TIBCO Cloud™ Spotfire® User Guide

Working with layers

From the visualization properties, you can refine a map chart by reordering layers, hiding layers, or permanently removing layers. You can also show or hide the Layers control from the visualization.

About this task

See Adding layers and subtopics for information about adding layers of different types.

The layers shown in the map chart, top to bottom, correspond to the order of the layer list in the map chart properties, first to last. In other words, placing a layer first in the layer list will place the layer on top of all other layers in the map chart.

You can hide layers temporarily in a map chart. This can be useful when you are configuring the map chart, because you can see what effect the settings of a specific layer has on the entire map chart. You can also use the Layers control directly in the visualization to hide a layer, if it is shown (specified using visualization properties).

Procedure

  1. Right-click the map chart, and from the menu, select Properties.
    In the visualization properties panel or popover, you can see the current layers (on the Layers page in the installed client properties), in their layer order, top to bottom.
  2. In the web client, you can move layers using drag-and-drop, whereas in the installed client you can use Move Forward or Move Backward buttons to change the order of layers.
  3. In the web client properties, click the eye icon,, or in the installed client, click the check box next to a layer, to hide the layer.
  4. In the web client, click the X to remove the layer permanently. In the installed client, select a layer and click Remove.

Results

The map is updated as you make the changes.
You can rename layers from the context menu for each layer in the visualization properties panel, or from the General or Name section in the visualization properties dialog or popover.

You can change the Transparency for a selected layer from the Appearance section of the visualization properties panel (or the General page in the visualization properties dialog in the installed client).

If you no longer need a certain layer, you can also remove it permanently, from the visualization properties.

In the visualization properties panel, this is done by right-clicking on a layer and selecting Delete, or by using the context menu for the layer.

In the visualization properties dialog of the installed client, you select the layer and click Remove.

In the popover of the web client, place the mouse pointer on the layer entry, and click X.
Remove Map Layer

Example: Changing the order of layers in the web client

This example first shows how the marker layer is moved first in the layers list in a web client, so that the markers are placed on top of the map layers Labels, Roads, and Borders. Then the map layer named Roads is temporarily hidden and then shown again.



If multiple data layers are included in the map chart, you must specify which layer should be the interactive layer. The interactive layer is the only layer in which you can mark and highlight items, but you can easily switch the interactive layer using the Layers control in the map, or through the visualization properties. Note that the interactive layer can be placed anywhere in the list; it does not have to be the topmost layer.

In the visualization properties panel, the interactive layer is indicated using an arrow. You can change to a different (marker or feature) layer from the context menu for that layer, by selecting Use as interactive layer.

Tip: The key to positioning different layers relative to each other is in most cases based on geocoding, and the geocoding is in turn based on a column matching between the data table containing the data of interest and a geocoding hierarchy. If any issues should arise, it is often the column matching that must be reviewed.

Because the column matching allows you to view data from multiple data tables in one visualization, you can use data from one data table to show information in a layer based on a different data table. For example, if you create a feature layer based on a geocoding data table to show different regions in your country, you can use your own sales data table to color the regions.