Business User Edition Technical Library > Creating Content > Creating Maps to Illustrate Trends

Creating Maps to Illustrate Trends

Topics:

Using InfoAssist, you can create maps to identify patterns or trends in your data. By converting data into values that can be displayed on a map, you are able to visualize scenarios, illustrate hot spots, and identify potential problem areas. For example, a law enforcement agency may use mapping functionality to identify areas of higher crime within the locations they cover. You can also use maps to determine how places are related, understand where things are located, and identify the best actions to take. By illustrating trends on a map, a decision maker can identify patterns easily, and reach conclusions sooner.

An early example of how maps can be used to illustrate trends is the case of Dr. John Snow, an epidemiologist who was one of the first to use data to map occurrences of cholera to find the cause of infection. By plotting the cholera data on a map of a town, Dr. Snow was able to visualize a trend that showed higher incidences of cholera closest to water pumps. This example is shown in the following image.

Maps also allow you to measure size, shape, and distribution to detect and quantify patterns, and even perform predictive analytics. An example of how maps can help detect and quantify patterns is the scenario in which a state agency used a WebFOCUS mapping application to solve a problem with their food stamp system. Using this application, odd food stamp redemptions, such as rounded numbers transactions, were discovered. By plotting those transactions on a map, the agency discovered that the redemptions appeared in the same geographic location. Upon further investigation, the agency identified that individuals were selling their food stamps at reduced prices, $50 worth of food stamps for $40 in cash, to others instead using them as intended. This map example is shown in the following image.

When working with maps, the concepts of location intelligence and business intelligence are important to understand. A Geographic Information System (GIS) captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data linked to a location, while Business Intelligence (BI) relies on the conversion of raw data into meaningful information. Location intelligence is the process of analyzing data to make better business decisions. It combines GIS and BI/Analytics to allow the recognition of patterns in your data, including the visualization and discovery of geospatial outliers, which would not be easily discovered if you use the technology independently and separately.

More specifically, maps use non-intrusive GIS workflows with existing data. You can view symbol layers for data bound to a geo-location, such as state, country, and ZIP code, in an integrated map viewer. Using metrics from your data, you can also visualize geographic roles or dimensions. Geographic roles, or dimensions, can be built directly into your Metadata or assigned to a data field when you create a map.

InfoAssist and Esri Integration

Topics:

How to:

Reference:

Using WebFOCUS InfoAssist with the Esri integration, you can create maps that help you illustrate or identify trends, so that you can take action quickly. WebFOCUS architecture provides the framework in which this system operates. Using a Javascript map viewer, you can navigate the interface easily, as shown in the following image.

In addition, this integration utilizes the capabilities of Esri by leveraging the ArcGIS Javascript API and content. Specifically, you can integrate data into maps with published content in ArcGIS Online platform. For more information, see http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgisonline. Additionally, by using this integration, you can include information about demographics, spending habits, crime, and lifestyle to maps that contain your data. These maps include layers with extensive demographic or reference detail and topography and allow you to view information about people, businesses, climate, and much more.

You can create the following maps in InfoAssist:

  • Choropleth. A common thematic map that uses geographical measures (for example, states and countries), representing the values aerially while employing a varying intensity of colors. It is useful for visualizing location-based data, trends, and distributions across a geographic area. The color hues for Choropleth maps are dictated by the legend, based on the selected measure, enabling you to determine data concentration across your map.
  • Proportional Symbol (Bubble). A map that represents coordinates, such as an address or intersection, using symbols of different sizes to represent any measure. These maps focus on specific areas, for which data concentrations may vary. When the data concentration is larger, the bubble will be bigger.

Both maps can be created in Chart or Visualization mode. Built-in zooming capabilities allow you to drill down to a specific geographic area of focus easily. This allows you to get a closer look at regional or local data, draw inferences, and make recommendations, without changing the initial view of your data.

In Chart mode, you can also use the Auto Drill and Auto Linking features that are available when you create charts or reports in InfoAssist. In Visualization mode, you can also drill up and down within different levels in a data hierarchy in a map. Auto Drill allows you to navigate through the geographical hierarchy of your map data at run time. You can use this information to visualize the same measure at different geographical hierarchies, such as Countries to States and States to Cities. Auto Linking allows you to connect to related charts or reports in your environment that share similar data parameters.

Using the Esri integration in InfoAssist, you can also add the following layers to your map:

  • Backgrounds. Display a layer that positions data as it is located, in context to other geographical features, such as streets, terrain, and imagery. Some standard Background options may combine road, aerial, and topographic data using a variety of symbols. Hosted on ArcGIS, you can change your background at any time, to review your data in a different context.

