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Google Maps API Key- (GMaps Plugin Trial and GMaps Plugin Standard Only)
Enter a Google Maps API key obtained from the Google Maps API website. The ID designates the domain where the SWF
will ultimately reside. Running a SWF from any computer or server that is not assigned results in an error message.

Google Maps ClientID- (GMaps Plugin Premier Only)
Enter a Google Premier ID provided by your IT administrator to display the Google Map. The ID designates the domain where the SWF will ultimately reside. Running a SWF from any computer or server that is not assigned results in an error message. Once you bind an API key, it can not be dynamically changed in the spreadsheet.

Series- Leverage the familiar Xcelsius series paradigm found in charts to plot N number of series in the map and then control the following behavior for each series, independently. Series Name- Distinguish a unique series on the map using the Series Name. This property can be manually entered or bound to a single cell per series. The series name is utilized as a key for the Series Name Destination.

Address and Shape Data
GMaps Plugin provides the flexibility for developers to plot individual points within a map using address data, or draw and connect locations and regions with shape data. Each series within your map can have unique definitions for address and shape data to create the optimal user experience.

ADDRESS DATA
Associate multiple geographical data points for a single series within the Google Map interface. The information can be entered as a [Latitude, Longitude] value or as a standard city, state address valueNOTE: To ensure maximum performance while in design mode, GMaps Plugin will not display shapes or lines after binding the address data.

"Latitude","Longitude"- GMaps Plugin can interpret and render data using latitude/longitude data as comma separated strings. When using Lat,Long values as Map Overlay Data, GMaps Plugin will instantly render the data within the Google Map interface instantly. This format is preferred for larger data ranges over 100 to ensure maximum performance.

NOTE- When defining latitude/longitude pairs, you will need to format it into a single column with a comma separator. If your data source returns latitude and longitude in separate columns, you will need to concatenate them in an adjacent cell before linking them to the Map Overlay Data property.

Geocoding Addresses- GMaps Plugin can leverage the powerful Google Maps geocode service to convert addresses you supply to latitude,longitude. In less than 100ms (250ms for GMaps Plugin trial which uses the free Google Maps API), Google Maps geocode service can transform each address data point. Address data can be formatted as the following while still retaining
“Address, city, state” Example: 6440 Lusk blvd., San Diego, CA
“Address, city, ZIP” Example 6440 Lusk blvd. 92121
"Country" Example: US
"State" Example: California
"Zip" Example: 92121

To ensure the best possible accuracy when geocoding:

Specify addresses in accordance with the format used by the national postal service of the country concerned.
Do not specify additional address elements such as business names, unit numbers, floor numbers, or suite numbers that are not included in the address as defined by the postal service of the country concerned.
Use the street number of a premise in preference to the building name where possible.
Use street number addressing in preference to specifying cross streets where possible.
Do NOT provide 'hints' such as nearby landmarks.

NOTE- Not all countries are supported for geo-coding service. The following spreadsheet provides detailed information for what regions are supported: View Supported Regions

NOTE- The Google Maps geocode service will evaluate your data and attempt to find the most accurate conversion. For example, state abbreviations could potentially conflict with country codes, so the country may need to be included in the address.

SHAPE DATA
GMaps Plugin shape data options enable additional methods for importing and displaying both polygons and line routes. Each option uses the Map Data Overlay property differently to reduce property sheet complexity while ensuring the most robust development methods.

Shape (.SHP) File -
View Step by Step Instructions for Configuring Shapefiles
GMaps Plugin supports direct connectivity to shape files .SHP which provides significant performance increase for rendering detailed polygon shapes, thematic maps, or routes within GMaps Plugin. The Address Data property will be bound to a single cell containing a URL. The URL will point directly to a .SHP file containing data for the shape(s).
http://yourserver/shapefile.csv

IMPORTANT NOTES: When using a SHP file for shape data a single series can only contain a single URL within the Map Overlay Data property. You can NOT be use multiple SHP file URLs. There should be a 1-1 relationship between series and .SHP file URLs.

TIP: Not all web servers will support .SHP as a filetype. The .SHP extension can be modified to ".TXT" which can also be referenced by GMaps Plugin.

CSV File with Lat,Long
When polygon data originates in a latitude/longitude format, you can store the data within a CSV file. The resulting performance gain enables GMaps Plugin to consume and display up to three times the data volume compared to storing data within the dashboard SWF file. The Map Data Overlay property will be bound to a single cell containing a URL. The URL will point directly to a CSV file containing Lat,Long data for each shape or route.

