Configuring a WMS layer and sublayer

After you have added a valid Web Map Service (WMS) layer, use its properties to fine-tune its display in the map chart visualization.

Prerequisites

You must have a valid WMS URL.
Tip: Many WMS resources are available on the internet. The article WMS sources for Spotfire on the TIBCO Spotfire Community site lists many links to sites that contain WMS resources, both free and paid. (The TIBCO Community site is free to use; however, users must register an account to gain access to the information.)

Procedure

  1. Right-click the map chart visualization, and from the menu, click Properties.
    The Properties popover is displayed, with the Map chart popover showing the current layers, in their layer order, top to bottom.
  2. From the layers list, select the WMS layer.
    The WMS layer properties are listed in the Properties dialog.
  3. Click Map.
    The Map property expands to show the Available sublayers box.
  4. From the list, select the desired sublayers, clicking Add for each sublayer to add to the map.
    The layers are added to the map and listed in order in the Selected sublayers list.
  5. In the Selected sublayers list, use the Move forward and Move backward buttons to change the layering.
    The WMS layer redraws, displaying the sublayers in the order they are listed, top to bottom. If the Legend is displayed, the sublayers are added to the Legend.
  6. Optional: Click Remove to remove any sublayers that are no longer needed in the map.
  7. Set additional display properties, for example transparency and rendering.

Example of configured WMS layer with sublayers

The Australian Geological Provinces WMS layer has many sublayers. In this image the following properties are set.
  • The map chart Title and Description contain information about the visualization.
  • The WMS layer is displaying the service from http://services.ga.gov.au/gis/services/Geological_Provinces_2013/MapServer/WMSServer?request=GetCapabilities.
    Note: Browsing to the link displays the valid XML for the WMS.
  • Appearance has been set to semi-transparent to display the country and territories under the WMS layer.
  • Map displays the four selected sublayers (listed in the legend). The selected sublayers top-to-bottom listing corresponds to the forward-to-backward placement on the map chart visualization. Note that the sublayers are also displayed in the legend.
  • The legend is displayed on the left side of the map chart visualization.
  • The underlying feature layer displays state borders.
  • The underlying map layer displays the coastline and ocean.

Tip: Some sublayers can totally obscure other layers or sublayers. To be able to show multiple sublayers, consider adding multiple versions of the same WMS layer and changing the Appearance property to a higher transparency.

Rendering tips

On the Rendering properties page, you can change properties affecting how fast the map is rendered.

If your WMS server supports tile-base rendering, it will make the map load faster. However, tile-based rendering generates more calls to the WMS server, so if you have a limit on the number of requests, you can run the risk of reaching the limit and not being able to retrieve images from the server. To make the map load faster when the analysis is reopened, make sure to use the setting Cache images from WMS server. This will reduce the number of requests to the WMS server.