Configuring and Formatting Bing Maps

Bing Maps allows you to visualize the markers based on the latitude and longitude data.

Figure: Default Bing maps visualization showing markers based on the configured latitude and longitude information

How to get Bing Maps keys

You need to follow these steps to get keys.

1. Go to the Bing Maps Dev Center at https://www.bingmapsportal.com/.

2. Register or sign in using your Microsoft account.

3. Select My keys under My Account.

4. Select the option to create a new key.

5. Provide the required details in the following form,

6. Click the Create button. The created new key will be displayed in the following list. Use this key to authenticate your Bing Maps.

How to enable Bing Maps by configuring the web config file in Enterprise

To enable the bing maps in your enterprise build, you need to follow these steps.

Bold BI version 4.2.68 or later

Open the mentioned file in your enterprise build location, [Installed_Directory\ BoldServices\app_data\configuration\config.xml]

Set <widget><BingMap><Enable> key value as true.

Set your Bing Maps Key in <key> in config.xml

Bold BI version 4.1.36 or later

Open the below mentioned file in your enterprise build location,

[Installed_Directory \BoldServices\bi\dataservice\appsettings.json].

Set widget:bing_map:enable key value as true and set your Bing Maps Key in widget:bing_map:api_key in appsettings.json.

Then, launch your build and you find the bing maps in design panel.

Bold BI version below 4.1.36

1. Open the following file in your enterprise build location,

[Installed_Directory\ Bold BI\Dashboard Designer\Web.config]

2. Set the widget:bing_map:enable key value to true.

3. Provide your bing maps key here.

Then, launch your build and you can find the bing maps in the design panel.

How to configure the data table to Bing Maps widget

NOTE: Before adding the Bing maps widget to the design layout, make sure to create the data source. You can refer to this section to learn how to create a new data source.

IMPORTANT: To showcase a Bing maps, a minimum requirement of one latitude and one longitude fields are needed.

The following steps explains about data configuration of the Bing maps.

Step 1: Add a bing maps widget to the design canvas

1. Drag and drop the Bing maps control icon from the toolbox into the design panel. You can find control by searching in the toolbox.

2. Resize the widget as required.

Step 2: Configuring data into the widget

1. Click the Properties icon in the configuration panel.

2. The properties panel of the widget will be displayed as shown in the following screenshot. Now, switch to the ASSIGN DATA tab.

3. The data tab will be opened with available columns from the connected data source.

Location Value

An element can be dragged from the measure or dimension section.

Renaming fields

The configured field names can be edited by using the Rename option provided in the settings menu.

Location Name

Drag the elements from the Dimension to Location Name section.

Bing map will render as follows.

You can add more than one value to the Location Name section. The alert message will be shown to enable the drill-down option.

Click Yes to enable the option.

NOTE: If you click No, a single value will be added to the Location Name field(i.e. newly dropped column replace the existing one).

Figure: Bing-map with drilled view of the selected area.

Hidden Column

Hidden columns are useful in cases where we don’t want the fields to take part in the visualization, but only to be used for linking, filtering and view data.

We can configure both measure and dimension fields into the hidden column. For measure we will be having all the settings we have for the measure fields expect formatting and filtering.

In the case of dimension fields we will having the following options only.

Linking

The primary use case of the hidden columns is linking. On configuring hidden columns, we can see below that the fields configured in hidden columns are listed in the linking section. On configuring the column in linking we can pass the corresponding column value in linking parameter.

Measure Based Example: If we wish to pass the number of UnitsInStock as an URL parameter but do not want it to influence the visualization, we can configure the UnitsInStock in the hidden columns and incorporate them into the link.

Dimension Based Example: If we wish to pass the region as an URL parameter but do not want it to influence the visualization, we can configure the region in the hidden columns and incorporate them into the link.

Filtering

You can use hidden columns to filter data in the visualizations. Configure hidden columns and click the below filter icon.

Click the Custom button highlighted in the filter configuration dialog image below. It will list all the fields configured in the widget. Keep the field configured in the hidden column and remove the other fields, then click the Update button.

Now, we can see in the below image, the data is filtered based on the hidden column field instead of the actual column that we bound in the widget. 

For more details about filtering the widget data, refer to the Filter Configuration documentation

View Data

You can view the data in the hidden columns in the underlying data view. This is useful for checking the data in more detail and can help you to identify any issues with the data.

NOTE: We don’t recommend to configure lower hierarchy data in hidden columns as we can see in the info icon in Hidden Column section denotes the same.

