How to Use the 5.5 Map Chart

In TIBCO Spotfire 6.0, a new version of the map chart was created in order to allow for web map backgrounds to be shown. See What is a Map Chart? for information about the new map chart. However, for compatibility reasons, you can go back to use the 5.5 version of the map chart instead.

To use the 5.5 map chart:

Select Tools > Options.
Go to the Compatibility page.
Select the Use 5.5 Map Chart check box.

Response: All new map charts created in the document will be of the 5.5 version. Note that previously created map charts in your document will not be affected by this change.

To switch a 5.5 map chart to a new map chart:

Analysis files containing map charts created before version 6.0 will keep the old 5.5 version of the map chart when opened in 6.0. However, it is possible to convert a 5.5 version of a map chart to a new version.

Note: When switching to the new map chart, some of the basic functionality is converted automatically. This can be used as a starting point even if you in most cases need to manually go through the settings for the new map chart layers and make sure that all of your desired settings are specified.

Open your analysis in TIBCO Spotfire 6.0 (or later).
Right-click on the map chart and select Switch Visualization To > Map Chart.

Response: The map chart is converted to a basic version of the new type of map chart. A map with markers or pies will be converted to a map chart with a feature layer showing the shapes and a marker layer for the markers. A map showing a background image with markers or pies will be converted to a map with an image layer and a marker layer. A map with interactive shapes will get a feature layer. You can use the converted map chart as a starting point, even if you may need to fix the geocoding and/or relations between data tables, or perhaps add additional feature layers to get a similar result to the one you have had earlier.

To create a new map chart:

Click on the New Map Chart button on the toolbar, .

Comment: You can also select Insert > New Visualization > Map Chart from the menu.

Response: A visualization area is created for the map chart.
Right-click in the visualization to display the pop-up menu and select Properties.

Response: The Properties dialog is displayed.
Go to the Data page to select map type and to set up the map chart.

Comment: See the appropriate section below to learn how to set up the different map types.

To set up a map with interactive shapes:

Create a map chart.
Right-click in the visualization to display the pop-up menu and select Properties.

Response: The Properties dialog is displayed.
Go to the Data page.
Select Map with interactive shapes from the Map type drop-down list.
Select a data table containing map data.

Comment: If a map data table has not already been added, click Add... to open the Add Data Table dialog where you can browse for a data table to use, such as an ESRI shape file. If you are not using a shape file, some manual configuration is needed. To learn how to do this, see Configuration of Geographical Data for Map Charts.

Response: The map is displayed in the visualization area.
Under Related data table for coloring, select a data table of interest.

Comment: To be able to color by another data table than the map data table, the other data table must be related to the map data table.
If a relation has already been defined, the colored map is now displayed in the visualization. If no relation is defined, or if you want to edit an existing relation, continue to step 8.
Click the Manage Relations... button.

Response: The Manage Relations dialog is opened.
To create a new relation, click on the New... button to open the New Relation dialog. To edit an existing relation, click on the Edit... button to open the Edit Relation dialog.
In the Left data table drop-down list, select the same data table that you selected under Related data table for coloring.
In the Right data table drop-down list, select the map data table.
In the Left column and the Right column drop-down lists, select columns that make up a valid relation between the two data tables. For instance, columns in both data tables describing the same regions, such as state or country names.
Click OK.
Click OK in the Manage Relations dialog.

Response: The map is colored by a column in the related data table. To change which column to color the map by, go to the Colors page.

Comment: To learn more about coloring in Spotfire, see Coloring Overview.
To change the appearance of the map, go to the Appearance page.

To set up a map with markers or pies:

Create a map chart.
Right-click in the visualization to display the pop-up menu and select Properties.

Response: The Properties dialog is displayed.
Go to the Data page.
Select Map with markers or pies from the Map type drop-down list.
Select a data table containing map data.

Comment: If a map data table has not already been added, click Add... to open the Add Data Table dialog where you can browse for a data table to use, such as an ESRI shape file.

Response: The map is displayed in the visualization area.
Under Data table for markers or pies, select a data table of interest.
Under Draw markers or pies using, select whether to use Relation or Coordinate columns to match the map data table to the data table for markers or pies.

Comment: If you want to use a relation, you must set up a relation to make the Relation option available.
To set up a relation, or to edit an existing relation, go through steps 9 to 15. To use an existing relation, go to step 16. To use coordinate columns, go through steps 17 to 19.
Click the Manage Relations... button.

Response: The Manage Relations dialog is opened.
To create a new relation, click on the New... button to open the New Relation dialog. To edit an existing relation, click on the Edit... button to open the Edit Relation dialog.
In the Left data table drop-down list, select the same data table that you selected under Related data table for coloring.
In the Right data table drop-down list, select the map data table.
In the Left column and the Right column drop-down lists, select columns that make up a valid relation between the two data tables. For instance, columns in both data tables describing the same regions, such as state or country names.
Click OK.
Click OK in the Manage Relations dialog.
Select the Relation radio button.