The Map Data Overlay property should be linked to a single URL. The URL will point directly to a CSV file containing Lat,Long data for each shape or route.
Example: http://yourserver/shapefile.csv

IMPORTANT NOTE: When using the CSV file for shape data, a single series can only contain a single URL within the Map Overlay Data property. You can NOT be use multiple CSV file URLs. There should be a 1-1 relationship between series and CSV file URLs.

Latitude/Longitude Source Data (Excel)
GMaps Plugin can utilize latitude,longitude or address data within within the Xcelsius model to draw shapes and lines on the Google Map during SWF runtime. When binding the Map Overlay Data property, select a single column containing the data required to draw shapes, where each cell in the column is a data point.To draw multiple shapes in a single series, insert a line break between all shape definitions.

TIP: Use Latitude/Longitude values rather than addresses to define polygon shapes within GMaps Plugin for optimal performance.

NOTE- When defining latitude/longitude pairs, you will need to format it into a single column with a comma separator. If your data source returns latitude and longitude in separate columns, you will need to concatenate them in an adjacent cell before linking them to the Map Overlay Data property.

Define GMaps Plugin Shapefile Keys
Shape Data Keys
Shape data keys provides absolute control over what contents from a Shape File are displayed inside of GMaps Plugin. Using DBF Key and Shape Data Key properties, dashboard designers can show/hide any shapes from a shapefile while using any sort order from business intelligence dashboard queries.

For example, if the contents of a DBF file are listed as: "AZ, CA, NM, KY" and the dashboard query returns data listed as "CA, NM, AZ". this scenario presents two challenges:

The sort order from the DBF is different from the actual dashboard data
Not all regions from the SHP / DBF are required for the required map analysis.

The DBF Key and Shape Data Keys are not required properties. However, if these properties are NOT defined, GMaps Plugin will display all shapes from the shape file and require you to use the data order from the DBF file.

Shape File Order Keys- The Shape File Order Keys are obtained directly from the DBF file and contain a distinct range of values obtained directly from the DBF file. The DBF file contains the labels/ids for each shape within a shape file and can be opened. (learn how to extract DBF data). Upon extracting the DBF data from the shapefile and binding it to the DBF key property, you can change the values but NOT the sort order. If you need to change the data order, you will do so when binding the Shape Data Keys.

Data Order Keys- The Shape Data Key property will contain a distinct range of values used to match the DBF Keys. During dashboard runtime, GMaps Plugin will evaluate the Shape Data Key and search for a matching DBF key. When the Shape Data Key matches the DBF Key, the corresponding shapes will display in GMaps Plugin. Otherwise the shapes are NOT displayed. The Shape Data Keys will define the data order for other GMaps Plugin properties including:

Address/Long,Lat
Labels
Values
Selector Source Data
Selector Position
Colors (alerts tab)

Labels-

Define textual label values with each marker in a particular series. Label information is displayed in a pop-up window whenever an end user clicks on a marker in the map. GMaps Plugin provides basic controls over text formatting via the Appearance tab. For complete control over
labels, GMaps Plugin supports HTML text. Dynamically concatenating labels and values with HTML creates an opportunity for rich content like images, charts, and links to other content. Using HTML- To use HTML code within a label, all label data must be enclosed in <HTML></HTML> tags. GMaps
Plugin will support common HTML functionality like text formatting, line breaks, images, URLs, and bulleted lists. The labels property also provides dynamic control over the pop-up window size using the following format: w:#;h:<HTML</HTML>.

Example: w:300;h:400<HTML>CONTENT</HTML>

Values

Identify a numerical value with each marker in a particular series. Value information dictates relative marker icon sizing (if Dynamic Icon Sizing is enabled) and is displayed below the label whenever an end user clicks on or mouses over a marker in the map. Values are also used to define alerts. (See Alerts)

Assigning Values to map overlay data
Values are used to identify a measure with each data point, shape, or line segment within your map. The value property is displayed within the info window by default and also used for dynamic marker icon sizing located on the appearance tab.

NOTE: The value property will NOT inherit cell formatting by default. To display values with formatting, you will need to concatenate the value within the label property

TIP- Many dashboard developers often opt out of using the built-in values display because the value property will not display numeric formatting. Instead you can leverage the label property to concatenate HTML labels with proper formatted values.