    When you apply a Background to your map, its appearance changes. You can then adjust the view of your data, showing different terrain or geographical views. Backgrounds provide at least 17 levels of zoom. For more information, see https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/jsapi/esri.basemaps-amd.html.

  • Reference Layers. Display a layer of boundaries and locations that range from a continental scale to country, state, and even local neighborhood. For example, if you are viewing World data on electricity usage, you may want to add a Reference Layer that displays the borders and concentration of your data within each country.
  • Demographic Layers. Display a layer of information about people and businesses in a specific demographic area. This includes the United States and 120 other countries. Demographic Layers are thematic maps that provide additional information about the location, such as spending habits, population, and lifestyles. You can add Demographic Layers to a map about sales data, to identify new locations for stores, based on the spending habits for a specific area.

Both mapextent and the Layers menu functionality are applied to your map when you select a Background, Reference Layer, or Demographic Layer. Mapextent is an automatic view of the map. Layers is a menu that appears on the map and provides access to options that allow you to adjust the information that is being displayed.

The map example in the following image shows the use of layers.

Note: Backgrounds, Demographic Layers, and Reference Layers can be accessed from the Format tab for maps in both Chart and Visualization mode. These layers are static, standard options that Esri provides for use with InfoAssist, and do not change based on the data source that you select.

Configuring an Esri On Premise Environment

The Esri On Premise functionality enables you to download and access mapping files through the use of a local Application Programming Interface (API). Once you download and configure the API, you do not need an internet connection to utilize the robust mapping features that Esri provides. For information on downloading and configuring the API that controls this feature, see How to Download and Configure the ArcGIS JavaScript API.

The Esri On Premise functionality provides you with local access to Esri mapping files. This is particularly useful if you are away from your office or without an Internet connection. You may also be using a mobile device, such as an iPad or smartphone with a large screen, without an Internet connection. The following mapping components are supported when using the Esri On Premise functionality:

  • Offline Basemaps. Basemaps are an offering from ArcGIS. Standard basemaps are provided for your use offline. For example, there is an Oceans basemap and a Terrain with Labels basemap. In InfoAssist, these basemaps are also known as backgrounds. In an online setting, there are 10 basemaps available. In order to use offline basemaps, you need to use a tiled mapservice published in the ArcGIS Server.
  • Offline Geographic Roles. Geographic Roles are used to visualize measures with commonly known dimensions (for example, Country, State, Cities, and so on). These provide the location information often in the form of (x/y) needed to plot on a map. Geographic roles are pre-defined for online users through ArcGIS Online. In InfoAssist, a geographic role defines the geographic component that you can select when creating a map (for example, State or Continent). For an offline user, the options that display can be customized in the geoservices.xml file. For more information, see Customizing the List of Geographic Roles.

Note: Demographic Layers are not supported in an Esri On Premise environment.

Procedure: How to Download and Configure the ArcGIS JavaScript API

You can use this procedure to download and configure the API that controls the Esri On Premise environment.

  1. In your browser, navigate to the following URL to download the API: https://developers.arcgis.com/downloads
  2. Sign in to access the download options that are available to you.
  3. Select Version 3.15 of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript, as shown in the following image.
  4. Click API to download the API.
  5. In drive:\ibi\config\web_resource, create a folder named arcgis_api.
  6. Open the arcgis_js_v315_api.zip file downloaded in step 4 and navigate to arcgis_js_v315_api\arcgis_js_api\library\3.15\3.15.
  7. Extract the files in that folder to the drive:\ibi\config\web_resource\arcgis_api folder.
  8. Next, verify the path to the API in the WebFOCUS Administration Console, as shown in the following image.

    Note: This is the path to which you extracted the API files.

    This field identifies the path to the internal ArcGIS Javascript API Source that develops ESRI-based maps. This setting is blank, by default, indicating that the use of the internal API source to develop ESRI maps is not activated. The API that is referenced is https://js.arcgis.com/3.15/, by default. To direct WebFOCUS to use the internal ArcGIS Javascript API to develop ESRI maps, enter the path to the local API files that you extracted into this setting.

    Note: This path should be a relative path that is accessible within the local WebFOCUS install.

