find nearby places and details

Find points of interest near a location and get detailed information about them