Series Name Destination
Series Name Destination is a single cell where GMaps Plugin will insert the series name, as data points, polygons, etc are selected. This property allows you to capture the current selected series so you can trigger additional advanced behaviors like drill down.
View More Information on Creating Drill down with GMaps Plugin

Source Data
Source data is a single value or range of values associated with a single data point, line segment, or polygon shape within a single series. The source data property is enabled for the following insertion types and is detailed below with each insertion type:
ROW
COLUMN

Destination
The Destination property defines where source data is inserted once a data point, line segment, or polygon is selected. How the destination range is defined, depends on which insertion type is selected. A description of the destination requirements is listed below for each data insertion type.

Note: GMaps Plugin V3.0 and greater enable dashboard developers to define a unique insertion type for each series created. View migration notes for this change

Insertion
GMaps Plugin currently supports two data insertion methods (position and label).

Label Insertion- When a data point or polygon shape is selected, GMaps Plugin will insert the assigned label into the destination property.

Destination- The destination property should be linked to a single cell. GMaps Plugin will only insert label into the destination range when a data point is clicked.

Position Insertion- When a data point or polygon shape is selected, GMaps Plugin will insert the position relative to the data range selected in the map data overlay property.
selector

Destination- The destination property should be linked to a single cell. GMaps Plugin will only insert position or value into the destination range when a data point is clicked.

Row Insertion- When a data point or polygon shape is selected, GMaps Plugin will insert the corresponding row from the Source Data Property into the destination row.
Position

Source Data- When selecting Row Insertion option, the Source Data property will be enabled. When defining the Source Data property, you will define a data range with the same number or rows as Labels with unlimited columns.

Destination- The destination property should be linked to a single cell. GMaps Plugin will only insert position or value into the destination range when a data point is clicked.

Column Insertion- When a data point or polygon shape is selected, GMaps Plugin will insert the corresponding column from the Source Data Property into the destination column.

Destination- The destination property should be linked to a single cell. GMaps Plugin will only insert position or value into the destination range when a data point is clicked.

Multi-Selection

GMaps Plugin provides multi-select capabilities, allowing end users to select multiple data points, and then capture the selected data using Rows Insertion.

*NOTE: Multi-selection is only available with the Rows Insertion option.

Changes to the Destination Property for Multi select- When multi select is enabled, the destination range will be set to a data range rather than a single row. This will enable GMaps Plugin to populate the range as each data point or polygon is selected.

(2.1) Multi-Selection Preview | Download

Selected Item

Select any icon or polygon using other components or excel logic outside of the map. The purpose is to enable dashboard developers to control what icon(s) are selected at all times. The following comma separated syntax is required to successfully select a data point within a given series. Selected item is automatically triggered any time either value changes
[Series #],[Position #]
Example: “1,2” will select the “first series”, and the “second data point” in the series.
Example: “2,4” will select the “second series” and the “fourth data point” in the series.
Example: “2” will select “all data points” in the “second series”

De-Selection
In many cases, specifically when using "Multi-Select" properies you may want to de-select the icons or polygons and start your selections over again. To force GMaps Plugin to de-select all data points in the map, insert a "-1" value in the bound "Selected Item" property.

(2.1) Dynamic SelectionPreview | Download

Show Windows on Selected Item Change

When using Selected Item property, you can enable or disable weather the info window(s) are displayed. When this property is un-checked it will only display info windows using the default map behavior.

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Behavior Tab

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Dynamic Zoom- Automatically pan and zoom as to fit all series markers into the map viewing space. If this option is set, the Pan to Location and Zoom properties are ignored.

Zoom (1-15)- Bind a single cell or manually enter a numerical value from 1-15 to dynamically control the map’s zoom level. If the Dynamic Zoom property (see Dynamic Zoom above) is selected, this property will be ignored. Pan to Location- Bind a single cell that contains an address or [Latitude, Longitude] value to control the map’s default pan location. As the Pan to Location value changes, the map will automatically center itself. If the Dynamic Zoom (see Dynamic Zoom above) option is selected, this property will be ignored.

Selected Item- Select any icon or polygon using other components or excel logic outside of the map. The purpose is to enable dashboard developers to control what icon(s) are selected at all times. The following comma separated sytax is required to succesfully select a data point within a given series.
Selected item is automatically triggered any time either value changes [Series #],[Position #]

Example: “1,2” will select the “first series”, and the “second
data point” in the series.
Example: “2,4” will select the “second series” and the “fourth
data point” in the series.
Example: “2” will select “all data points” in the “second series”

Deselection- To de-select GMaps Plugin, set the Selected
Item property to “-1”.