  9. Click Save.
  10. Next, open the following two local API files:
    • drive:\ibi\config\web_resource\ arcgis_api\init.js
    • drive:\ibi\config\web_resource\ arcgis_api\dojo\dojo.js

    In both files, search for HOSTNAME_AND_PATH_TO_JSAPI. Replace '//' + "[HOSTNAME_AND_PATH_TO_JSAPI]dojo" with '//' + HOSTNAME_AND_PATH_TO_JSAPI + "dojo"

  11. In the WebFOCUS Administration Console, click Clear Cache to clear the browser cache. Your configuration is complete.

Creating and Customizing Maps in InfoAssist

The following procedures provide step-by-step instructions on how to create and customize maps.

As you create your maps, you can use the following built-in map viewer features:

  • You can use the plus (+) and minus (-) symbols, , within the map to zoom in and out of different areas of the map. You can also click your left mouse button to zoom in to a specific location.
  • Like all HTML5 visualizations, the highlighted markers and regions on a map support drill, multi-drill, auto-linking, and informational tooltip features.
  • When working with maps in Chart mode, you can use the Pan / Selection button to alternate between the Pan and Selection controls. This option is in the upper-right corner of the map.
  • When working with maps in Visualization mode, you can toggle the Pan or Selection button to make a selection. The Pan control allows you to click, hold, and move the map with your mouse. The Selection control allows you to lasso a specific area of the map and select data in the map.

Procedure: How to Create an Esri Choropleth Map

Note: The default option of creating a map utilizes the ArcGIS Javascript API that Esri provides.

  1. Launch InfoAssist in Chart or Visualization mode.
    • In Chart mode, on the Format tab, in the Chart Types group, click Choropleth.
    • In Visualization mode, on the Home tab, in the Visual group, click Change and click Choropleth.

    A blank map displays and the Layer field container is enabled, as shown in the following image.

  2. Add a Geolocation field to the Layer field container.

    This field, which already has a geographic role assigned, is denoted with a Layer icon, , in the Data panel, as shown in the following image. You can also hover over a data field to view the geographic role assignment.

    For more information, see Geographic Roles.

    The canvas refreshes, and your map displays.

  3. Before saving your map, to add insight, you can also do following:
    • Click Run, to preview your map.
    • Add a measure or dimension to the Color field container, to color your chart by that underlying data value. When you add a measure or dimension field to the Color field container, a legend displays for that data value. If you specify a dimension in the Color field container, the label changes to Color BY.
    • Add a dimension or measure to the Tooltip field container, which will display tooltip information when you place your mouse over an area of the map.
    • Add a Background, Demographic Layer, or Reference Layer.
  4. Click Save to save your map.

Procedure: How to Create an Esri Proportional Symbol (Bubble) Map

  1. Launch InfoAssist in Chart or Visualization mode.
    • In Chart mode, on the Format tab, in the Chart Types group, click Proportional Symbol.
    • In Visualization mode, on the Home tab, in the Visual group, click Change and select Proportional Symbol.

    A blank map displays and the Layer field container is enabled.

  2. Place a data field with a defined geographic role in the Layer field container.

    This field, which already has a geographic role assigned, is denoted with a Layer icon, , in the Data panel, as shown in the following image. You can also hover over a data field to view the geographic role assignment.

    For more information, see Geographic Roles.

    A basic bubble map displays, as shown in the following image.

  3. Before saving your map, to add insight, you can also do the following:
    • Click Run, to preview your map.
    • Add a measure or dimension to the Color field container, to color your chart by that underlying data value.
    • Add a measure to the Size field container, to control the size of the bubbles on your map.
    • Add a measure to the Tooltip field container, to display tooltip information when you place your mouse over an area of the map at run time.
    • Add a Background, Demographic Layer, or Reference Layer.
  4. Click Save to save your map.

Procedure: How to Assign a Geographic Role to a Data Field

  1. Launch InfoAssist in Chart or Visualization mode.
    • In Chart mode, on the Format tab, in the Chart Types group, click Choropleth.
    • In Visualization mode, on the Home tab, in the Visual group, click Change and click Choropleth.
  2. In the Data pane, select a data field without a geolocation assignment.
  3. Perform one of the following tasks to open the Map dialog box and assign a geographic role:
    • Right-click the desired data field, click Map As and select a geographic role, as shown in the following image.
    • Drag the desired data field into the Layer field container.

    The Map dialog box displays, as shown in the following image.

  4. In the Map dialog box, select a geographic role. For example, State.

    Note: When specifying a geographic role, you can use Name or an ISO-2 value for countries. The ISO-2 codes are recognized worldwide, as published in http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes

    The Map dialog box refreshes and shows the Depends on section, as shown in the following image.

    Note: If you used the Map As option, the Depends on section automatically displays, since a geographic role was selected at that time.

