Create infographics and reports

Infographics and reports allow you to visualize and analyze key information about ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App sites. You can run predesigned templates or build custom infographics and reports. When you run an infographic or report, it is populated with data from Esri demographic data portfolios, site attributes, and ArcGIS content. The resulting document can be exported, saved, and shared.

Run infographics

Business Analyst infographics present location information in a visually compelling form. You can create, modify, and export infographics that are included with Business Analyst, infographics shared with you by others, and custom infographics that you create. Infographics can be viewed in the app or exported and shared with others.

To run infographics, do the following:

  1. On the Reports tab, click Run reports and click Run infographics.

    The Infographics tab appears. If you have sites open on the Maps tab, they are selected in the Selected sites drop-down list.

  2. Click Add sites.

    The Add sites window appears.

  3. In the Add sites window, choose sites from the following tabs: Recent, Currently on map, From layers, From projects, and Neighboring geographies. Optionally, click Search Search to find sites using a search term. Check the check boxes for the sites to include in the infographic.
  4. Click Apply.

    The sites are added to the Selected sites list.

  5. Optionally, expand the Selected sites drop-down menu to review the sites. Click Remove site Close next to a site to remove it from the selection.
  6. Under Select infographics to run, view the available infographics in the following sections. Click Expand Expand to view the contents of a section.
    • My infographics—Lists your custom infographics. Hover over an infographic for options to edit, share, or delete.
    • Shared infographics—Lists infographics shared with you by others. Hover over an infographic for the option to save it.
    • Standard infographics—Lists ready-to-use infographics.
    • Gallery infographics—Lists infographics in the infographic gallery, if enabled in app preferences.
  7. To select one or more infographics to run, use the following options:
    • Check the check box next to an infographic to add it to the Selected infographics table.
    • Click Filter Filter to filter the list by type. Use the toggle buttons to include or exclude categories of infographics in the list.
    • Click Search Search to search for infographics by name.
    • Hover over Sample Sample report for a sample view of the infographic.
    • Hover over More information Information next to an infographic to view a brief description.
    • Click Add to favorites Favorite next to an infographic to add it to your favorite infographics. To remove an infographic from your favorites, click the button again.
    • To run your favorite infographics, click Run favorites. Those infographics are added to the Selected infographics pane and run immediately.
    • To save a shared infographic to your account, hover over it and click Save Save.
    • Click Refresh Reset to refresh the infographic list at any time and see the most up-to-date list of shared infographics.

    The selected infographics appear in the Selected infographics pane. To remove an infographic from Selected infographics, click Remove Remove.

    By default, the Export infographics toggle button is turned off.

  8. To run an infographic for a selected site, click Run now in the Selected infographics pane.

    The infographic opens in the infographic viewer. The site name is displayed on the ribbon at the top, next to the site detail: geography, polygon, or buffer size. For location-based sites, the smallest buffer is initially selected. For example, for a 10-, 20-, and 30-minute drive-time site, the 10-minute drive time is selected.

  9. Click the site detail to expand the drop-down menu with the following options:
    • For location-based sites, to view the infographic for one of the larger buffer sizes, select it in the list.
    • Click Compare with geographies to view a side-by-side comparison of the site with the geographies within which the site address is located. For sites in the United States, that includes ZIP Code, County, State, and USA. For polygon and geography sites, the centroid of the site determines the associated geographies.
    • Click Add sites to compare to open the Select Site window and add more sites to the side-by-side comparison.
    • Turn on the Side by side comparison toggle button to view a side-by-side comparison infographic for all the sites and buffers. In this mode, click More options Options for any site or buffer for the following options:
      • Click Make benchmark to make it a benchmark.
      • Click Remove area from comparison to remove the selected site from the side-by-side comparison.
  10. Use any of the following options on the ribbon:
    • To view a different infographic for the site, click the infographic name to expand the infographics drop-down list and choose a different one.
    • To view the infographic for a different site, click Change site Change site next to the site name to open the Select site window.
    • Click Share infographic Share to share the infographic with others in the organization.
    • Click Edit infographic Edit to open the infographic template and edit it.
    • Click Close Close to close the infographic viewer.
  11. To export the infographic, do the following:
    1. Click Export infographic Export on the ribbon to export the infographic.

      The Export Infographic window appears.

    2. From the Export as drop-down menu, choose PDF, Image, Dynamic HTML, or Excel as the export format.
    3. For PDF and image formats, do any of the following:
      • Check the check box for the Add header and edit title, Add data source, and Add footer options.
      • Check the check box for Include interactive panels in export to include any interactive panels in the infographic in the export.
        Note:

        When the Include this panel in export setting is enabled on the interactive experience panel, this option is automatically selected.

    4. For Dynamic HTML format, do any of the following:
      • Check the check box for Enable interactive experience to allow exploration of the variables in interactive panels in the infographic.
      • Check the check box for Export maps as static images to export a static map image instead of the dynamic map. This option can be used to export secured or private maps. Choosing this option significantly increases the export time.
      • Check the check box for Enable dynamic feature service query from HTML files. This option is available only when the infographic template you used includes one of the following:
        • A nearby table with a custom point feature layer.
        • An infographic element with attributes from layers currently on the map, except when such attributes were used to create custom variables or calculations.
    5. For Excel format, do any of the following:
      • Check the check box for Include map image in the Excel file to include a map image in the exported Excel file.
      • Check the check box for Include interactive panels in export to include all the data from the interactive panels in the infographic in the exported Excel file.
    6. When you are finished, click Create to export.
  12. Optionally, you can run infographics in export mode by turning on the Export infographics toggle button on the Run reports screen and doing the following:
    Note:

    This is an alternative to viewing infographics in the infographic viewer.

    1. Use the format drop-down menu to choose PDF, HTML, or Excel for each selected infographic. The default is PDF, which you can change in the infographic preferences.
    2. Click Export next to an infographic to run it. A Processing status appears and, when the infographic is ready, the status is replaced with Open report. Click Open report to view the infographic.
    3. Click Export all to run all the selected infographics (up to a maximum of 100). For a PDF, click Open report to open it. An infographic run in HTML format is downloaded, and you can open the dynamic HTML file from its location on your machine. You can download all the infographics as a .zip file in the infographic preferences.

Panel display options

When you view an infographic, you can change the display options for maps, charts, and tables. This is useful for highlighting aspects of the data of particular interest to you, especially when you plan to export the infographic.

Below are display options for maps, charts, and tables. The display options available depend on the element type and the way it is configured by the infographic creator.

Display optionInstructions

Legend Legend

For maps, you can turn the legend on or off. On the map, click Show legend to display or hide the legend.

Settings General settings

Click View table or View chart to switch between display methods.

Use the View as drop-down menu to select Table, Horizontal bar chart, Vertical bar chart, Horizontal line chart, Vertical line chart, Pie chart, Donut chart, or Ring chart.

Use the Column or Row drop-down menu to choose the series item or attribute to display.

Use the Series in rows check box to switch the rows and columns.

Use the Group locations by attribute drop-down menu to choose an attribute, such as NAICS code or city name, to group the data.

Use the Show summary footer for attributes check boxes to add summaries to the bottom of the table.

Click Original sorting, Sort ascending, or Sort descending to change the display order.

Under Calculate totals, use the check boxes to choose value totals or averages, displayed as the final row or column.

Filter Filter

Use the sliders to set value thresholds or use the drop-down menu to select a filter method. You can filter by Top N or Bottom N (where N is a number you choose), or by Above average or Below average. The values available in the filter pane adjust based on what has been selected in the settings pane.

Run reports

Business Analyst reports provide location information in several categories: business, consumer spending, demographics, maps, market potential, and Esri Tapestry Segmentation. You can create, modify, and export reports that are included with Business Analyst, reports shared with you by other users, and custom reports that you created. Reports can be formatted as PDF or Excel files.

To run reports, do the following:

  1. On the Reports tab, click Run reports and click Run classic reports.

    The report interface appears. If you have sites open on the Maps tab, they are selected in the Selected sites drop-down list.

  2. Click Add sites.

    The Add sites window appears.

  3. In the Add sites window, choose sites for the report from the following tabs: Recent, Currently on map, From layers, From projects, and Neighboring geographies. Optionally, click Search Search to find sites using a search term. Check the check boxes for the sites you want to include in your report.
  4. Click Apply.

    The sites are added to the Selected sites list. The Selected sites drop-down list displays the selected sites. Expand the list to review the sites. Click Remove site Remove next to a site to remove it from the selection.

  5. Under Select reports to run, the available reports are listed in the following sections. Click Expand Expand to view the contents of a section.
    • My reports—Custom reports you have created. Hover over a report for additional options to edit, share, or delete it.
    • Shared reports—Reports shared with you by other users. Hover over a report for the option to save it.
    • Esri reports—Ready-to-use reports included with Business Analyst Web App.
  6. Select a report to run by checking its check box. Use the following options to find and work with reports:
    • Click Filter Filter to filter the report list by type. Use the toggle buttons to include or exclude categories of reports in the list.
    • Click Search Search to search for reports by name.
    • Click Sample report Sample report to open a sample view of the report in a new browser tab.
    • Hover over More information Information next to a report to view a brief description.
    • Click Add to favorites Favorite next to a report to add it to your favorite reports. To remove a report from your favorites, click the button again.
    • To run your favorite reports, click Run favorites. Those reports are added to the Selected reports pane and run immediately.
    • To save a shared report to your account, hover over it and click Save Save.
    • Click Refresh Reset to refresh the report list and see the most up-to-date list of shared reports.

    The selected reports appear in the Selected reports pane. To remove a report from Selected reports, click Remove Remove.

  7. Optionally, provide a subtitle for the report in the Report subtitle field.
  8. Use the drop-down menu to choose PDF, Excel, or Both for the format. Click Run now next to a report to run that report individually. To run all the selected reports, click Run all. Optionally, if you have selected multiple reports, check the Create an all-in-one PDF report check box to create a single, combined report.
    Note:

    All-in-one PDF reports are only created for PDF files. If you create a report with both Excel and PDF reports, the Excel files are not included.

    A Processing status is displayed. When the report is ready, it is replaced with Open report. When all reports are ready, the PDF Reports Created window appears.

  9. Click Open report to view a report that has been run.
  10. If you checked the Create an all-in-one PDF report check box, use the following additional options:
    • Optionally, use the Share reports window to specify other users with whom you want to share the all-in-one PDF report. Click Apply. All-in-one PDF reports can't exceed the 50 MB limit for sharing on ArcGIS Online.
    • When the Create an all-in-one PDF report check box is unavailable, it indicates that the report size limit has been exceeded. There is a limit of 10 map reports and a total report limit of 60 for an all-in-one PDF. Delete some reports so that neither limit is exceeded.
  11. In the PDF reports created window, do any of the following to work with the reports. When you are finished, click OK.
    • Click an individual report name to open that report.
    • Click the All-in-one report link to open the all-in-one PDF report.
    • To copy a report link to the clipboard, click Copy link Link.
    • To copy all links to the clipboard, click Copy all links.
  12. Optionally, to access previously run reports, do any of the following:
    • Click the Previously run reports section in the project pane.
    • Click Open previous in the Selected reports pane of the report interface.
    • To rerun a report, click Run again in the Selected reports pane of the report interface.

Usage notes

See the following notes for running reports:

  • Using map reports when creating all-in-one PDF reports results in large PDF files that take more time to run and download.
  • There is no limit to the number of reports you can run, except when the Create an all-in-one PDF report check box is checked. Up to six reports can be processed simultaneously. If there are more than six reports in the Selected reports pane when you click Run all, the first six start processing first, with the rest queued in Pending status. When a report is ready, the next pending report starts processing.
  • To run reports from multiple data sources in the same country (for example, ABS Census and Standard for Australia), you must enable that setting in the report preferences.
  • Currency symbols displayed in reports are based on your browser settings.

Set infographic preferences

You can set preferences for Business Analyst Web App in the app preferences. For running infographics, you can specify preferences for nearby locations tables, the default infographic template, export settings, and geography comparison settings. Administrators can set preferences for the entire organization.

To set infographics preferences, do the following:

  1. On the app header, click My preferences Preferences.

    The Preferences window appears.