Show Windows on Selected Item Change- When using Selected Item property, you can enable or disable weather the infowindow(s) are displayed. When this property is un-checked it will only display info windows using the default map behavior.

Series Visibility- Establish dynamic key/status value pairs to independently control each series’ visibility on the map. If the key and status match each other, the series is visible, and if they do not match, the series is hidden.

Status- Bind the status to a single cell that serves as a listener for a Key (see Key below) value.

Key- Bind the key value that the Status cell listens for. The Status cell must match the Key cell if the series is to be visible.

Dynamic Visibility- Dynamic Visibility will enable Background Builder to show or hide with the dashboard.

Status- Status lets you select a cell in the embedded spreadsheet to control the visibility of the component. If the value in the Status cell equals the value of the Key, the component will be displayed.

Key- Key lets you specify the value that the Status must match for the component to become visible. Enter the value in the box or use the cell selector to bind the value to a cell in the embedded spreadsheet.

Geo-Code interval- When using addresses GMaps Plugin will automatically geocode the values using the Google Maps Geocode service. Use the Geocode Interval property to adjust the rate that GMaps Plugin will geocode values.

Design time preview- Design-time preview allows developers to see changes to the property sheet within GMaps Plugin component in real time. This feature is turned off by default to ensure the Xcelsius / SAP BusinessObjects dashboards development environment has maximum resources available for using other components. GMaps Plugin by default does not utilize a large volume of system resources unless large volumes of data are bound and displayed and modified.

Developer Mode- Available in GMaps Plugin Premier and GMaps Plugin Bundle Developer, this mode provides a designer with an ability to create dashboard content without using Google Maps page views. Development mode will NOT work outside of a developer’s local desktop.

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Appearance Tab

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Series Style- Choose between several popular marker icons styles for each individual series. Styles can be defined using the style dropdown, or dynamcially changed using the Marker Keys property.

Marker Keys- Marker Key Property allows you to define 1 key per data point within a series. A key can contain a specific marker key to display a standard GMaps Plugin icon, or a URL to display a custom icon. View the Standard Key table for a complete list of available icons. Another way to dynamically change icons is through the Alerts Tab. If you enable alerts for a series, icon keys are over-written.
View Alerts Tab for more information.

Custom Icons- Custom icons are defined using the Icon Key property. For each data point you will define a URL to a SWF, JPG, PNG (supports transparency), or GIF. GMaps Plugin will NOT embed any custom images in the SWF when compiled. Custom URLs can be mixed with standard GMaps Plugin icon keys.

Heatmaps- Heat map icon styles enable the visualization of density of latitude and longitude points on a map. As the number of data points increase in a specific area, the color intensity will increase. The heatmap icon style currently includes pre-defined fill types that can be layered across multiple series. Like icons, heatmaps can use dynamic icon sizing.

Heatmap Intensity- Heatmap data points, can contain an additional measure, heatmap intensity data, to control the color intensity of each data point. Like labels and values, binding heatmap intensity data will require one cell per data point. Icon Colors- There are 3 methods in GMaps Plugin for
defining icons, shapes, and polylines color.

Color Picker- Use the color picker to change all icons or shapes per series.

Bindable Colors- Bind colors to a range containing hexidecimal color codes. You will bind to 1 cell per data point or shape.

Mouse Enabled- Enable or disable any series from being selected during runtime. This option allows any series to exist as a visual without interactivity Transparency- Control the transparency of each series within the map independently. Polygons and heat maps are generally viewed at 93% transparency so the map times are still readable.

NOTE: Please see migration notes for moving dashboards built with previous versions of GMaps Plugin.

Alerts- Use the alerts tab to define unique colors based on alert thresholds compared to the Value property. (see Alerts)

0xFFFFFF = White
0xff0000 = Red
0xfffF00= Yellow
0x00ff00F = Green

Series Size- Set the icon size for each individual series. If Dynamic Icon Sizing is selected, Series Size will dictate the relative marker scale that all associated marker values are calculated against for a particular series. If Dynamic Icon Sizing is not selected, the Series Size property will dictate the exact size of each marker icon in a particular series.

