Introduction to visualization

You can style basemap layers, which are composed of vector tile data, and feature layers, which are composed of features, to help visualize the data in your application.

Basemap styles

A basemap style is a set of visual properties such as fill colors, viewing levels, and fonts that define how the visual elements in a vector tile basemap layer are displayed. There are two types of basemap styles: default and custom.

Default styles: Styles provided by Esri such as ArcGIS:Streets, ArcGIS:Topographic, and ArcGIS:Nova.
Custom styles: Styles you create and save as items using the ArcGIS Vector Tile Style Editor.

How to display a custom basemap style

Create a style with the ArcGIS Vector Tile Style Editor.
Go to the new basemap layer's item page and copy its item ID.
Reference the OpenLayers CSS, JS, and ol-mapbox-style libraries.
Set the item ID as the basemap style enumeration.
Set the style URL.
Load and apply the basemap style to a map using olms.

Example

Display a custom basemap layer

This example illustrates how you can set the item ID of a custom vector basemap layer in place of a default basemap layer style.

Use dark colors for code blocksCopy
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/openlayers/openlayers.github.io@master/en/v6.15.1/css/ol.css" type="text/css" />
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/openlayers/openlayers.github.io@master/en/v6.15.1/build/ol.js"></script>

    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ol-mapbox-style@10.5.0/dist/olms.js"></script>

    <script>

      const apiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY";

      const basemapId = "6976148c11bd497d8624206f9ee03e30"; // Custom vector tile style

      const basemapURL = "https://basemaps-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/styles/" + basemapId + "?type=style&token=" + apiKey;

      olms.apply(map, basemapURL);

    </script>
Go to tutorial

To learn more, visit the Create a custom basemap style and Display a custom vector tile style tutorials.

Feature styles

You can style points, lines, and polygons for visualization in a map by defining symbols for features. To style features in a feature layer, you define symbols and apply them with a renderer. For data-driven visualization, the symbol is always determined based on a data (attribute) value returned from a field in the data layer.

To style features in OpenLayers, you use the Style class. A Style object allows you to define symbols using properties such as fill, stroke, text, and image. Once you create a style definition, reference it in your Vector layer to apply it to the features in the feature layer.

How to style a feature layer

Import your data from a CSV, XLS, GeoJSON, or Shapefile file to create a hosted feature layer.
Get the URL for the feature layer.
Reference the OpenLayers CSS, JS, and ol-mapbox-style libraries.
Instantiate a Style class and define symbols for the features you want to visualize.
Reference the Style object and feature layer URL in a Vector layer.

Example

Style a feature layer (points)

This example customizes a map of trailhead locations so that they display as hiker symbols.

Use dark colors for code blocksCopy
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/openlayers/openlayers.github.io@master/en/v6.15.1/css/ol.css" type="text/css" />
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/openlayers/openlayers.github.io@master/en/v6.15.1/build/ol.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ol-mapbox-style@10.5.0/dist/olms.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

    <script>

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

        const trailheadStyle = function (feature) {
          return new ol.style.Style({
            image: new ol.style.Icon({
              src: "http://static.arcgis.com/images/Symbols/NPS/npsPictograph_0231b.png",
              scale: 0.25
            }),

          });
        };

        const trailheadsLayer = new ol.layer.Vector({
          source: new ol.source.Vector({
            format: new ol.format.GeoJSON(),
            url: trailheadsLayerURL
          }),

          style: trailheadStyle,
          declutter: true
        });

        map.addLayer(trailheadsLayer);

    </script>
Go to tutorial

To learn more, visit the Style a feature layer tutorial.

Tutorials

Style a feature layer

Use data-driven styling to apply symbol colors and styles to feature layers.

Display a custom vector tile style

Add a styled vector basemap layer to a map.

OpenLayers

Introduction to visualization

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