TIBCO Spotfire comes with a selection of geocoding hierarchies that are normally stored in the library. You can also define your own geocoding tables using shapefiles (.shp) or data tables and save them in the library for future use. This is accomplished by setting a few data table and column properties on the geocoding table in TIBCO Spotfire and then exporting the file to the library.
To set up a new geocoding table in the library:
Load the data containing the coordinates and/or geometries along with the identifying columns (such as state name or state code) in TIBCO Spotfire Analyst.
Select Data > Column properties and go to the Properties tab, to specify the necessary column properties for the identifying columns.
Click
on each geographic column that will be used to geocode data and specify
the applicable properties (note that there may be several different
columns in your data table that need to have one or more of these
properties specified. For example, if you have a Geometry column,
an X column and a Y column, all of those will need different values
on the mapchart.columntypeid property, as indicated below):
GeocodingType is
used to specify the type of geocoding identifiers in the column (such
as Country, State or City).
GeocodingRepresentation is used to specify the representation of the geocoding
identifiers. It can be a language code (such as en-us, US-English) or a standard
identifier, such as ISO3166-2:us, or
some other ISO standard code.
GeocodingHierarchyName is
used to group geocoding columns that belong in the same hierarchy.
If
the data originates from an ESRI shapefile, the coordinates and geometry
columns will automatically be tagged correctly, otherwise you must
add the following column properties, as specified in Configuration
of Geographical Data for Map Charts:
A longitude
column should have the property mapchart.columntypeid
with the value XCenter.
A latitude column should have property mapchart.columntypeid with
the value YCenter.
A geometry column should have property mapchart.columntypeid with
the value Geometry.
A geometry column should also have the property ContentType with
the value application/x-wkb.
These property values are
what will be matched with the same property values of the data that
should be geocoded later, so choose wisely.
Select
Data > Data table properties and
go to the Properties tab and add the
following data table properties:
MapChart.IsGeocodingTable is used to determine whether a saved SBDF file should
be interpreted as a geocoding table or not. The data type for this
property must be set to Boolean. Set the value for this property to
True. The
export will then pick up that it is a geocoding table and automatically
transfer the properties to library properties.
MapChart.GeocodingHierarchyName
is
used to group geocoding tables that belong in the same hierarchy.
The data type is normally a String. Values are, for example, "USA
2013", "Belgium", etc.
MapChart.GeocodingAutoload
is
used to indicate whether or not the geocoding table should be allowed
to be automatically downloaded to the analysis when Spotfire finds
out that it can be used as a geocoding table for the current data
table. This value can be used to prevent large geocoding tables from
being automatically downloaded. The
data type must
be set to Boolean. The value must
be either True or
False.
MapChart.IsGeocodingEnabled
is
used to indicate whether the geocoding table is currently enabled.
The data type
must
be set to Boolean. The value must
be either True or
False.
This property is important when geocoding tables are saved in the
library. See also Details
on Edit Properties – Geocoding.
MapChart.GeometryType
is
used to define the type of feature when the geocoding table contains
a Geometry (shape) column. The data type must be set to String.
The values can be either Point,
Line or
Polygon.
There are also a number of additional properties that you can specify
for geocoding tables. These properties are not mandatory:
MapChart.GeocodingHierarchyPriority
is
used to control the priority of the hierarchy in which the table is
included. A geocoding hierarchy with higher priority will be selected
first if two hierarchies result in an equal number of column matches
when automatic geocoding is applied. This property data type must
be set to Integer, and the Default
Value must be between 0 and 100 (100 being the highest priority).
MapChart.GeocodingHierarchyVersion
is
used to specify the version of the geocoding hierarchy in the form
of a date (YYYYMMDD).
MapChart.GeographicCrs is used to specify the coordinate
reference system describing the data (e.g. “EPSG:4326” for WGS 84).
Export the table to the library as SBDF using File > Export > Data to library.
Response: The data table is saved as a file in the library and will be available in all places where a geocoding hierarchy can be selected.
Restart Spotfire for changes to take effect.
See also: