Build a map-enabled dashboard
In this topic
To include and configure interactive maps as part of your SAP model, you create a map-enabled dashboard in SAP Dashboards and use Esri Maps Designer, the map configuration application in Esri Maps for SAP BusinessObjects, to Add SAP BusinessObjects data to your map.
A map is a spatial document composed of one or more layers. A layer is the way in which Esri Maps for SAP BusinessObjects visually represents geographic datasets. A layer is similar to a legend item on a paper map. For example, on a road map, roads, national parks, political boundaries, and rivers might be considered different layers. When you add data from SAP Dashboards to a map, Esri Maps for SAP BusinessObjects creates a layer and displays it on the Contents pane. Once the layer is created, you can configure how it is styled, set its transparency, enable clustering or heat maps, turn on pop-ups, and so on.
Note:
Advanced users can work directly with the map specification code— either to apply the map specification of one map to another map or to make changes to the map by editing the code directly. For more information, see Edit the map specification.
Add an Esri map to the dashboard
- In SAP Dashboards,
create a new dashboard.
The SAP Dashboards window displays a blank canvas and an empty spreadsheet. If you created the new model by specifying a spreadsheet, the data appears in the spreadsheet pane.
- From the Components Browser, scroll to the Esri Maps category and drag the Esri Map component onto the canvas. You can repeat this step multiple times to add additional maps; each map must be configured separately.
Note:
The minimum size for the Esri map component is 450 x 450 pixels. If you place an Esri Map inside a container component, ensure that the size of the container is larger than the map.
Bind data to the map
To allow your map to display data from your spreadsheet or another data source, you add a data source and bind the data to the dashboard component.
- Press the Esri map component to display its Properties panel. On the General tab, in the Data Sources section, press the + (plus sign) button.
- In the Source Name field, type a new name for the data source.
The name is automatically updated in the list of available data sources. This name will appear in the list of data sources available from SAP BusinessObjects in the Esri Maps Designer.
- To bind data to your map, do one of the following:
- To bind data from the embedded spreadsheet in your dashboard:
- Select the cells of data that you want to bind to the map.
- Press the Binding Selector button beside the Source Data field, and choose Spreadsheet.
The Select a Range dialog box shows the currently selected range of cells in the spreadsheet. For example, Sheet1!$C$1:$D$512 specifies a range that includes all cells from C1 to D512.
Note:
By default, the maximum number of rows that you can include from the embedded spreadsheet is 512. Although you can increase this value, SAP Dashboards recommends limiting the number of rows selected in the embedded spreadsheet to a maximum of 2000. Specifying a very large range selection may affect the performance of your dashboard. When binding data from the embedded spreadsheet to your map, it is recommended that you follow the best practices outlined by SAP Dashboards. For more information, see the SAP Dashboards online help.
- Press OK.
The Source Data field shows the range of cells selected from the spreadsheet.
- To bind your map to live data in a relational Universe:
- Establish a connection with your SAP BusinessObjects Server in your dashboard using the standard SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards Query Browser.
Note:
To improve performance of the dashboard, SAP Dashboards recommends that you run queries and data connections after the dashboard loads. When binding data from data connections to your map, it is recommended that you follow the best practices outlined by SAP Dashboards. For more information, see the SAP Dashboards online help.
- After your data connection is established, bind the data to the map. Press the Binding Selector button beside the Source Data field, and choose Query Data.
The Select from Query window opens, listing all the data objects available to you.
- In the Result Objects list, select the objects that you want to bind to the map.
- Press OK.
The Source Data field lists the objects selected from the query data.
Note:
Choose a universe as a data source; Esri Maps for SAP BusinessObjects does not currently support Business Explorer (BEx) queries as data sources.
Your data must contain at least one location-based attribute, such as address data or longitude and latitude values. For a complete list of location types supported in Esri Maps for SAP BusinessObjects, see Location types.
- Repeat the procedure to add additional data sources. You can add multiple data sources from the embedded spreadsheet by selecting different ranges or cells on different sheets, or add additional data sources by selecting other queries. To delete a data source, press the Remove button beside the entry.
- To delete a data source, choose the data source from the list and press the X (delete) button.
- Save your dashboard.
Your data sources are now available, and you are ready to configure the map using the Esri Maps Designer. To get started, see Adding SAP BusinessObjects data to your map.
Note:
If your data source is not completely configured when you launch the Esri Maps Designer, a warning message appears, stating that your data source is missing information and will not appear in the available data sources in the Esri Maps Designer.