  5. In the Depends on section, choose from the following options:
    • Field. Identifies a specific field on which the geographic role depends. For example, you can select Country or Continent.
    • User Defined. Enables the definition of a specific value from the data source. Selections can be as simple as a specific country. For example, you can select US.

    The Geographic Role field automatically populates based on the hierarchy of your data source. For example, if your primary geographic role was State, and in your metadata hierarchy, State depends on Country, this option displays.

  6. Click OK.
    If you used the Map As option, you must place the data field with the defined geographic role in the Layer field container. If you placed a data field in the Layer field container and defined a geographic role, the field is automatically added to the Layer field container.

    A basic map displays, as shown in the following image.

  7. Before saving your map, to add insight, you can also do following:
    • Click Run, to preview your map.
    • Add a measure or dimension to the Color field container, to color your chart by that underlying data value.
    • Add a measure to the Size field container, to control the size of the bubbles on your map.
    • Add a measure to the Tooltip field container, to display tooltip information when you place your mouse over an area of the map at run time.
    • Add a Background, Demographic Layer, or Reference Layer.
  8. Click Save to save your map.

Procedure: How to Change the Geographic Role of a Geolocation Field

You can change the geographic role assignment of any geolocation field using the following steps.

  1. Launch InfoAssist in Chart or Visualization mode.
    • In Chart mode, on the Format tab, in the Chart Types group, click Choropleth.
    • In Visualization mode, on the Home tab, in the Visual group, click Change and click Choropleth.
  2. From the Data pane, right-click a geolocation field and click Map As.
  3. Select a geographic role.

    The Map dialog box displays using the selected Geographic Role.

  4. In the Map dialog box, optionally select a geographic role from the drop-down list. For example, Country.

    Note: This changes the selection that you made on the Map As list.

  5. Accept the default value for Stored As, or choose a new value from the drop-down list, for example, ISO code. Stored As indicates how the data values are represented in the table.
  6. Click OK.

    The geographic role changes for the selected Geolocation field in the Data pane, and the map refreshes using the new geolocation that you specified.

Procedure: How to Change the Default Background of a Map

  1. Create a new map or open an existing map in InfoAssist.
  2. On the Format tab, expand the Map group and click Background, as shown in the following image.
  3. Select one of the following options:
    • World Street Map
    • Terrain with Labels
    • Oceans Basemap
    • OpenStreetMap
    • World Imagery
    • Light Gray Canvas
    • National Geographic World Map
    • Dark Gray Canvas
    • None

    Note: The Imagery with Labels Background provides the terrain for your map, ranging from land contours to city streets.

    Once you make a selection, the background of the map refreshes. You can continue to change your background until it displays the desired information.

Procedure: How to Add Demographic Layers to a Map

  1. Create a new map or open an existing map in InfoAssist.
  2. On the Format tab, expand the Map group and click Demographic Layers.
  3. Select from various population and lifestyle groups, as shown in the following image.

    Note: These are pre-defined demographic profiles, provided by ArcGIS. You can select multiple options in either category to gain additional insight into your data. Specifically, each Demographic Layer has its own profile and provides a layering option, when comparing values across different layers or profiles.

  4. Click OK.

    The Demographic Layers that you select are applied to your map. The map engine displays the different groups with unique hues and coloring. You can use the Table of Contents or Layers option, to toggle between the different layers that you have specified. The Layers option is shown in the following image.

    Demographic and Reference layers

    Note: You can select and clear the check boxes to enable the display of one or more Demographic Layers to compare and contrast the different demographic scenarios.

Procedure: How to Add Reference Layers

  1. Create a new map or open an existing map in InfoAssist.
  2. On the Format tab, expand the Map group and click Reference Layers.

    The Reference Layers dialog box displays, as shown in the following image.

  3. Select one or more Reference Layers, such as World Countries, to add to your map, and then click OK.

    Your map refreshes, and the definitions and borders of the References Layers display on the canvas. You can use the Table of Contents or Layers option, to toggle different Reference Layers in your map. These options are shown in the following image.

Reference: Query Field Containers by Map Type

This section presents the Query field containers that display for both charts and visualizations, by map type.

Query field container

Chart mode

Visualization mode

Choropleth Map

Proportional Symbol Map

Choropleth Map

Proportional Symbol Map

Layer. One data field, specifically a field containing location data (for example, State).

Color. One data field.

Tooltip. Up to one data field (not required).

Multi-graph. Up to one data field (not required).

Size. One data field.

