Create FeaturLayer from Shape File without adding it to the Map

[EugeneStaten]

Hi....

I am porting and old ArcMap add-in to ArcGIS Pro 3.6 using the SDK.

The previous code loads a FeatureLayer form a shape file without auto adding it to the Map.

Here is the Code:

 public static ILayer LoadShapeFile(string path)
 {
     ILayer layer = null;

     try
     {
         if (File.Exists(path))
         {
             string directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(path);
             string name = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(path);

             // Create a new ShapefileWorkspaceFactory CoClass to create a new workspace
             ESRI.ArcGIS.Geodatabase.IWorkspaceFactory workspaceFactory = new ESRI.ArcGIS.DataSourcesFile.ShapefileWorkspaceFactoryClass();
             ESRI.ArcGIS.Geodatabase.IFeatureWorkspace featureWorkspace = (ESRI.ArcGIS.Geodatabase.IFeatureWorkspace)workspaceFactory.OpenFromFile(directory, 0); // Explicit Cast

             ESRI.ArcGIS.Geodatabase.IFeatureClass featureClass = featureWorkspace.OpenFeatureClass(name);
             if (featureClass != null)
             {
                 ESRI.ArcGIS.Carto.IGeoFeatureLayer featureLayer = new ESRI.ArcGIS.Carto.FeatureLayerClass();
                 featureLayer.FeatureClass = featureClass;
                 featureLayer.Name = featureClass.AliasName;
                 layer = featureLayer;
             }
         }
     }
     catch (Exception ex)
     {
         DebugLog.Error(ex);
         throw;
     }

     return layer;
 }

ArcGIS Pro 2.6 wont let me do this, it forces me to add the layer to the Map:

Here is my code:

    public FeatureLayer LoadShapeFile(string shapefileFullPath)
    {
        if (File.Exists(shapefileFullPath))
        {
            return null;
        }

        FeatureLayer newLayer = QueuedTask.Run<FeatureLayer>( async () =>
        {
            try
            {
                string directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(shapefileFullPath)!;
                string shapeFileName = Path.GetFileName(shapefileFullPath)!;
                string featureClassName = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(shapefileFullPath)!;

                // Run the geoprocessing tool to add a projection to the shape file
                IGPResult result = DefineShapeFileProjection(shapefileFullPath);
                if (result.IsFailed)
                {
                    return null;
                }
                var connectionPath =
                    new FileSystemConnectionPath(new Uri(directory), FileSystemDatastoreType.Shapefile);
                using (var datastore = new FileSystemDatastore(connectionPath))
                {

                    using (FeatureClass featureClass = datastore.OpenDataset<FeatureClass>(shapeFileName))
                    {
                        FeatureLayerCreationParams layerCreationParams =
                            new FeatureLayerCreationParams(featureClass)
                            {
                                Name = featureClassName, // Set a custom name for the new layer
                            };

                        // Create the layer and (add it to the map):-|
                        return LayerFactory.Instance.CreateLayer<FeatureLayer>(layerCreationParams,
                            MapView.Active.Map);
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageHandling.ErrorMessage(ex);
                return null;
            }

            return null;
        }).GetAwaiter().GetResult();

        return newLayer;
    }

The LayerUtils.cs file allow adding a layer or many layers to the Map later.

We first do a little preprocessing before doing so.

Is there a way to create a FeatureLayer without adding it to the map.

send null inplace of the Map container will throw an exception.