Find place addresses

Learn how to search for places of interest.

Place addresses for businesses by category with the Geocoding service using API key authentication

Place finding is the process of searching for a place name or POI to find its address and location. You can use the ArcGIS 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

You need an ArcGIS Location Platform or ArcGIS Online account.

Steps

Get the starter app

Select a type of authentication and follow the steps to create a new app.

Choose API key authentication if you:

Want the easiest way to get started.
Want to build public applications that access ArcGIS Location Services and secure items.
Have an ArcGIS Location Platform or ArcGIS Online account.

Choose user authentication if you:

Want to build private applications.
Require application users to sign in with their own ArcGIS account and access resources their behalf.
Have an ArcGIS Online account.

To learn more about both types of authentication, go to Authentication.

You can choose one of the following to create a new CodePen:

Option 1: Complete the Display a map tutorial; or,
Option 2: Start from the Display a map tutorial .

Set up authentication

Create a new API key credential with the correct privileges to get an access token.

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

Set developer credentials

Use the API key or OAuth developer credentials so your application can access ArcGIS services.

Update the accessToken variable to use your API key.

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    /* Use for API key authentication */
    const accessToken = "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN";
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In both the index.html and callback.html files, replace YOUR_CLIENT_ID and YOUR_REDIRECT_URL with the client ID and redirect URL of your OAuth credentials.

index.html
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    /* Use for user authentication */
    const clientId = "YOUR_CLIENT_ID"; // Your client ID from OAuth credentials
    const redirectUri = ""YOUR_REDIRECT_URI""; // The redirect URL registered in your OAuth credentials
    const session = await arcgisRest.ArcGISIdentityManager.beginOAuth2({
      clientId,
      redirectUri,
      portal: "https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest" // Your portal URL
    });

    const accessToken = session.token;

callback.html
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    arcgisRest.ArcGISIdentityManager.completeOAuth2({
      clientId: "YOUR_CLIENT_ID", // Your client ID from OAuth credentials
      redirectUri: "YOUR_REDIRECT_URI", // The redirect URL registered in your OAuth credentials
      portal: "https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest" // Your portal URL
    });

Run the app and ensure you can sign in successfully.

If you are unable to sign in, make sure you have the correct redirect URL and port. This URL varies based on your application and typically takes the format of https://<server>[:port]/callback.html or http://my-arcgis-app:/auth. For example, if you are running an application on http://127.0.0.1:5500/, set http://127.0.0.1:5500/callback.html as your redirect URL in the index.html and callback.html file and your developer credential. They all have to match!

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.

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    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ol@v10.6.0/ol.css">
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ol@v10.6.0/dist/ol.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ol-mapbox-style@13.1.0/dist/olms.js"></script>

    <script src="https://unpkg.com/@esri/arcgis-rest-request@4/dist/bundled/request.umd.js"></script>
    <script
      src="https://unpkg.com/@esri/arcgis-rest-geocoding@4/dist/bundled/geocoding.umd.js"></script>
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Update the map

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

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

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    const view = new ol.View({

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

      zoom: 14
    });

    map.setView(view);

    const basemapId = "arcgis/navigation";
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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.

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  <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>
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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;

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    olms.apply(map, basemapURL).then(function (map) {

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

      });

      map.addLayer(placesLayer);
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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.

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      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
            }
          })

      }
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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

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            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);
          })
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If there is an exception accessing the Geocoding service, alert the user and log the error.

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          .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);
          });
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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.

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          .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);
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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.

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      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
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Run the app

Run the app.

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 location services in these tutorials:

Search with autosuggest

Search for addresses with partial text using autosuggest.

Find places in a bounding box

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

Find nearby places and details

Find places near a location and get detailed place information.