Reference: Geographic Roles

This section contains information on the geographic roles that are supported for Esri maps in InfoAssist.

Geographic Role

Description

Maps Supported

CONTINENT

World Continents

Choropleth, Proportional Symbol

COUNTRY

World Countries

Choropleth, Proportional Symbol

STATE

World Admin Divisions

Choropleth, Proportional Symbol

CITY

World Cities

Proportional Symbol

COUNTY

World Counties

Choropleth, Proportional Symbol

POSTAL-CODE

Postal Code

Choropleth, Proportional Symbol

Note: This is a new, simplified list of geographic roles (dimensions) that you can utilize when creating a map chart. This unified list of roles provides worldwide mapping of administrative boundaries down to the postal code level. In InfoAssist, the new roles display, by default, when assigning a geographic role. They are also available for assignment from the Map As feature in the Data pane.

The following table summarizes additional geographic role information.

Note: All of the following roles are geographic roles, with the exception of Latitude and Longitude, which are coordinates.

Role Name

Role Format

Geographic Role

Address

Full

ADDRESS_FULL

Line

ADDRESS_LINE

City

Name

CITY

Continent

ISO-3166 code

CONTINENT_ISO2

Name

CONTINENT

Country

FIPS code

COUNTRY_FIPS

ISO-3166-2 code

COUNTRY_ISO2

ISO-3166-3 code

COUNTRY_ISO3

Name

COUNTRY

Country (NUTS level 0)

NUTS code

NUTS0_CC

Name

NUTS0

District (NUTS level 3)

NUTS code

NUTS3_CC

Name

NUTS3

Geometry area

  

GEOMETRY_AREA

Geometry line

GEOMETRY_LINE

Geometry point

GEOMETRY_POINT

Latitude

LATITUDE

Longitude

LONGITUDE

Postal code

POSTAL-CODE

Province (NUTS level 2)

NUTS code

NUTS2_CC

Name

NUTS2

Region (NUTS level 1)

NUTS code

NUTS1_CC

Name

NUTS1

State

FIPS code

STATE_FIPS

Name

STATE

US County FIPS

FIPS code

USCOUNTY_FIPS

US city

FIPS code

USCITY_FIPS

Name

USCITY

US county

Name

USCOUNTY

US Postal code

3 digits

ZIP3

5 digits

ZIP5

US state

Abbreviation

USSTATE_ABBR
 

FIPS code

USSTATE_FIPS

Name

USSTATE

US ISO subdivision code

STATE_ISO_SUB

The following table illustrates the geographic roles and their dependencies. Level 1 indicates the highest level of hierarchy and level 5 is the lowest level of hierarchy.

Region

Hierarchy Level

Geographic Role

United States

1

COUNTRY, COUNTRY_ISO_CC

2

USSTATE, USSTATE_ABBR, USSTATE_FIPS

3

USCOUNTY, USCOUNTY_FIPS

4

USCITY, USCITY_FIPS

5

ZIP3, ZIP5

World

1

CONTINENT, CONTINENT_ISO_CC

2

COUNTRY, COUNTRY_FIPS, COUNTRY_ISO_CC, COUNTRY_ISO2, COUNTRY_ISO3

3

STATE, STATE_ISO_SUB

4

CITY

5

POSTAL CODE

Customizing the List of Geographic Roles

Reference:

Customers with Enterprise Data often have map layers that represent their territories, events, or logistical information. These are published as Map Services to either a subscription based in the Esri Cloud (ArcGIS.com) or on an internal portal. This portal is available with ArcGIS Server 10.3 installations. More information can be found at

http://server.arcgis.com/en/portal/.

InfoAssist comes with a configuration file (geo_services.xml) that contains elements that describe all of the geographic roles, geographic hierarchies, URLs to the map services, and base maps available to InfoAssist. This file is located in the catalog directory under the server home directory: 

c:\ibi\srvnn\home\catalog

where:

nn
Is the release of your WebFOCUS Reporting Server. For example, 82 for version 8.2.

The geographic role selections that you can make in InfoAssist are built dynamically using this configuration file. Each role definition in the configuration file, when selected in InfoAssist, generates metadata and a request that is sent to Esri in order to download the appropriate map and place the markers or polygons on the map.

A geographic role can be part of a hierarchy. For example, the World geographic role is at the top of a hierarchy that contains continents, countries, states, and cities. These hierarchies are also described in the geo_services.xml file.

To add a custom geographic role, you must add the necessary parameters for the geography to this file.

