FeatureLayer.SetDefinition Broken?

Question

I would expect the following code to essentially clone the top layer in the map. It does create a new featurelayer that points to the Uri, but calling SetDefinition has no discernible effect. private void Test() { var def = MapView.Active.Map.Layers[0].GetDefinition() as CIMFeatureLayer; var conn = def.FeatureTable.DataConnection as CIMStandardDataConnection; var folder = conn.WorkspaceConnectionString.Split('=')[1]; if (conn.WorkspaceFactory != WorkspaceFactory.Shapefile) throw new Exception("test only works with shapefile layers"); var url = Path.Combine(folder, conn.Dataset + ".shp"); var fLayer = LayerFactory.CreateFeatureLayer(new Uri(url), MapView.Active.Map, 1); fLayer.SetName("my layer"); // name remains "my layer" Setdefinition has no discernible effect fLayer.SetDefinition(def); } ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

KirkKuykendall · Answer

I think I resolved this by setting the URI of the definition to that of the newly created layer before applying. Any known ill side-effects from doing this? def.URI = fLayer.GetDefinition().URI; fLayer.SetDefinintion(def);‍‍

CharlesMacleod · Answer

Use LayerFactory.CreateLayer directly with the layer file....or....is that not doing what you want?

https://github.com/Esri/arcgis-pro-sdk/wiki/ProSnippets-MapAuthoring#create-and-add-a-layer-to-the-active-map

KirkKuykendall · Answer

Thanks for replying Charles.

When I open a .lyrx file in a text editor, I see that it contains a CIMLayerDocument, which has a list of CIMLayers (e.g. CIMFeatureLayer etc.)  When I choose to add data and select a .lyrx file behind the scenes Pro is turning definitions into layers.  I want to be able to do something similar.  Is this functionality exposed by the API?

If not, I think Esri really needs to add another overload to LayerFactory.CreateLayer which accepts a CIMLayer definition.

Otherwise, if there is a bug in SetDefinition, perhaps I could accomplish this once the bug is fixed.