Today, we are pleased to release versions 4.16 and 3.33 of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. Here are some of the 4.16 highlights (please refer to the 3.33 link at the end for 3.x updates).

The stats

We fixed 20 bugs, added 65 new classes, created 24 new samples, and over 99% of the codebase is now written in TypeScript. 

Blending-in is the new standing-out

Ever wanted to combine one or more layers together to produce what looks like a new layer? Sounds cool, right? To accomplish this, we introduced a new capability called layer blending. This powerful capability allows you to apply blend modes to your layers to create striking visual effects.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/?search=blendMode

Are you down with OGC?

Yeah, you know, me also. The OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) API Feature standard is the successor to the OGC Web Feature Server (WFS) specification. And have we got a layer for you. The new OGCFeatureLayer, which works in 2D MapViews and 3D SceneViews, is better/stronger/faster than OGC WFS, and is now supported by the ArcGIS API for JavaScript.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/api-reference/esri-layers-OGCFeatureLayer.html

Self-evaluate your performance

At 4.15, we introduced a new SceneView.performanceInfo property to offer insight into the performance and memory consumptions of layers in your 3D scene. Now at 4.16, we’re ready to share this with the world. Heads-up: this property is experimental, prices and participation may vary, and can change at any time. But if you’re into performance metrics and 3D scenes, check out this new feature in your testing environments.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/sceneview-memory/index.html

If you like labeling points, you may also like…

If you like labeling, you’ll love the new Honey Nut Clusters FeatureReductionCluster.labelingInfo property that allows you to label clusters based on count, or based on any summary statistics used by the cluster popup.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/featurereduction-cluster-filter-slider/index.html

Client-side geometric modifications

Client-side geometric modifications (like clipping) on IntegratedMeshLayers in 3D SceneViews, are you serious?! Yes, very much so. With the SceneModifications class, you can now modify parts of an integrated mesh using polygon geometries. Focus on your areas of interest; ignore the noise.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/layers-integratedmeshlayer-modification/index.html

CIM (/ˈsim/) seems (/sēmz/) cool (/ko͞ol/)

Remember, back in the day, when we released CIMSymbol for point features? Well, now you can do the same with lines and polygons in 2D MapViews. So create those custom symbols for all geometry types by using multiple symbol layers. And yes, you can print them just fine.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/cim-lines-and-polygons/index.html

Reflecting pools for all

We enhanced the WaterSymbol3DLayer to reflect any 3D objects on water surfaces. The SceneView.environment property, which already has tons of options to make your 3D scenes even more beautiful and realistic, now has a fun waterReflectionEnabled property.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/visualization-realistic-water/index.html

Wait, what’s that about seamless integration?

Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder. At every release we modernize the API. Fact. Sometimes we add things, sometimes we remove them. At 4.16, the API returns native promises by default. You can no longer opt-out with the handy has flag. We removed Dojo’s declare module, and pretty much stopped using Dojo altogether, although it’s still available with the CDN build. We also changed our will and stopped being supportive of multiple class inheritance, so start thinking about Accessor mixins. Read more here:

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/#api-modernization

Wait wait, what’s next?

Do you enjoy the bleeding edge of technology? If so, ArcGIS API for JavaScript – next may be for you. We announced this new feature a couple of release ago, but since we’re all scrambling for things to do at home, this seems like an opportune moment to revisit. It’s basically a weekly-ish build of the next version (e.g. if the current release is 4.16, then next is based on 4.17) of the API that you can use, test, and create issues for if you are so inclined. Probably best to only use for testing as things can change whenevs.

https://github.com/Esri/feedback-js-api-next

Wait wait wait, there’s more!

Because we have so much fun “at the office” developing new stuff for you, we like to showcase our updates and answer any questions that you may have in-person. We do this a couple times per year at conferences like the Developer Summit and the User Conference.

If you missed us at the virtual Developer Summit this year, here is a blog about all the JavaScript presentation recordings:

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/js-api-arcgis/announcements/arcgis-api-for-javascript-devsummit-2020-videos-available/

If you’re joining us for the virtual User Conference, here is a blog about all the exciting web development presentations and resources:

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/js-api-arcgis/announcements/web-developers-guide-to-the-2020-esri-users-conference/

And if you’re up on the news, you may find this blog about diversity, equity, and racial justice at the virtual User Conference especially relevant:

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/product/announcements/diversity-equity-inclusion-racial-justice-at-the-esri-user-conference-2020/

There is so much more that’s new and exciting at 4.16 and 3.33. Check out the links below to discover everything.