You can also customize the geographic roles available by deleting geographic role definitions from the <GEO_ROLES> object. To configure Esri On Premise, you should remove any geographic role definition that references a URL that points to a location outside of your locally hosted Esri server.

Following standard XML syntax rules, each element is enclosed in element start and end tags (<elementname>, </elementname>), and attribute values are enclosed in double quotation marks (").

Reference: Geographic Role Definitions

A geographic role is stored as a geo_role element in the geo_roles object of the geo_services.xml file. A geographic role must be defined with:

  • An ID that will identify the role in the configuration file.
  • A format and length for the data to be returned.
  • A role name.
  • A display title for the role name (to appear as a selection in Map dialog box in InfoAssist).
  • An optional role format (if the role can have multiple formats, such as a name and an abbreviation).
  • A display title for the format.
  • A role type (geography for polygons, geometry for geometry points, geometry areas, or geometry lines, or coordinate for longitude or latitude).
  • An optional vocabulary rule element containing vocabulary elements for associating the role with a field in the metadata.

The syntax is

<geo_role id="id" value_size="size" unified="false" role_name="rname"
        role_name_title="rname_title" role_format="rformat"
        role_format_title="rformat_title" geo_type="gtype"
        type="datatype" >
        <vocabulary_rules>
            <vocabulary>vrule</vocabulary>
         </vocabulary_rules>
      </geo_role>

where:

id="id"

Is an alphanumeric uppercase value, up to 50 characters, used to identify the geographic role.

type="datatype"

Is the data type for the ID. Can be one of the following.

  • "alpha" for alphanumeric data, formats An or In.
  • "integer" for integer numeric data, format In.
  • "numeric" for fractional numeric data, formats Pn.m, Dn.m, or Fn.m.
  • "text" for text data, format TXn.
value_size="size"

Is the optional number of characters in USAGE format length (any, if not set).

role_name="rname"

Is the name of the geographic role.

role_name_title="rname_title"

Is the title of the geographic role, to be displayed in the Map dialog box for selection.

role_format="rformat"

Is an optional format for the geographic role, useful when the role can be referenced using multiple formats, such as a name, an ISO code, and an abbreviation. Standard role titles include the following.

  • NAME. Specifies that the role defines the name of a geographic entity, such as Florida.
  • ABBR. Specifies that the role defines an abbreviation, such as FL.
  • ZIP3. Specifies that the role defines a 3-digit zip code.
  • ZIP5. Specifies that the role defines a 5-digit zip code.
  • FIPS. Specifies that the role defines a FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) code.
  • ISO2. Specifies that the role defines an ISO 3166-2 code published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
  • ISO3. Specifies that the role defines an ISO 3166-3 code published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
  • LINE. Specifies that the role defines one line of a role, just as an address line.
  • FULL. Specifies that the role defines a full geographic role, such as a full address.
role_format_title="rformat_title"

Is an optional title for the format of the geographic role. It will be shown in parentheses along with the role title in the Map dialog box, for example, State (Abbreviation).

geo_type="gtype"

Is one of the following predefined role types.

  • "geography" for geographic objects, such as country or state.
  • "geometry" for geometry objects, such as geometry point, geometry line, and geometry area.
  • "coordinate" for coordinates, such as latitude and longitude.
<vocabulary>vrule</vocabulary>

Is an element that consists of a group of vocabulary elements that explicitly describe column names for the geographic role. These rules will be used to select the best geographic data for the role.

Elements in a rule are connected by the Boolean logic operation OR (only one needs to be satisfied). Each vocabulary element contains words enclosed with special characters. Words in the rule element are connected by the Boolean logic operation AND (all need to be satisfied).

A word may be prefixed and/or suffixed with the percent character (%), which is a place holder for any sequence of characters. If an element contains more than one word, each word has to be prefixed by the character plus (+) or minus (-). Plus indicates that the word must be found in the column name. Minus indicates that the word must not be found in the column name.

Once you have added a geographic role definition, you can run the geo_srv_roles procedure on the Reporting Server to see that the parameters were added correctly.

Example: Sample Geographic Role Definitions

The following defines the State Abbreviation geographic role. The role ID is USSTATE_ABBR. The role name is USSTATE with a role format of ABBR. The titles that show in the Map dialog box are US state (Abbreviation). The format is A2, and the vocabulary rules specify that the characters state must be present, but the characters iso, capital, and population must not be present. The geo type is geography, indicating that the returned data will be a geographic area. 