  2. Expand the Reports section, expand the Overall settings section, and click Nearby locations. Set the following preferences for nearby locations tables in infographics:
    • Use the Choose a default symbol for nearby locations on maps drop-down menu to set the default map symbol and its properties (for example, size) for nearby locations.
    • Use the Maximum number of locations field to specify the number of locations to display.
    • Use the check boxes to set preferences for the title, proportional size, and footer of nearby locations tables.
  3. In the Reports section, expand the Infographics section, and click Run infographics. Set the following preferences:
    • Use the drop-down menu to select an infographic to display on site menus.
    • To set the display style, select Show full page, View in stack mode, View in slide mode, or Compare all areas side by side.
    • Use the check boxes to specify site menu and interactive experience settings.
    • Use the check boxes to specify which infographic categories to include in Run infographics menus: Shared infographics, Standard infographics, and Gallery infographics.
  4. In the Reports section, expand the Infographics section, and click Export infographics. Use the check boxes to set export preferences for PDF and image, HTML, Excel, and infographic batches:
    • Optionally, for PDF and image exports, add a header, data source information, a footer, and choose to include interactive panels.
    • Optionally, for HTML exports, add interactive experiences, export maps as static images, enable dynamic query, and set the default display as Auto, Show full page, View in stack mode, View in slide mode, or Compare all areas side by side.
      Note:

      When exporting infographics to HTML through the Run Infographics interface, or sharing infographics through the ArcGIS Dashboards and ArcGIS StoryMaps workflows, the export settings that are used are from the HTML export preferences in this section.

    • Optionally, for Excel exports, include a map image and interactive panels.
    • For infographic batch exports, choose a default export format (PDF, HTML, or Excel), opt to download batches as .zip archives, and select a naming convention for the downloaded files.
  5. In the Reports section, expand the Infographics section, and click Comparison geographies. Set the following preferences:
    • Click the color swatch next to a geography level to format its fill and border display settings.
    • Click Change labels font to format the label for the geography level.
  6. To restore the default settings, click Restore defaults.
  7. To save your changes, click Save or, optionally, click Save and close to close the Preferences window. To view your changes, refresh the app.

Set report preferences

You can set preferences for Business Analyst Web App in the app preferences. For reports, you can specify preferences for the overall settings, logos, nearby locations, default report and export format, and favorites. Administrators can set preferences for the entire organization.

To set the workflow preferences, do the following:

  1. On the app header, click My preferences Preferences.

    The Preferences window appears.

  2. Expand the Reports section, expand the Overall settings section, and click Settings, Logo, or Nearby locations. Set the following preferences:
    • In the Settings section, use the Report subtitle field to provide a default subtitle for reports. Use the Dialogs check boxes to turn introductory pages, report ready, and sharing windows on or off. If you have created custom reports, click Show all out-of-date reports to view custom reports that have out-of-date variable year labels. You can use this link to launch the update process. This link is available to Advanced users only if you have at least one custom report or infographic that needs to be updated.
    • In the Logo section, click Add logo to upload a logo to use in reports.
    • In the Nearby locations section, use the Symbol drop-down menu to specify symbol shape, size, color, and border. Set the maximum number of nearby locations to include in reports.
  3. In the Reports section, click Classic reports. Set the following preferences:
    • In the Report and format section, do any of the following:
      • Use the Select report drop-down menu to select the report to display in the site information pop-up window.
      • Choose a default report format (PDF or Excel) and select a naming convention for the downloaded files.
      • To run reports from multiple data sources in the same country (for example, ABS Census and Standard for Australia), check the Allow reports to be run from multiple data sources in the same country check box (this option is not available for the United States and Puerto Rico).
    • In the Batch export options section, use the check box to specify whether multiple files are downloaded as a .zip archive.
    • In the All-in-One report options section, use the check box to set creating all-in-one reports as the default behavior.
  4. In the Reports section, click Favorites. Edit the list of favorite reports.
  5. To restore the default settings, click Restore defaults.
  6. To save your changes, click Save or, optionally, click Save and close to close the Preferences window. To view your changes, refresh the app.