Response: Markers or pies are displayed in the map according to the positions given in the specified relation.
Select the Coordinate columns radio button.
In the X column drop-down list, select the X coordinate column.
In the Y column drop-down list, select the Y coordinate column.

Response: Markers or pies are displayed in the map according to the positions given in the coordinate columns.
To change from markers to pies, or vice versa, go to the Shape page. To change the appearance of the map, go to the Appearance page.

To set up a map using a background image with markers or pies:

Create a map chart.
Right-click in the visualization to display the pop-up menu and select Properties.

Response: The Properties dialog is displayed.
Go to the Data page.
Select Background image with markers or pies from the Map type drop-down list.
Click on Browse... to locate the interesting image file.

Comment: You can use a vector file (EMF, WMF) or an image file (BMP, GIF, TIFF, JPG, PNG, etc.).

Response: The image is shown in the visualization area.
Under Data table for markers or pies, select a data table.
Select X column and Y column from the drop-down lists.
Click on the Position Settings... button to open the Position Settings dialog where you can adjust the image position relative to the data in the X and Y columns.

Comment: If you do not have the exact coordinates of the map limits, you can locate a few known landmarks in the map and adjust the X and Y High and Low values until the corresponding markers are positioned on the correct landmarks.
When done, click OK.
To change from markers to pies, or vice versa, go to the Shape page.

Zooming and navigating in the map chart:

Located at the top right of the visualization are a number of buttons that you can use to zoom and navigate in the visualization.

Button	Shortcut	Description
	Press and hold the Shift key and the right mouse button simultaneously while moving the mouse up.	Zoom in.
	Press and hold the Shift key and the right mouse button simultaneously while moving the mouse down.	Zoom out.
	Press and hold the Shift + Ctrl + Alt keys and the left mouse button simultaneously, while drawing a rectangle with the mouse pointer.	Zoom in on a rectangular area of a map.
	Press and hold the Ctrl key and the right mouse button simultaneously to grab the map and move it in any direction.	Pan right.
	-"-	Pan left.
	-"-	Pan up.
	-"-	Pan down.
		Reset navigation.

You can also use the mouse wheel to zoom in or out. To reset navigation to the default values, click on the Reset Navigation button or right-click in the visualization and select Reset Navigation.

Resizing markers and pies in the map chart:

You can use keyboard shortcuts to resize markers and pies in a map chart:

Shortcut	Description
Press and hold down the Ctrl key and the plus (+) key simultaneously until the markers or pies have the desired size.	Increase size of markers or pies.
Press and release the plus key repeatedly while pressing the Ctrl key.	Increase size of markers or pies.
Press and hold the Ctrl key and the minus (-) key simultaneously.	Decrease size of markers or pies.
Press and release the minus key repeatedly while pressing the Ctrl key.	Decrease size of markers or pies.
Press and hold down the Ctrl key while rotating the mouse wheel.	Resize markers or pies.

You can also go into the Size page of the Properties dialog and use the slider control.

Labels in different map types

Labels can be used in any map type to identify and describe the markers, pies, or interactive shapes. Most settings related to labels are defined in the Labels page of the Map Chart Properties. In maps with markers or pies, you can click on a label to mark the corresponding marker, and mouseover a label to highlight both the label and the marker. In a map with a large amount of labels it can sometimes be useful to move the labels to other positions to make sure as many of the labels as possible are visible. This is done using drag and drop, and works slightly differently depending on the map type, as described below. In maps with interactive shapes, you can hover with the mouse pointer over a map shape to view its corresponding label if the label is hidden due to lack of space.

To add labels to a map chart:

Right-click in the visualization to display the pop-up menu and select Properties.

Response: The Properties dialog is displayed.
Go to the Labels page.
Select the column to Label by.

Response: Labels are displayed in the map.

Comment: When a map with interactive shapes is used, the column to label by must always come from the same data table as the column to color by. The data table used for coloring is specified on the Data page.
Specify whether to Show labels for All, Marked rows or None.

Comment: If the map chart uses markers or pies you can change the Max number of labels, or select one or more of the check boxes to Center labels on items or Show empty labels. You can also specify Display options and get content from an image column, another source or apply some kind of transformation (if any transformations are available).

To move labels in a map chart with interactive shapes:

Right-click in the visualization to display the pop-up menu and select Edit Label Positions.

Response: The label editing is enabled.
Click on the label you wish to move and drag it to its new position.
When you are done, right-click on the visualization and select Edit Label Positions again to leave the label editing mode.

Comment: You can get all original label positions back by right-clicking and selecting Reset Label Positions.

To move labels in a map with markers or pies:

Click on the label you wish to move and drag it to a new position.
Response: The label is moved to the new position.

Comment: You can get all original label positions back by right-clicking and selecting Reset Label Positions.

Comment: When tiled markers are used, labels cannot be moved to other positions since they are always centered and displayed directly on the markers.