<geo_role 
id="USSTATE_ABBR"
 value_size="2"
 type="alpha" 
role_name="USSTATE" 
role_name_title="US state" 
role_format="ABBR" 
role_format_title="Abbreviation"
 geo_type="geography">
<vocabulary_rules>
<vocabulary>+%state%-%iso%-%capital%-%population%</vocabulary>
</vocabulary_rules>
</geo_role>

The following is a role definition for latitude values. The role ID is LATITUDE. The role name is also LATITUDE. Its format is numeric. The title that displays in the Map dialog box is Latitude. The geo type is coordinate, indicating that the returned data will be points. The vocabulary rules specify that the characters latitude must be present. 

<geo_role
 id="LATITUDE"
 type="numeric"
 role_name="LATITUDE" 
role_name_title="Latitude"
 geo_type="coordinate">
 <vocabulary_rules>
  <vocabulary>%latitude%</vocabulary>
 </vocabulary_rules>
</geo_role>

The following is the definition for the city role. The ID is CITY. The role name is also CITY. Its format is NAME. The title that displays in the Map dialog box is City (Name). The definition has a set of vocabulary elements. Only one of the elements in the list must be true. Therefore, the characters city, or town, or country plus capital, or state plus capital must be present. 

<geo_role
 id="CITY" 
type="alpha" 
role_name="CITY" 
role_name_title="City" 
role_format="NAME" 
role_format_title="Name"
 geo_type="geography">
 <vocabulary_rules>
  <vocabulary>+%city%-%population%</vocabulary>
  <vocabulary>+%town%-%population%</vocabulary>
  <vocabulary>+%country%+%capital%-%population%</vocabulary>
  <vocabulary>+%state%+%capital%-%population%</vocabulary>
 </vocabulary_rules>
</geo_role>

Reference: Geographic Role URI Definitions

After adding a geographic role, you must add its URI to the <URIS> object in the geo_services.xml file. The syntax is.

<uri description="description">
   <returned_geometry>type </returned_geometry>
   <returned_georole>role</returned_georole>
   <url type="esri" authorization="auth" synonym="">
         "url_to_georole"
   <parameters>
    <parm order="number" parm_name="pname" parm_georole="parmrole"/>
   </parameters>
  </uri>

where:

"description"

Is a description for the geographic role to which the URI is pointing.

type

Is any supported geometry type, such as GEOMETRY AREA.

role

Is the name of the returned geographic role.

"auth"

Is the type of authentication needed to access this geographic role. Valid values are:

  • silent. Authentication credentials are configured in the Adapter for Esri.
  • none. No authentication is needed.
  • named. Credentials must be explicitly provided by the user on a login screen.
  • on premise. Authentication is configured by the locally hosted ArcGIS server.
"url_to_georole"

Is the URL for the geographic role.

parm order="number"

Is the number of a parameter needed to retrieve the correct geographic role.

parm_name="pname"

Is the name of the parameter associated with parm order.

parm_georole="parmrole"

Is the name of the geographic role associated with parm order.

Once you have added the URI, you can run the geo_srv_map_uris procedure on the Reporting Server to see that the parameters were added correctly.

Note: You must add the base URL to the list of proxy URLs in the esri_arcgis_rest.xml file. For example: 

<ESRI_URL URL="//services7.arcgis.com/L95Wwv9OjRQ0tjAs/ArcGIS" DESCRIPTION="Custom Data" />

Reference: Adding the WebFOCUS Retail Regions Geographic Role

These steps describe how to add the WebFOCUS Retail Regions geographic role to the geo_services.xml file.

  1. Open the geo_services.xml file. The default location is:
    C:\ibi\WebFOCUSnn\srv\home\catalog\geo_services.xml

    where:

    nn
    Is your release of WebFOCUS. For example, 82 for release 8.2.
  2. Add the role to the end of the GEO_ROLES object:
    <geo_role id="REGION" value_size="50" unified="false"
        role_name="WF_Region" role_name_title="WF_Region"
        role_format="NAME" role_format_title="NAME"
        geo_type="geography" type="alpha" >
        <vocabulary_rules>
            <vocabulary>+%region%</vocabulary>
         </vocabulary_rules>
      </geo_role>

    The ID is REGION. The role name is WF_Region. Its format is NAME. The title that displays in the Map dialog box is WF_Region. The definition has a vocabulary rule. The characters region must be present.

    Run the geo_srv_roles procedure on the Reporting Server to see that the role was added correctly. The output is shown in the following image.