Release Blog

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/js-api-arcgis/announcements/whats-new-in-the-arcgis-api-for-javascript-july-2020

4.16 Release Notes

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/index.html

4.16 Samples

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/?search=4.16

3.33 What’s New

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/3/jshelp/whats_new.html

Today, we are pleased to release versions 4.14 and 3.31 of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. Here are some of the 4.14 highlights (please refer to the 3.31 link at the end for 3.x updates).

The stats

We fixed 43 bugs, added 12 new classes, created 15 new samples, and tacked on 2 new guide pages.

Cluster Blockbuster

Point clustering is now a supported method of feature reduction on FeatureLayer, CSVLayer, and GeoJSONLayer in 2D MapViews. There are some differences between the 3.x and the 4.x implementations of clustering. The 4.x version is objectively better, or will be better, as we continue to iteratively add more functionality in future releases.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/index.html?search=clustering

Widgets

We added the Line of Sight widget to analyze visibility in your 3D scenes, and the Daylight widget to change the time and date of your 3D scenes interactively.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/#3d-line-of-sight-widget

Save Those Web maps

Web maps can be easily saved to ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise with save() and saveAs() methods. This capability is in addition to creating and stylizing web maps in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/webmap-save/index.html

Performance enhancements

• Significantly improved GPU performance by reducing number of polygon vertices drawn.
• When rendering vector tiles, we generate significantly fewer WebGL and JavaScript calls.
• Improved mesh strategy reduced the number of geometries that needed to be tessellated.
• Optimized the Basemap Gallery widget data loading behavior in 2D MapViews.
• Switching to/from DotDensityRenderer and/or HeatmapRenderer is much, much faster.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/#performance-enhancements

New Guides

All the color ramps used in the Smart Mapping symbology APIs can now be easily viewed, filtered, and copied to your apps in a new Esri Color Ramps guide page.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/esri-color-ramps/index.html

This guide, together with the new Visualization best practices guide, provides easy access to more than 300 stunning color ramps designed by color experts.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/creating-visualizations-manually/index.html

Depreciation

We’re trying out something new this time around. Rather than sticking to the typical naughty or nice list, we’re offering a list of deprecated items to help our users get ahead of upcoming API changes.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/#deprecated-classes%2C-properties%2C-methods%2C-events

And more...

Have a better time with our API with time related updates, editing updates, map navigation updates, client-side geometry updates, smart mapping updates, my goodness, tessellation updates, and more. See the release notes to get the full story.

Release Blog

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/product/announcements/whats-new-in-arcgis-api-for-javascript-december-2019

4.14 Release Notes

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/index.html

4.14 Samples

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/?search=4.14

3.31 What’s New

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/3/jshelp/whats_new.html

Today, we are pleased to release versions 4.12 and 3.29 of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. Here are some of the 4.12 highlights (please refer to the 3.29 link at the end for 3.x updates).

The Stats

We added 42 new classes, 11 new widgets, and fixed 34 bugs. Also, 93% of the codebase is now written in TypeScript.

Time

Time is a key component of this release. We added a TimeInterval class to describe a length of time in different temporal units, a TimeSlider widget to simplify time manipulation in your application, and a timeExtent property in 2D MapViews and 3D SceneViews to easily update all time aware layers.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/#time

Performance

Loading, rendering, fetching, drawing, all these verbal nouns saw significant improvements with this release. Parallelization of requests. Tile processing optimizations. We’re talking revamped tessellators folks. Who wouldn’t want the new I3S specification version 1.7 to make your scene layers load 2x faster? Or how about pure client-side queries in 3D that don't require a round-trip to the server?