Map Options- Show or hide various map controls within the GMaps Plugin user interface.

Show Legend- The legend will display all series created within the map along with the icon type and color. If dynamic icon colors are enabled, the legend icon color will reflect the fist marker’s color within the range.

Show Navigation Controls- Toggle the standard Google Map Zoom and Pan controls, allowing users to zoom in and out on a given location. Show Navigation Scroll Track- Remove the standard Google Maps scroll track when you want to create smaller maps where only zoom in and zoom out buttons are required.

Show Position Control- Toggle the Google Map Pan/ Position Control, allowing end users to pan left, right, up or down and alternatively re-center the map during runtime.

Show Small Map- Toggle the Small Google Map Control, allowing end users to pan across large geographical areas at runtime. The series icons are not be visible in the small map.

Show Map Style Selector- Toggle the Google Map Style Control, allowing users to toggle between map styles (satellite, hybrid, terrain and regular) at runtime.

Show Debug Icon- The help icon is intended for debugging purposes only. If one of your data points does not show up during SWF runtime, you can enable help to trace if the geocode service is failing to recognize your address. By default, this property should remain off.

Ad Hoc Selector Options

1. Normal Select: Allows 1 icon selection at a time

2. Polygon Select: Clicking on the screen will draw and connect points as an enclosed polygon. Anything within the polygon is selected.

3. Free form Select: Clicking and dragging will draw an organic shape. Releasing the mouse will enclose the shape and anything within the shape is selected.

4. Radius Click Select: Clicking on the map will use the location as a center point to draw a circle, where the distance is pre-determined in miles/kilometers. Any points within the radius is selected.

5. Free form Radius Select: Clicking on the map will use the location as a center point. Without lifting the use will define a distance. Upon lifting the mouse a radius is drawn from the starting point to the ending point.

NOTE: The Ad-hoc selector options will ignore any polygon objects drawn on the map. This capabilities is only available for icons.

Ad Hoc Selector Options with selector destination

When selection an area within the map containing multiple data points, you can utilize selector destination property to capture all of the locations, so they can be utilized in a list or calculation. This multi-selection functionality is does NOT require you to enable the multi-selction property on the General Tab. Make sure you bind a range of cells in the destination range if you are using clustering.

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Alerts Tab

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GMaps Plugin 3.0 features an Alerts tab, which provides point and click control over color and icon types (when using icons) based on set thresholds. Designers can set dynamic colors, limits, and icon styles providing complete control without using any Excel logic. Alerts Properties

Series Selector- Each series can contain independent alert definitions. When Alerts are NOT used for a series, GMaps Plugin will default to the icon and color configurations on the Appearance tab.

Alert Value- The alerts tab uses GMaps Plugin Value property located on the general tab. Each data point or polygon can have a value assigned to it. The alert Target Type will dictate how the Value property is compared to target, leading to the appropriate alert level. Alert Target Type GMaps Plugin Target Type controls how values are compared to target. Typically dashboard designers use “By % of Target” because values are usually associated with unique targets per data point. Based on the alert target
type, GMaps Plugin logic will dynamically assess how the value property measures against the target and then apply the appropriate formatting based on Alert Thresholds (see below).

Alert Target “By % of Target”- If the values bound to the Values property (located on General Tab) are measured against unique targets per data point, “By % of Target” is the appropriate alert option. When choosing this option, the “Targets” property is required to provide target values to
measure against.

Targets- Bind Targets property to a single column data range the same number of rows as the “Value” property. The values contained within Targets will be measured against the Value property.

Note for Shape File Alerts: When defining targets for Shapefiles the alert targets must be defined in a sort order according to the shape file key and NOT the DBF key.

Alert Target “By Value”- If the values bound to the Values property (located on General Tab) are measured against the same targets, “By Value” is the appropriate alert option. Choosing By Value forces GMaps Plugin to measure all values directly against the Alert Thresholds. If each value requires a
unique target, choose By% of Target.

Alert Levels- Alert levels are manually defined per series using a numeric ticker. Because alert levels do not typically change, it is NOT a bindable property.

Alert Thresholds- Alert Thresholds control multiple thresholds where the color, and icon style (only when address/lat,long are used). Alert thresholds can be controlled through manual data input into the table or through a bindable “Threshold” property.

Range- Range provides a plain english explanation of the how each alert threshold is evaluated by GMaps Plugin.