  3. Add the URI to the map server layer for this role at the end of the URIS object:
    <uri description="WFRetail Regions" >
    <returned_geometry>GEOMETRY_AREA</returned_geometry>
    <returned_georole>REGION</returned_georole>
    <parameters_georoles>
       <parm position="1" parm_georole="REGION" />
    </parameters_georoles>
    <urls>
      <url type="esri" authorization="none" synonym=""
      value="//services7.arcgis.com/L95Wwv9OjRQ0tjAs/ArcGIS/rest/services/wfretail_sub_regions/FeatureServer/0"
      provider="Esri" >
          <keys key="default" />
          <parameters_names>
             <parm position="1" parm_name="SUB_REGION" />
          </parameters_names>
       </url>
    </urls>
</uri>

    Note: You must add the base URL to the list of proxy URLs in the esri_arcgis_rest.xml file. For example: 

    <ESRI_URL URL="//services7.arcgis.com/L95Wwv9OjRQ0tjAs/ArcGIS" DESCRIPTION="Custom Data" />

    Optionally, on the Reporting Server, run the geo_srv_map_uris procedure to see if the parameters were added correctly. The output is shown in the following image.

    You will now be able to select this role from the Map As menu the next time you start WebFOCUS, as shown in the following image.

Example: Using the WebFOCUS Retail Regions Role in a Map Layer

This example configures a map layer using the WF_Region role.

In the Data pane, right-click a field that contains subregion data, for example. On the shortcut menu, select Map As and then select the WF_Region role, as previously illustrated. The output is shown in the following image:

Customizing the List of Basemap Definitions

Topics:

You can add custom basemaps for use with maps.

Adding a Custom Basemap

The list of basemaps available to InfoAssist is built dynamically on the server using the list of <basemap> objects in the geo_services.xml file, which is located in the catalog directory under the server home directory: 

c:\ibi\srvnn\home\catalog

where:

nn
Is the release of your WebFOCUS Reporting Server. For example, 82 for version 8.2.

The following are some sample standard basemap definitions from this file that exist prior to customization.

<BASEMAPS>
...
 <basemap custom="false" default="false" name="streets"
    title="World Street Map" icon="qb/streets_map_108x72.png" />
 <basemap custom="false" default="false" name="satellite"
    title="World Imagery" icon="qb/imagery_map_108x72.png" />
 <basemap custom="false" default="false" name="terrain"
    title="Terrain with Labels" icon="qb/terrain_map_108x72.png" />
 <basemap custom="false" default="true" name="gray"
    title="Light Gray Canvas Map" icon="qb/gray_map_108x72.png" />
...
</BASEMAPS>

The properties defined for the standard basemaps are custom (which is false for the standard basemaps), default, name, title, and icon.

To define a custom basemap, you must define these properties for your custom basemap, and add a URL that points to the map service that has the basemap image.

Note: Any basemap you add must be a tiled map layer.

You can also customize the list of basemaps by deleting basemap definitions from the <basemaps> object. To configure Esri on Premise, you should remove any basemap definition that references a URL that points to a location outside of your locally hosted Esri server.

The syntax for a basemap definition is 

<basemap custom="boolean" default="boolean" name="mapname" 
  title="maptitle" icon="url_to_icon" url="url_to_basemap"
/>

where:

custom="boolean"

Specifies whether the basemap is standard or custom. Valid values are true and false. To add a custom basemap, specify custom="true".

default="boolean"

Specifies whether this basemap should be the default basemap if the user does not select a basemap. Valid values are true and false.

name="mapname"

Is a name for the basemap.

title="maptitle"

Is a title that will display in the Basemap drop-down list in the list of basemaps in InfoAssist.

icon="url_to_icon"

Is the location of a thumbnail image for the basemap.

url="url_to_basemap"

Is the URL to the map service that provides the basemap.

After you add the basemap definition, you can run the geo_srv_basemaps procedure to see if the parameters were added correctly.

Example: Adding a Custom Basemap

The following <basemap> object defines the soil survey basemap.

<basemap name="soil_survey" custom="true" default="false" title="Soil_Survey_Basemap"
icon="https://server.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/Specialty/Soil_Survey_Map/MapServer/info/thumbnail"
url="https://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Specialty/Soil_Survey_Map/MapServer" />

Add this definition to the list of basemap objects in the geo_services.xml file. Note that the entire URL string must be on one line in the file, even if it breaks in this document because of the page size.

Optionally, on the Reporting Server, run the geo_srv_basemaps procedure. The output is shown in the following image.

When you create a map, your custom basemap appears in the Basemap drop-down list in InfoAssist, as shown in the following image.

The following image shows the map output using the soil survey basemap.

 WebFOCUS

Feedback