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/#performance-improvements

Modernization

We take major strides to modernize our API at every release. This modernization allows our API to play nicer with others (e.g. other frameworks, native browser methods, and 3rd party APIs). This time around we made the BeforeInterceptorCallback function asynchronous, so it can now also return a promise. In fact, most asynchronous methods in the API now support an optional abort signal parameter, so they can be canceled and return a promise that will be rejected with an error. Lastly, there is a new has flag available to enable native JavaScript promises. Look out for an upcoming blog post to discuss this further.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/#api-modernization

Sliders

Note: we’re talking widgets, not small hamburgers. We added a slew of new slider widgets to help you interact with any kind of user input involving numbers or a range of values. You already met the TimeSlider, but we have several more Slider widgets that might interest you, including a base Slider widget, which is a great starting point if you want to make your own customized slider experience.

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/#new-widgets

And More...

There’s so much more to cover. Realistic water rendering with the new WaterSymbol3DLayer. New 2D WebStyleSymbols (used to be only available in 3D)! Scale-dependent visualizations for smart mapping. Even better labeling options and behaviors??

It’s been a great release, and we are excited to share it with you. If we don’t see you at the UC in San Diego next week, please feel free to let us know how we’re doing via email/GeoNet/social media. Couple more links to share:

Release Blog

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/js-api-arcgis/announcements/whats-new-in-arcgis-api-for-javascript-july-2019

Video: What's new with the ArcGIS API for JavaScript 4.12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7LPAQx8IBg

4.12 Release Notes

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/guide/release-notes/

4.12 Samples

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/?search=4.12

3.29 What’s New

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/3/jshelp/whats_new.html

Today we released versions 4.10 and 3.27 of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. Read more about it in:

• Blog: What's New in ArcGIS API for JavaScript 4.10 (December 2018)

and even more details in

• Release notes for 4.10
• What's new in Version 3.27

Support for CORS will be enhanced in 4.9 and will potentially require changes to your code. Read further for the full scoop on this.

The ArcGIS API for JavaScript has long supported CORS. CORS allows web applications to bypass a browser's same origin policy and access resources or services on other servers/domains.

When the web server supports CORS, a proxy is not required to do cross-domain requests. Supporting CORS as opposed to using a proxy is helpful as it can:

• Provide a performance boost since the web application no longer has to send a CORS detection request back to its server, wait for the server to access the desired resource, and interpret the result before sending it back to the client.
• Simplify development as it is no longer necessary to maintain a proxy on your server. Avoiding the use of a proxy also ensures that web tier authentication (i.e. Active Directory) can be used when accessing secured resources.

CORS and WebGL

There are multiple scenarios when either CORS or a proxy is needed due to cross-domain requests for a resource. CORS is more important now than ever before when using the ArcGIS API for JavaScript due to the API’s use of WebGL. Thanks to WebGL, the API can render hundreds of thousands of features with fast performance using the GPU. However, WebGL has different requirements than the traditional method of rendering using SVG. When loading images (such as an image used by PictureMarkerSymbol), SVG simply adds an image in the DOM, while drawing on the WebGL canvas requires access to the raw image data. Since the raw image data is required for rendering, the image must meet one of the following requirements: (1) be on the same domain as the app, (2) be hosted on a server that supports CORS, or (3) a proxy must be used.

With WebGL becoming the primary way in which the API renders graphics and its requirement to access raw image data, we’ve optimized the way in which we approach CORS.

Changes to how the API will handle CORS, starting at 4.9

The API will assume web servers support CORS. Here are the details behind how the API handled CORS until 4.8, and how it will change starting at 4.9.

Previously, the API would handle CORS in the following way:

• Developers could predefine a list of corsEnabledServers to explicitly indicate whether CORS was setup for a given server.
• If the service was published with ArcGIS Server, the API would automatically send a request to see if CORS was supported (note: this resulted in an extra request to the server before a resource could be requested).
• If the server didn’t support CORS, a proxy rule could be configured (note: this resulted in the extra hop and performance hit described above).
• JSONP was used as a workaround when the server wasn't known to support CORS and the request was a GET request for JSON. An example would be using a FeatureLayer from an ArcGIS Server version 10.0 or earlier.

If none of the above criteria could be met (not listed in corsEnabledServers, not an ArcGIS Server service, and no proxy setup), the API didn’t make the request to the resource and generated a console error.

Starting at 4.9, the API will handle CORS in the following way:

If you have configured a proxy rule in your code, the API will continue to use your proxy. Otherwise, requests will always be made with the assumption that CORS is supported.

