ArcGIS layers bound to data

This layer draws the features of a layer in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise and joins each one to a row of your data. Use it when your organization already publishes its boundaries, assets or networks in ArcGIS and you want to color and select them from Power BI without exporting files.

To draw an ArcGIS layer as it is published, without joining it to your data, use an ArcGIS reference layer instead.

What you need

Add these fields to the visual:

You also need the ArcGIS layer, and access to it. Public layers need no credential. For secured layers, set up the connection first, see Connect to ArcGIS.

In the Format pane this layer is called ArcGIS Feature Layer.

Add the layer

1. Add ID and Feature Reference to the visual.
2. In the Format pane, expand Data Layers. In the Data Layers group, turn on ArcGIS Feature Layer.
3. In ArcGIS Feature Layer - Configuration, paste the layer's address into Esri ArcGIS Feature Layer URL.
4. Turn on Match a Specific Property and choose the field that holds your Feature Reference values in Property to Match.
5. Set the colors in ArcGIS Feature Layer - Formatting.

Links you can use

How the join works

Each ArcGIS feature has attributes. The layer compares your Feature Reference value with an attribute of each feature, as text. Where they are the same, the feature takes that row's formatting and tooltips and can be selected.

• Turn on Match a Specific Property and choose the field in Property to Match. Once the map has read the layer, Property to Match is a list of the layer's fields.
• With Match a Specific Property off, every attribute of every feature is checked, which is slower.
• If several rows have the same Feature Reference value, the first row is used.
• Features with no matching row are drawn in the unmatched colors and cannot be selected. Turn on Remove Unmatched Shapes to hide them.

Load only the features you need

A large ArcGIS layer can hold far more features than your report uses. Two settings limit what is requested from ArcGIS:

• Automatically filter - when your data has 350 rows or fewer, and Match a Specific Property is on, only the features that match your rows are requested. With more rows, the whole layer is requested. This works well with drill-down and with slicers that narrow the data.
• ArcGIS SQL WHERE Clause - a filter in ArcGIS SQL, such as POPULATION > 1000000. It is used when Automatically filter is off and Match a Specific Property is on. It accepts conditional formatting, so a measure can build the filter from the current slicer selection.

Small layers, up to 5,000 features and about 8 MB, are loaded whole. Larger layers are loaded in tiles as you pan and zoom, simplified for the zoom level, so they stay fast.

Decimal Precision sets the number of decimal places requested for each coordinate. Simplification Factor controls how much the shapes are simplified when a large layer is loaded in tiles.

Use the layer's ArcGIS styling

Use ArcGIS Symbology draws the layer with the symbols defined on the service instead of the colors in the Format pane. If the ArcGIS styling cannot be drawn, the Format pane colors are used.

Drill down and several layers

The layer can hold up to five ArcGIS layers. Display multiple layers as in the Setup group decides how they are used:

• Drill-Down - one layer is drawn at a time, following Power BI's drill level. Put a hierarchy in ID, set Number of Levels, and give each level its own ArcGIS layer and property to match. For Feature Reference, add one field used at every level, or one field for each level in the order of the hierarchy.
• Multiple Layers - all the layers are drawn together. Each has a Feature Reference Field setting that picks which of your Feature Reference fields it is joined to.

Choose the level or layer to edit in Configure Level: or Configure Layer:.

Selection, tooltips and zoom

• Click a matched feature to select its row and cross-filter the rest of the report. See Selection, cross-filtering and highlighting.
• Pointing at a matched feature shows the fields in Tooltips. Add Property to Tooltip adds the matched property. Add All Properties to Tooltip adds the feature's ArcGIS attributes, or only the one named in Tooltip Property, with Tooltip Title as its label.
• Add Tooltips to Unmatched Shapes shows tooltips on features with no matching row.
• The map zooms to the matched features whose rows have Include in Auto Zoom set to Yes.

Settings

All settings are in Format pane > Data Layers, in the groups ArcGIS Feature Layer - Setup, ArcGIS Feature Layer - Configuration and ArcGIS Feature Layer - Formatting. With more than one level or layer, the titles end with its number.

Settings marked fx accept conditional formatting.

Setup

Configuration

Formatting

Polygons are drawn with a fill and an outline, lines with the outline settings, and points as circles of a fixed size.

Tips and limits

• Nothing is colored. The Feature Reference values do not match the chosen field. Compare a few values with the layer's attribute table in ArcGIS. Look for leading zeros, case and spaces.
• The layer is slow. Turn on Match a Specific Property, then use Automatically filter or a WHERE clause so that only the features you need are requested.
• Up to five ArcGIS layers.
• The ArcGIS layer is not available when the basemap is a custom image.
• ArcGIS content can also reach the other data layers: a GeoJSON link with Source is ArcGIS in Shapes from files, or a vector tile service with Source is ArcGIS in Vector tiles.

Related

• Connect to ArcGIS
• ArcGIS layers as reference layers
• API keys, authentication and the proxy
• Combine several layers in one map