The below map displays the unit price by ship country without hidden columns.

If we configure lower hierarchy data (Ship City) in hidden columns, the data configured in the widgets gets duplicated, and incorrect data is displayed in the tooltip, as we can see in the image below.

Latitude Section

Bind column by dragging and dropping the element from sections to Latitude.

NOTE:

• The field added in this section will act as a latitude value.

Longitude Section

Drag and drop the elements from sections to Longitude section.

NOTE:

• The field added in this section will act as a longitude value.

Image: Bing maps widget after configuring the mandatory fields.

Address

Drag and drop the elements from sections to Address section. The field added here, will act as a address value.

Bing maps widget, after configuring the Address fields.

Postal Code

Drag and drop the elements from other sections to Postal Code section. The field added here, will act as a postal code.

Image: Bing maps widget after configuring the Postal Code fields.

Marker Size

If you wish to modify the size of the marker according to the data, then you can configure that data in the Marker Size section. You can only configure the measured field for Marker Size.

After configuring the marker size field, the Bing map renders as follows.

Note: After configuring the marker size, the size of marker settings under the property panel will be disabled automatically.

Marker Tooltip section

Drag and drop the elements from sections to the Marker Tooltip section. It will define the marker tooltip value in the bing maps. Also, it is an optional section.

Image: Bing maps widget after configuring the market tooltip field

Marker Image section

Drag and drop the elements from sections to the Marker Image section. It will define the marker in the bing maps. Also, it is an optional section.

Image: Bing maps widget after configuring the marker Image field

Step 3(Optional): Settings menu options

You can filter and sort the data displayed in the widget from the settings menu options. To open the settings menu, click the settings icon.

Filtering data

You can use Filters to change the values by selecting the Filter option. For more details, refer to Measure filter and dimension filter.

How to format Bing maps widget

You can format the Bing maps for better illustration of the view that you require using the settings available in the Properties tab.

General settings

Name

This allows you to set title for this Bing maps widget.

Subtitle

This allows you to set subtitle for this Bing maps widget.

Description

This allows you to set brief explanation about this Bing maps widget.

Basic Settings

Show Tooltip

This option allows you to toggle the visibility of tooltip in Bing map.

Map theme

This allows you to toggle the theme of the bing maps.

1. Road Type

2. Aerial

3. Canvas Dark

4. Canvas Light

5. Gray Scale

Show Zoom Icon

This allows you to show the zooming icons in bing maps.

If you perform zoom in or zoom out using icons or mouse in design mode, then the same zoom level will be maintained in the view mode.

Zoom state in design mode.

Zoom state in view mode.

Disable Zooming and Panning

This disables the Zooming and Panning in maps.

Map shape

This allows you to toggle the map shapes of the Bing Maps.

1. Choropleth

2. Bubble

Formatting

This section shows up when the Location Value and Location Name fields have values.

Monochromatic

You can configure a single color palette whose saturation differs based on the value density.

Advanced Settings

This allows you to customize the map color with three different types: gradient, rule, or individual. By default, the window renders with gradient type.

If you enable the option Advanced, the color customization window will render as follows.

Gradient

You can select the desired measures or dimensions field using the Based On dropdown. You can change the summary type. You can edit the Low and the High value and their colors. By default, the low value takes the minimum value of the map and the high value takes the maximum value of the map. The Mid can be enabled and can change its value and color can be changed. By default, the mid-color is disabled.

If you click save, the map will render as follows.

Default color

The default color will apply for conditions not satisfied by the advance color customization.

Rule

You can select the rule settings by clicking the Rule radio button. The color customization window renders as follows.

You can change Based on field and summary type as gradient type. The Value Type can be changed with value or percentage.

You can choose a series of colors with the Fill color picker using the multiple condition sets: greater than, less than, equal to, not equal to, between, Not between, greater than or equal to, and less than or equal to. You can customize the legend name by providing the necessary values inside the condition name. You can also add multiple conditions.

Individual

You can select the rule settings by clicking the Individual radio button. The color customization window renders like this.

This type renders with the individual default color for each value of the map. You can change its color with the individual color pickers. If you want to reset your changes return to the default color using the Reset.

You can save your changes by clicking the Save. Now, the map renders with changes.

Marker Settings

Marker Shape

This allow to change the marker shapes of the bing maps.

1. Circle

2. Diamond

3. Star

4. Triangle

5. Image

This allow to upload the various type of Images.

