// Set a basic symbol on a layer to visualize all features the same way
var citiesRenderer = {
  type: "simple",  // autocasts as new SimpleRenderer()
  symbol: {
    type: "simple-marker",  // autocasts as new SimpleMarkerSymbol()
    size: 6,
    color: "black",
    outline: {  // autocasts as new SimpleLineSymbol()
      width: 0.5,
      color: "white"
    }
  }
};
var citiesLayer = new FeatureLayer({
  url: "http://url.to.service",
  renderer: citiesRenderer
});

// Set a continuous color ramp on the renderer with visual variables
var citiesRenderer = {
  type: "simple",  // autocasts as new SimpleRenderer()
  symbol: { type: "simple-fill" },  // autocasts as new SimpleFillSymbol()
  visualVariables: [{
    type: "color",
    field: "POPULATION",
    normalizationField: "SQ_KM",
    // features with 30 ppl/sq km or below are assigned the first color
    stops: [{ value: 100, color: "#FFFCD4" },
          { value: 500, color: "#0D2644" }]
  }]
};
var citiesLayer = new FeatureLayer({
  url: "http://url.to.service",
  renderer: citiesRenderer
});

Property Overview

Property Details

declaredClassStringreadonly inherited

Since: ArcGIS API for JavaScript 4.7

The name of the class. The declared class name is formatted as esri.folder.className.

labelString

The label for the renderer. This describes what features with the given symbol represent in the real world. This will display next to the layer's symbol inside the Legend widget.

This text is not displayed in the Legend when visualVariables are used. When the renderer contains visualVariables, you should set the title property in legendOptions on each visual variable to describe the visualization.

symbolSymbolautocast

The symbol used by the renderer to visualize all features in the layer.

Example:

var renderer = {
  type: "simple",  // autocasts as new SimpleRenderer()
  symbol: {
    type: "simple-fill",  // autocasts as new SimpleFillSymbol()
    color: [ 255, 128, 0, 0.5 ],
    outline: {  // autocasts as new SimpleLineSymbol()
      width: 1,
      color: "white"
    }
  }
};

typeStringreadonly

The type of renderer. For SimpleRenderer this value is always simple.

visualVariablesVisualVariable[]autocast

Autocasts from Object[]

An array of VisualVariable objects. Each object must indicate the type of visual variable to apply (e.g. ColorVisualVariable, SizeVisualVariable, OpacityVisualVariable, RotationVisualVariable), the numeric field or expression from which to drive the visualization, and the visual values to map to the data. The following list identifies each visual variable type and provides a link to the specification table of each.

Type	Object Specification	Legend Example
color	ColorVariable
size	SizeVisualVariable
opacity	OpacityVisualVariable
rotation	RotationVisualVariable	-

Visual variables are primarily be used in two ways.

1. Thematic mapping

In most cases, visual variables are used to create visualizations based on a thematic attribute (e.g. population, education, rank, money, magnitude, etc.) in either 2D or 3D.

renderer.visualVariables = [{
  type: "size",
  field: "POP_POVERTY",
  normalizationField: "TOTPOP_CY",
  legendOptions: {
    title: "% population in poverty by county"
  },
  stops: [
    { value: 0.15, size: 4, label: "<15%" },
    { value: 0.25, size: 12, label: "25%" },
    { value: 0.35, size: 24, label: ">35%" }
  ]
}];

You can take the visualization a step further and use multiple visual variables in the same renderer. The sample below uses three visual variables (size, color, and opacity).

2. Mapping real-world sizes

The size visual variable can be used to visualize the true sizes of features (e.g. tree canopy, road width, building height, etc.) based on their size in the real world. This can be particularly powerful when working in a 3D SceneView. The image below shows a layer of trees that uses visual variables to size each feature to the true dimensions of each tree based on data stored in multiple attribute fields.

See the Thematic visualization with realistic 3D symbols for an example of using multiple visual variables to visualize your data.

Known Limitations

Color and opacity visual variables must not have more than 8 stops and size visual variables must not have more than 6 stops. This does not apply to variables driven by view scale.

See also:

• Creating visualizations manually

• Visualization overview

Method Overview

Method Details

clone(){SimpleRenderer}

Creates a deep clone of the renderer.

Returns:

Type	Description
SimpleRenderer	A deep clone of the object that invoked this method.

Example:

// Creates a deep clone of the first layer's renderer
var renderer = view.map.layers.getItemAt(0).renderer.clone();

fromJSON(json){*}static

Creates a new instance of this class and initializes it with values from a JSON object generated from a product in the ArcGIS platform. The object passed into the input json parameter often comes from a response to a query operation in the REST API or a toJSON() method from another ArcGIS product. See the Using fromJSON() topic in the Guide for details and examples of when and how to use this function.

Parameter:

json Object A JSON representation of the instance in the ArcGIS format. See the ArcGIS REST API documentation for examples of the structure of various input JSON objects.

Returns:

Type	Description
*	Returns a new instance of this class.

toJSON(){Object}inherited

Converts an instance of this class to its ArcGIS portal JSON representation. See the Using fromJSON() topic in the Guide for more information.

Returns:

Type	Description
Object	The ArcGIS portal JSON representation of an instance of this class.