Once you have imported a dataset with a (multi)polygon or (multi)line geometry type, you can use the visualization tool to create maps based on the data!.

Note: This new experience is currently in Beta and is not available to all customer at this time. If you have any questions please reach out to support@socrata.com.

Accessing the Visualization Tool 

From the landing page of your dataset, simply click on the Visualize button and select Create Visualization. Or, from within the dataset, click the green Visualize tab and click on Launch New Visualization. This will open a new page where you can begin building your visualization!

 

To get started, you'll want to click on the + Add Visualization button in the upper right corner of the page.

  

Creating Your Map

Once you do this, you'll open up the visualization editor. To create a Map, click on the globe icon to start the map creation process!

 

Once you have selected the globe icon, some details will immediately generate. To the left of the page, there are two menu buttons that can be used to customize your map visualization: Map Layers and Map Settings.

The Map Layer section will be where you configure, shape, and stylize the data that is used to generate the map. You can also view and select other layers to add to your map, you can find more information on creating multilayer maps here.

The Map setting section will be where you configure the behavior of the map across layers. Here you can adjust things such as the title, description, base map, and search options.

 

Map Layers

We will first explore all the options available to customize your point map in the Map Layers section.

Data Selection

Geo Column

The main component of your map can be found under Geo Column. When selecting the globe icon, this field will pre-populate with the location column.

Scale Line weight by Value (Lines Only)

You can choose a numerical column to be used to adjust the weight or thickness of your lines. 

Color by Value

This section will allow you to modify the shape or line colors based on the values of any column in your dataset. Your color palette can be further customized in the Presentation section.

Color

Color Palette

Choose a color or color palette (when coloring by value) for the shapes on your map. You can also set a custom color scheme if you do not want to use one of the predefined palettes.

Shape Fill Opacity (Shapes Only)

A slider bar from 0-100 that will allow you to select the opacity of the shapes themselves.

Quantification Method (Shapes Only)

Choose between Linear and Category. Linear is best used when your colorized data covers a wide range of values like population. The Category can be used when you have a distinct list of values that are ascribed to the different shapes.

Number of Data Classes (Shapes Only)

When using Linear quantification methods, you can select the number of different classes used for your color scheme.

Line Weight (Lines Only)

Min & Max

Set the min and max line width for your map.

Number of Data Classes 

You can also choose the number of data classes (from 2 to 7). This can help set the range of different line weights you would like in your map.

Flyout Details 

When clicking on a specific shape, these are the details that will be displayed. You can configure a column to be used as the Flyout Title as well as add additional columns to your flyout details.

Legend

A checkbox to show/hide the map legend.

Map Settings

In this next section, we can set a number of different map setting options.

General

Set the title and description of the map, this will show up in the map area but will not change the name the map is saved as. You can also toggle the "View Source Data" link on and off, this link will direct users back to the dataset used to create the map.

Basemap

In the Type drop-down, choose from a list of nine prepopulated base maps, the map will refresh with your selection. 

Map Controls

In this section, you can choose wheater you want to show three different controls: the search bar, the location button, and the navigation button. The search bar allows you to search for a specific location, the location button will zoom to the point where you currently view the map, and the navigation buttons will allow users to zoom in and out.

Search Boundary

You can select a custom search boundary on the map by selecting shift + click to draw a box on the map that sets custom boundaries. These boundaries will bound your search results on the Map.