Image: Bing maps widget after applying the marker Image settings

Color

This allows to change the marker color of the bing maps.

Size

This allows to change the marker size of the bing maps. When configuring data into Marker Size, this property will be disabled.

Note: Marker Settings will be visible only by configuring either latitude and longitude or Address and postal code.

Advanced Settings

Rule

Markers can be customized based on the conditions and the fields by enabling the advance settings check box.

1. Based on the measure field.

2. Based on the dimension field.

Individual

This option allows you to customize the map marker color individually based on the selected column values.

For example, if you have three types of signal strength options in your data and you want to display marker colors based on the three types. You can select the Signal Strength column in the based selection and then assign a color for each type of signal strength option.

Now, the map marker color renders with these changes.

Link

You can enable linking and configure to navigate to a general URL with or without parameters. For more details, refer to the Linking.

To Configure Bing maps with address information

You can render the bing maps markers based only on the address information. For that, there are two sections Address and Postal Code added in the field containers section as shown in the following image,

Drag and drop the required fields to the respective field containers to render the bing maps markers. You can drag and drop either the Address field or Postal Code field, or both the fields.

After that configurations

Filter

Act as master widget

This allows you to define the Bing Maps widget as a master widget such that its filter action can be made to listen by other widgets in the dashboard.

Ignore filter actions

This allows you to define this Bing Maps widget to ignore responding to the filter actions applied on other widgets in dashboard.

Enable hierarchical filtering

Using this option, you can enable or disable hierarchical the top N filtering. While applying the Top N filter with multiple dimension columns, the data returned can be customized based on whether the filtering needs to be done as flat or based on the hierarchy of dimension columns added.

When the Hierarchical Filter option is enabled, the Top N will be applied for each individual column separately based on the number set for each column.

Container appearance

This section contains the property for bing maps container’s layout.

Title Alignment

This allows you to handle the alignment of widget title to either left, center, or right.

Title Color

This allows you to apply the text color to the widget title.

Title Auto Font Size

On enabling Auto Font Size, the font size of the title will be adjusted automatically if the resolution of the screen varies.

Font Size

This allows you to apply the specified size of the font to the widget title if the Title Auto Font Size is disabled. Value can be between 10 and 44.

Subtitle Auto Font Size

On enabling Auto Font Size, the font size of the subtitle will be adjusted automatically if the resolution of the screen varies.

Font Size

This allows you to apply the specified size of the font to the widget title if the Subtitle Auto Font Size is disabled. Value can be between 10 and 32.

Auto Padding

On enabling Auto Padding, the padding of the widget container will be adjusted automatically if the size of the widget varies.

Padding

This allows you to customize the padding of the widget container if the Auto Padding is disabled. Value can be between 0 and 25.

Show Border

This allows you to toggle the visibility of the border surrounding the widget.

Corner Radius

This allows you to apply the specified radius to the widget corners if the Show Border is enabled. Value can be between 0 and 10.

Show Background Image

This allow you to set the background image for the map widget.

Background Color

This allows you to set the background color to the map widget.

Transparency

This property allows you to change the transparency from 0.0 to 1.0.

Show Shadow

This allows you to toggle the visibility of the shadow surrounding the widget.

Container actions

Show Header

This allows you to enable or disable the widget title of the map.

Allow Maximize View

This allows you to enable or disable the maximized mode of the map widget. The visibility of the maximize icon in the widget header will be defined based on the setting in the viewer.

Allow CSV Export

This allows you to enable or disable the CSV export option for the map widget. Enabling this allows you to export the summarized data of the widget view to CSV format in the viewer.

Allow Excel Export

This allows you to enable or disable the Excel export option for the map widget. Enabling this allows you to export the summarized data of the widget view to (.xlsx or .xls) format in the viewer.

Allow Image Export

This allows you to enable or disable the Image export option for the map widget. Enabling this allows you to export the view of the widget to image format (.jpg), (.png), or (.bmp) in the viewer.

Allow PDF Export

This allows you to enable or disable the PDF export option for the map widget. Enabling this allows you to export the view of the widget to pdf format in the viewer.

Enable Comments

This allows you to enable or disable comment for the dashboard widget. For more details, refer to this link.

Allow View Underlying Data

This allows you to visualize the raw data associated with a widget at runtime.

To learn more about viewing the underlying widget data, refer to the view data documentation.

Pin Widget

This allows you to pin the widget.