ArcGIS Feature Effects

Use this skill for applying visual effects, filters, and emphasis to features.

Feature Effect Basics

Basic Feature Effect

layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: {
    where: "population > 100000"
  },
  includedEffect: "bloom(1.5, 0.5px, 0.2)",
  excludedEffect: "grayscale(100%) opacity(30%)"
};

Feature Effect on LayerView

const layerView = await view.whenLayerView(layer);

layerView.featureEffect = {
  filter: {
    where: "status = 'Active'"
  },
  excludedEffect: "grayscale(100%) opacity(50%)"
};

Effect Types

Opacity Effect

// Make excluded features transparent
layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "type = 'primary'" },
  excludedEffect: "opacity(25%)"
};

Grayscale Effect

// Grayscale excluded features
layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "category = 'important'" },
  excludedEffect: "grayscale(100%)"
};

Blur Effect

// Blur excluded features
layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "highlighted = 1" },
  excludedEffect: "blur(5px)"
};

Drop Shadow Effect

// Add drop shadow to included features
layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "selected = 1" },
  includedEffect: "drop-shadow(3px, 3px, 4px, #000000)"
};

Bloom Effect

// Add glow to included features
layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "active = 1" },
  includedEffect: "bloom(1.5, 0.5px, 0.2)"
};

Brightness and Contrast

layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "status = 'highlight'" },
  includedEffect: "brightness(150%) contrast(120%)",
  excludedEffect: "brightness(50%)"
};

Invert Colors

layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "type = 'special'" },
  includedEffect: "invert(100%)"
};

Sepia Effect

layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "year < 1900" },
  includedEffect: "sepia(100%)"
};

Saturate Effect

layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "priority = 'high'" },
  includedEffect: "saturate(200%)",
  excludedEffect: "saturate(20%)"
};

Hue Rotate

layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "category = 'alternate'" },
  includedEffect: "hue-rotate(180deg)"
};

Combining Effects

Multiple Effects

layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "status = 'active'" },
  includedEffect: "drop-shadow(2px, 2px, 3px) brightness(120%)",
  excludedEffect: "grayscale(100%) opacity(30%) blur(2px)"
};

Geometry-Based Filters

Spatial Filter with Effect

const layerView = await view.whenLayerView(layer);

layerView.featureEffect = {
  filter: {
    geometry: polygon,
    spatialRelationship: "intersects"
  },
  excludedEffect: "grayscale(100%) opacity(30%)"
};

Distance-Based Filter

layerView.featureEffect = {
  filter: {
    geometry: point,
    spatialRelationship: "intersects",
    distance: 1000,
    units: "meters"
  },
  excludedEffect: "opacity(20%)"
};

Multiple Spatial Relationships

// Features intersecting, containing, within, etc.
const spatialRelationships = [
  "intersects", "contains", "crosses",
  "envelope-intersects", "overlaps",
  "touches", "within", "disjoint"
];

layerView.featureEffect = {
  filter: {
    geometry: filterGeometry,
    spatialRelationship: "within"
  },
  excludedEffect: "grayscale(100%) opacity(30%)"
};

Time-Based Filters

Time Filter with Effect

layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: {
    timeExtent: {
      start: new Date("2020-01-01"),
      end: new Date("2020-12-31")
    }
  },
  excludedEffect: "opacity(20%)"
};

Display Filter

Display Filter (Performance Optimization)

// Display filter completely hides features (better performance)
layer.displayFilterInfo = {
  where: "population > 10000"
};

// Combined with feature effect
layer.displayFilterInfo = {
  where: "status != 'deleted'"
};

layer.featureEffect = {
  filter: { where: "status = 'active'" },
  excludedEffect: "opacity(50%)"
};

Interactive Feature Effects

Effect on Click

view.on("click", async (event) => {
  const response = await view.hitTest(event);
  const graphic = response.results[0]?.graphic;

  if (graphic) {
    const oid = graphic.attributes.OBJECTID;
    layerView.featureEffect = {
      filter: {
        objectIds: [oid]
      },
      includedEffect: "drop-shadow(3px, 3px, 4px)",
      excludedEffect: "grayscale(100%) opacity(40%)"
    };
  }
});

