Configuration of Geographical Data for Map Charts

When shapefiles are opened in TIBCO Spotfire they are automatically configured so that they can be used as feature layers in map charts. However, there may be times when some manual work is needed before the data can be used in a feature layer.  

Requirements and Settings

This bullet list is a summary of what is needed to view interactive shapes in TIBCO Spotfire. See below for more details on how you can work with your data to fulfill the requirements.

• The binary geometry data needs to be extracted to one Geometry column and six coordinate columns. The columns also need to be assigned the proper value on the MapChart.ColumnTypeId column property: Geometry, XMin, XMax, YMin, YMax, XCenter and YCenter in the Column Properties dialog:
  

• The ContentType column property needs to be set to application/x-wkb for the Geometry column in the Column Properties dialog:
  
  

• The data type of the geometry column should be "Binary" or "BLOB" (as seen in the Column Properties dialog):
  

• The data types for the coordinate columns should be "Real" (as seen in the Column Properties dialog):
  

• The renderer for the geometry column should be set to Geometry in the Visualization Properties dialog of the selected visualization. For example, in the Columns tab of a Table visualization:
  
  You can also show geometries as shapes in some labels and tooltips, and may need to specify the Geometry renderer there.

To set up non-shapefile WKB data:

When the geographical data is located in a Well-Known Binary (WKB) column, but not originating from a shapefile, you can manually create the required coordinate columns using the Spatial functions in the Add calculated column tool.

1. Select Data > Add calculated Column.

2. In the Functions section, select the Spatial functions category.

3. Select the first spatial function, WKBEnvelopeXCenter and click Insert Function.

4. Select the WKB column from the Available columns list and click Insert Columns.

5. Type a suitable column name (e.g., XCenter) and click OK.

   Response: The XCenter column is created and the correct property value is set on the MapChart.ColumnTypeId property.

6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 with the other five Spatial functions.

7. Now, create a Map Chart and use the data table with the newly created columns as the data table in the Data page of the Feature Layer Settings dialog.

To set up an information link with map information:

When the geographical data is located in a database and an information link is used to retrieve the data, you need to perform the following steps at the creation of the column elements if you want the end users of the information link to be able to create map charts without further configuration:

1. If you only have a binary WKB column, you can use TIBCO Spotfire to create the necessary coordinate columns, as described above. Place the resulting coordinate columns in the server database to make it easier to use the geographical data later on. The Geometry column should be of data type BLOB and the coordinate columns should be of data type Real.

2. At the creation of the column elements in Information Designer, go to the Properties section on the Column Element tab. For each column element, expand the Properties field, click Add... and type MapChart.ColumnTypeId in the Property name field. In the Value field, type Geometry, XMax, XMin, YMax, YMin, XCenter or YCenter, depending on which column you are defining.

3. Save the column elements.

Rendering Type

If you want to be able to view data in the Geometry column as images in a Table visualization, the ContentType column property needs to be set to application/x-wkb.

To set the default rendering type to application/x-wkb for Geometry columns:

1. Click Tools > Options and go to the Application page.

2. Click Renderer Settings.

   Response: The Renderer Settings dialog is displayed.

3. Click Add.

   Response: The Add Default Renderer dialog is displayed.

4. Type application/x-wkb in the Content type text field.

5. Select Geometry as the Default renderer.

6. Click OK to close all dialogs.

However, changes of the default settings will not affect table visualization created before you made the changes. To display the shapes from the Geometry column in an older table, open Visualization Properties for the selected table and go to the Columns page to change the renderer for the Geometry column.