Limits- Thresholds use upper limits to restrict when color or icon styles change.

Color- Color definitions are established for each alert threshold

Defining Alert Limits- Alert limits are entered directly into the threshold table as upper limits. The limits bind option provides control to dynamically change the alert limits. The number of limits must match the number defined in the Alert Levels property.

Choosing Color- Color pickers are available for each alert level. Alert colors are used to visually contrast data points or indicate how dashboard end users perceive the status of the point or region.

BEST PRACTICE- It is recommended to ensure the gradations between colors (intensity and brightness) to ensure dashboard end users can interpret how data points differentiate information.

Choosing Icons- Available for address/lat,long feature only, icon selection is available for each alert level. If dynamic icons are required, the Icon bind property will globally control icons for all alert levels. Bind the icon property to a data range with the same number of cells as alert levels. For a list of icon keys, view Icon Styles.

Color Order- Color order indicates how alert colors / icons are rendered. A developer can choose if high values are “Good” or “Bad”.

Example: Revenue is evaluated as “Good = Green” while costs are evaluated as “Bad = Red”.
To alleviate re-binding alert colors, Color Order property provides a single property to flip the color definitions. Color order will NOT affect the alert threshold values or targets. GMaps Plugin enables color order as a bindable property allowing runtime toggling of color order. Bind color order
property to a single cell and use the following values to define the property:
0 = High Values are good | 1 = Low Values are good

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Security

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GMaps Plugin requires internet connectivity to communicate with the Google Maps API. To ensure maximum security of your organization's data, GMaps Plugin does not send or persist any business data to Google servers. GMaps Plugin does not require additional ports or tunneling to successfully communicate with the Google APIs and does support HTTPS for added security (see HTTPS Support below).

Xcelsius Component Security
GMaps Plugin connects directly to the Google Maps API, and does not require any middleware layer in between. During SWF runtime all customer data rendered inside of the map on the local PC, and behaves like all other dashboard components. The SWF file and embedded map is stateless and will only communicate with Google Maps APIs upon user interaction. When the SWF file is closed all data is cleared from the local system memory and any data transacted to the Google Service during the session is also not persisted by Google, GMaps Plugin, or Xcelsius.

Data Transacted to Google Maps Service
The only information that GMaps Plugin transacts to the Google Maps API during SWF runtime is the API key, CentigonID, or ClientID, zoom level, pan-to location, map style (satellite, etc) and region/address data points that need to be geocoded during runtime. In return Google Maps API will return the necessary image tiles to draw mapping imagery.

GMaps Plugin contains all of the code required to render latitude/longitude data, data icons, tool tips, info windows, labels, polygons, lines, routes, heatmaps, and other metadata that is displayed to the end user. Like any other component within a SWF, the content is rendered locally on the end user's computer, secured behind your firewall and other security measures. GMaps Plugin will support HTTPS sites for organizations that build content that is accessible outside of the corporate firewall.

At no time will GMaps Plugin transact any data bound to the following Map Properties.

Series Name
Labels
Values
Data Insertion
Shapefile definitions
Icon Style or color definitions

Geocoding Exception
While GMaps Plugin is configured to interpret and render latitude,longitude data to render data, it is not capable of converting addresses locally. If your organization desires to use the Google Maps geo-code APIs, address data is transacted to the Google service and returned as converted Lat,Long data. Google Maps premier will not persist or use any data other than to convert and return the geocode conversions for the single user session.

GMaps Plugin Properties that are transacted to the Google service
The following are the only properties where linked data is transacted to the Google Maps API

License Key (GMaps Plugin Bundle Only)- The license and Centigon Solutions generated authentication key is passed to Google Maps API to flag your page views. These keys identify your organization anonymously.
Address Data- Address data property will only transact data when it is NOT latitude,longitude data. (See geocoding exception above)
Pan-to Property- When using the pan to property, GMaps Plugin will send this single property to the Google Maps server so the map can obtain the correct map tile imagery.
Zoom Level Property- When using the zoom property, GMaps Plugin will send this single numeric value to the Google Maps server so the map can obtain the correct map tile imagery based on the zoom level.
Standard Map Controls- Google Maps includes standard controls for zooming, panning, and changing the map type.

HTTPS Support
GMaps Plugin will automatically connect to Google Maps Premier via HTTPS when GMaps Plugin is embedded in a secured web site and the SWF is accessed via HTTPS upon requesting HTTPS approved domains from Centigon Solutions support. HTTPS is NOT supported for GMaps Plugin Standard or GMaps Plugin Trial software.