Assuming CORS support is particularly useful when you don’t know what web servers you might be accessing in advance, for example in some scenarios when loading a web map with a mash-up of services. The first request will be sent assuming CORS is supported, and if the request fails due to the lack of support the API will automatically fallback to the configured proxy (via the proxyUrl property in esri/config.request).

This change also results in a performance gain when working with ArcGIS Server because it is no longer necessary to send a CORS detection request before accessing a resource (in the case when the server isn’t listed in corsEnabledServers).

What do you need to do?

• If it doesn’t already, configure your web server to support CORS (if possible).
• Another change at 4.9 is support for JSONP is being removed, which will simplify webpack builds. If your server doesn’t support CORS, setup your proxy so that the app would fallback to using the proxy when the CORS request failed. If you have a specific requirement for using JSONP, you can use the dojo request script module as a workaround.
• If you previously used any of these APIs, they should be removed as they are no longer needed. Your CORS enabled server should “just work” since the API will make the request assuming CORS support.

esri/config.request

corsDetection

corsDetectionTimeout

corsEnabledServers*

forceProxy

useCors

esri/request

allowImageDataAccess option

* If your app is using corsEnabledServers with objects that have withCredentials: true, you should push the domain to esri/config.request.trustedServers instead.

This guide topic will be updated with the latest information about working with CORS after the 4.9 release.

Today we released versions 4.8 and 3.25 of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. Read more about it in:

• Blog: What's New in the ArcGIS API for JavaScript (version 4.8 & 3.25)

and more details in

• Release notes for 4.8 | ArcGIS API for JavaScript 4.8 
• What's new in Version 3.25 | Guide | ArcGIS API for JavaScript 3.25 

New ArcGIS API for JavaScript releases are just around the corner! Here is a preview of some of the new capabilities coming in early July. 

(Note: These are some of the highlights; a full list of new capabilities and enhancements will be provided in the release notes.)

ArcGIS API 4.4 for JavaScript

New styles for points in city landscapes:

Styling the point data in city scenes can now be done more effectively. Point graphics can be configured to display above buildings with the new relative-to-scene elevation mode. Callout lines can be used to better understand point locations (a callout is essentially extended from the top of the scene).

Highlight in 3D:

The ability to highlight features in a 3D scene, with options to configure the color and opacity of the highlight effect.

Styling building data:

We added the option to remove building textures to better emphasize thematic mapping of buildings, and also the option to make textures grayscale (one example of when you might want to do this is if you want to draw attention away from the buildings, and highlight a particular set of interest).

Smart Mapping

You can now automatically generate renderers for SceneLayers using SmartMapping. Generating type renderers with smart mapping is new to both 2D and 3D views. Note: When we reference smart mapping/generating renderers, we mean that the API creates smart defaults for your map/scene styles on the fly. This capability is typically used in data exploration type apps (as opposed to defining the styling explicitly in code).

PointCloudLayer enhancements

Added the ability to add natural lighting conditions to a point cloud layer in order to better distinguish objects.

Better web map support

Added support for Map Notes, WMS, and WMTS layers.

OGC support

Added support for WMS and WMTS layers.

VectorTileLayer printing

This release of the JavaScript API includes a support for vector tile layer printing through client-side image.

Arcade support in popups

Arcade expressions can now be applied in the popup’s content. This is useful for situations when you want to display data that isn't present as an attribute value in your FeatureLayer instance. Web maps that have been created in Portal or Online that contain popups with Arcade expressions will be honored in apps built with the JS API, and developers can also write Arcade expressions directly in their code.

Widget standardization

In this release, the following widgets have been updated to the widget framework, initially introduced at 4.2: Legend, Popup and Search widgets.

Custom Layers

The SDK will include documentation and samples for creating your own custom layers. 

ArcGIS API 3.21 for JavaScript 

Arcade support in popups

As described above.

VectorTileLayer printing

As described above.

(...plus minor enhancements and bug fixes)

Jerome Yang of the JavaScript team has written some great blog posts on data visualization with the ArcGIS API for JavaScript.  Post one in the series is an introduction to the topic. Post two covers unique value renderers and Post 3 discusses adding support for popups and legends.