Spotfire® User Guide

Adding a TMS layer

The Tile Map Service (TMS) is a widely supported map protocol. Use it to show a map background from a third party provider or to change the default map layer.

Before you begin

To add a TMS layer, you must have a URL to a valid TMS map.

To authenticate with an identity provider, your Spotfire environment and the external system (the TMS service) from which you want to access data must be configured to use your identity provider. See Authentication with an identity provider (OAuth2) to access external systems for more information.

Tip: You can find many TMS resources on the internet. The article GeoAnalytics Resources on the Community site lists many TMS resources, both free and paid. The lists include the complete URL, copyright text, and if available, copyright URL to specify in the TMS layer. (The Community site is free to use; however, you must register an account to gain access to the information.)

Procedure

  1. Follow the steps in Adding layers.
    Tip: You can reuse the settings of an already existing layer instead of adding a completely new layer. See Duplicating a layer for detailed instructions.
  2. From the list, click TMS layer.
  3. Required: Provide the URL to a valid service.
    Note: The URL must be in the format http://base/url/{z}/{x}/{y}. {z} specifies zoom level, {x} specifies the column number, and {y} specifies the row number. You do not need to provide values for the three variables {z}/{x}/{y} for the map to work.
  4. If the specified TMS service requires login, under Authentication method select Identity provider (OAuth).
    Select your Identity provider from the drop-down list and specify the Scopes. Scopes determine which permissions Spotfire requests on your behalf when you log in to the server. Select Default to use the scopes specified for your identity provider in the OAuth2IdentityProviders preference. Select Custom to define other scopes by entering them manually in the text box. Separate values with a space.

    Click Log in to be redirected to your identity provider to log in.

    Tip: Under Visualizations > Manage external logins you can see all identity providers used to log in to an external map service and whose map data is used in visualizations. Here you can also log in again, for example, after starting a new session. See also Managing external logins.
  5. Optionally, move the layer to a new position on the list.
  6. Review and update map chart properties.
    Note that it is mandatory to include copyright information for the vast majority of third-party map providers. Open the Properties and locate the Copyright text and Copyright link fields. In the visualization properties panel, the Copyright card is located on the top level for the map chart, or in the General section if you are looking at a layer. Paste the required copyright information in the fields. The information is then available in the lower right corner of the map layer (either directly as text or as a collapsed copyright icon which you can click on to expand it).

TMS layer example

In this example, the map chart has a feature layer showing the outlines of Australia counties on top of a TMS layer.

  • The data table used in the feature layer (Australia Counties) is available in the geocoding data tables provided in the library. The transparency is set to a high degree to show outline and shading. The feature layer is the top layer of the map chart.
  • The standard map layer is removed. The TMS layer replaces the standard map.
  • The TMS layer is drawn from a map from OpenStreetMap, so the Title property of the layer is set to OpenStreetMap.
  • The URL is set to http://a.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png.