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Icons/ Heatmaps

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Icon Size
Set the icon size for each individual series. If Dynamic Icon Sizing is selected, Series Size will dictate the relative marker scale that all associated marker values are calculated against for a particular series. If Dynamic Icon Sizing is not selected, the Series Size property will dictate the exact size of each marker icon in a particular series.

Dynamic Icon Sizing
Dynamic icon sizing property will control each icon's size within a series using the associated Value property on the general tab. The icon's size within each series will display relative to the entire range. Using the series numeric stepper, you can increase or reduce the relative size of all icons to make them easier to view and click. Enabling Dynamic icon size will affect all series at once, and all series not containing a value will utilize a the default size. Included in GMaps Plugin V2.0 and greater is a logarithmic scale check box that can be applied for individual series. Dynamic icon sizing is also applicable when using the heat map icon type.

Logarithmic Scale
When Dynamic Icon Sizing is enabled, each series can utilize logarithmic scale to ensure that all icons are visible rather than outlier values skewing the size of all icons.

By default, GMaps Plugin provides control over all icons within a series using a color picker. If you decide to implement alert icons or need to control each icon's color independently, you can utilize the dynamic color property, located on the Appearance Tab, next to the color picker.

Bindable colors are defined using hexadecimal color coding prefix, which is standard for web design. The following are example hexadecimal codes that can be utilized to dynamically change icon color:

Accepted Color Formats
Red= 0XDD0000 or DD0000 or #DD0000
Yellow 0XEEEE44 or EEEE44 or #EEEE44
Green 0X00BB55 or 00BB55 or #00BB55

Binding Colors for icons, polylines, and shapes:
Bindable colors are defined per icon, shape, or line. You will define a data range that contains the same number of cells as labels or values.

GMaps Plugin provides a range of icon styles to choose from base on your business requirements. These highly compressed graphics ensure maximum performance when rendering larger volumes of data.

Marker Series Style
Choose from over 20 popular marker icons styles for each individual series. Styles are only available when you choose the address/latlong option on the General Tab. Icon styles can be

Heat map icon styles enable the visualization of density of latitude and longitude points on a map. As the number of data points increase in a specific area, the color intensity will increase. The heat map icon style currently includes pre-defined fill types that can be layered across multiple series. Like icons, heatmaps can use dynamic icon sizing.

Heat map/Density Map Style
Heat map data points, can contain an additional measure, heat map intensity data, to control the color intensity of each data point. Like labels and values, binding heat map intensity data will require one cell per data point.

Marker Key Property
Marker Key Property allows you to define 1 key per data point within a series. A key can contain a specific marker key to display a standard GMaps Plugin icon, or a URL to display a custom icon. View the Standard Key table for a complete list of available icons.

Other Ways to Change Marker Styles
Another way to dynamically change icons is through the Alerts Tab. If you enable alerts for a series, icon keys are over-written. View Alerts Tab for more information.

Custom Icons
Custom icons are defined using the Icon Key property. For each data point you will define a URL to a SWF, JPG, PNG (supports transparency), or GIF. GMaps Plugin will NOT embed any custom images in the SWF when compiled. Custom URLs can be mixed with standard GMaps Plugin icon keys.

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Security

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GMaps Plugin provides basic controls over text formatting via the Appearance tab. For complete control over labels, GMaps Plugin supports HTML text. Dynamically concatenating labels and values with HTML creates an opportunity for rich content like images, charts, and links to other content.

Label Styles
Control the appearance of the label values, as they are displayed in a popup window, when each series marker is selected. Labels can be formatted using a comprehensive list of system fonts, standard colors, alignment options and bold, italic and underline font decorations.

NOTE- When using HTML format, the label style configuration will no longer be active. To modify the label font and alignment, you will need to do so inside of the <HTML> tags.