Effect with Slider

const slider = new Slider({
  container: "sliderDiv",
  min: 0,
  max: 100,
  values: [50]
});

slider.on("thumb-drag", (event) => {
  const value = event.value;
  layer.featureEffect = {
    filter: { where: `value > ${value}` },
    excludedEffect: `opacity(${100 - value}%)`
  };
});

Clear Feature Effect

layer.featureEffect = null;
// or
layerView.featureEffect = null;

Effect with Histogram

Feature Effect with Histogram Widget

import Histogram from "@arcgis/core/widgets/Histogram.js";
import HistogramRangeSlider from "@arcgis/core/widgets/HistogramRangeSlider.js";
import generateHistogram from "@arcgis/core/smartMapping/statistics/histogram.js";

// Generate histogram for field
const histogramResult = await generateHistogram({
  layer: layer,
  field: "population",
  numBins: 30
});

const slider = new HistogramRangeSlider({
  bins: histogramResult.bins,
  min: histogramResult.minValue,
  max: histogramResult.maxValue,
  values: [histogramResult.minValue, histogramResult.maxValue]
});

slider.on("thumb-drag", () => {
  const [min, max] = slider.values;
  layerView.featureEffect = {
    filter: {
      where: `population >= ${min} AND population <= ${max}`
    },
    excludedEffect: "grayscale(100%) opacity(30%)"
  };
});

Complete Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://js.arcgis.com/4.34/esri/themes/light/main.css" />
  <script src="https://js.arcgis.com/4.34/"></script>
  <style>
    html, body, #viewDiv { height: 100%; margin: 0; }
    #controls { position: absolute; top: 10px; right: 10px; background: white; padding: 10px; }
  </style>
  <script type="module">
    import Map from "@arcgis/core/Map.js";
    import MapView from "@arcgis/core/views/MapView.js";
    import FeatureLayer from "@arcgis/core/layers/FeatureLayer.js";

    const layer = new FeatureLayer({
      url: "https://services.arcgis.com/.../FeatureServer/0"
    });

    const map = new Map({
      basemap: "gray-vector",
      layers: [layer]
    });

    const view = new MapView({
      container: "viewDiv",
      map: map
    });

    const layerView = await view.whenLayerView(layer);

    // Apply effect on dropdown change
    document.getElementById("effectSelect").onchange = (e) => {
      const effect = e.target.value;

      switch(effect) {
        case "highlight":
          layerView.featureEffect = {
            filter: { where: "type = 'primary'" },
            includedEffect: "drop-shadow(2px, 2px, 3px)",
            excludedEffect: "grayscale(100%) opacity(30%)"
          };
          break;
        case "blur":
          layerView.featureEffect = {
            filter: { where: "status = 'active'" },
            excludedEffect: "blur(3px) opacity(50%)"
          };
          break;
        case "none":
          layerView.featureEffect = null;
          break;
      }
    };
  </script>
</head>
<body>
  <div id="viewDiv"></div>
  <div id="controls" class="esri-widget">
    <select id="effectSelect">
      <option value="none">No Effect</option>
      <option value="highlight">Highlight</option>
      <option value="blur">Blur</option>
    </select>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

Effect Reference

Effect	Syntax	Description
opacity	opacity(50%)	Transparency (0-100%)
grayscale	grayscale(100%)	Remove color (0-100%)
blur	blur(5px)	Gaussian blur
drop-shadow	drop-shadow(x, y, blur, color)	Shadow effect
bloom	bloom(strength, radius, threshold)	Glow effect
brightness	brightness(150%)	Adjust brightness
contrast	contrast(120%)	Adjust contrast
invert	invert(100%)	Invert colors
sepia	sepia(100%)	Sepia tone
saturate	saturate(200%)	Color saturation
hue-rotate	hue-rotate(180deg)	Rotate hue

Reference Samples

• featureeffect-geometry - Geometry-based feature effects
• featureeffect-drop-shadow - Drop shadow effects on features
• intro-effect-layer - Introduction to layer effects
• display-filter - Display filters with feature effects
• featurefilter-attributes - Attribute-based feature filtering

Common Pitfalls

1. Layer vs LayerView: Feature effects on layer affect all views; on layerView only that view

2. Performance: Complex effects on many features can impact performance

3. Combining effects: Effects are applied in order listed

4. Display filter vs feature effect: Use display filter for hiding, feature effect for styling

5. Time extent: Time-based filters require layer to have time info