Using HTML
To use HTML code within a label, all label data must be enclosed in <HTML></HTML> tags. GMaps Plugin will support common HTML functionality like text formatting, line breaks, images, URLs, and bulleted lists. The labels property also provides dynamic control over the pop-up window size using the following format w:#;h:<HTML</HTML>.
Example: w:300;h:400<HTML>CONTENT</HTML>

Apply text number formatting
Because GMaps Plugin can not consume number formatting by default, you must manually define the numeric formatting for values using the TEXT() formula. Syntax = TEXT([number],"[format"]
Examples: TEXT(A1,"$#,###") TEXT(A1,"#%) TEXT(A1,"mm/dd/yyyy")

Supported HTML

Images
When displaying images in the Google Maps info window, GMaps Plugin will not resize itself to the image automatically. To ensure the entire image will load, you will need to define the info window width and height.
Example: w:300;h:400<HTML>CONTENT</HTML>

IMPORTANT NOTE
When concatenating HTML, opening and closing quotes are reserved characters for concatenate. To introduce double quotes, you will need to enter them into a cell and reference the cell

Example formula where A1=" ="<img src="&A1&"http://servername/image.jpg"&A1&"/>" Resulting HTML
<img src="http://servername/image.jpg"/>

Font Styling
Example: UK 

Bullet List
Example: <ul><li></li><li></li></ul>

Example: <ol><li> </li><li></li><ol>
Link
Example: <a href="http://centigonsolutions.com">web site</a>

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Polygons and Line Overlays

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STEP 1:
Obtain ESRI Shapefiles
Shapefiles are made available with many popular GIS solutions. There is a lot of data made available on the web, most commonly from organizations like CDC, or local governments. In many cases, boundary files are freely available on the internet. If your organization currently uses a GIS solution like ESRI or MapInfo, you can consult with your GIS solution expert. If there are specific shapefiles that your organization requires for development, please contact support.

When obtaining your Shapefiles, you will typically get a minimum of 3 files:

SHP- The SHP file contains the data required to plot data points that make up the shapes. The .SHP file is linked directly to GMaps Plugin, where it is rendered as a layer.
DBF- dBASE table contains all of the meta data that describes each individual shape in the .SHP file. The DBF is extremely important because the SHP file does not contain any meta data required for labels in your map.
SHX- Index file used to combine SHP and DBF file for GIS solutions. This file is required to maintain the integrity of the files when used with GIS solutions. GMaps Plugin does NOT utilize the SHX, but it is important to keep all 3 files together in case if you need to edit the shape data within a GIS solution.
Learn more about Shapefiles from the ESRI Shapefile Specification

Shapefile Requirements for use with GMaps Plugin
View Troubleshooting Guide

GMaps Plugin only supports the Polygon and Polyline shape types.
Shapefile projection should be WGS 84
Shapefile sizing should be less than 2MB for the best dashboard performance

Shapefile Resources (thanks to VDS Technologies for pulling these together)

World

Select and download free geographic (GIS) data for any country in the world.

USA/Canada

Map Layers Warehouse (USA)
Airports, cities and towns, states, county boundaries, railroads, roads, shaded relief of North America, time zone, water features from the National Atlas of the United States.

Cartographic Boundary Files (USA)
Cartographic Boundary Files, Shapefile, digital outline map files - U.S. Census Bureau.

National Transportation Atlas Data Shapefile Download Center (USA)

The California Spatial Data Library (USA)

GeoBase (Canada)
GeoBase provides free geospatial data in shapefile format.

Europe

Download street, railway, POI mapsin shapefile format (.shp.zip).

Asia

Download street, railway, POI mapsin shapefile format (.shp.zip).

STEP 2:
Editing Shapefiles
GMaps Plugin will display the contents of .SHP files but does not provide any utilities for editing or manipulating shape data. For this we recommend using a GIS tool like ESRI ArcGIS or free open source tools like Quantum GIS. Both of these solutions will enable you to merge, delete, simplify, or re-project shapes to work well with GMaps Plugin. LEARN HOW TO EDIT SHAPEFILES WITH QUANTUM GIS

STEP 3:
Connect .SHP file to GMaps Plugin
To visualize one or multiple shapefiles into your dashboard, you will first upload your shapefiles onto any web/application server and then define the URL (HTTP://yourfile.shp). Shapefiles can be loaded onto your local PC (FILE://yourfile.shp) for testing, though it is recommended to load the files onto your web/application server behind your corporate firewall.

Open GMaps Plugin Property Sheet
For any series, select the "Shape Data"
Select the configuration icon
Select Shapefile, and then click "OK"
Bind the "Single shape file URL" property to a URL where the SHP or TXT file are located.
See troubleshooting guide for more details

Note: When binding a .SHP file path to your local PC:
Use the file:// syntax instead of \\. In addition, you will need to ensure that your local flash player security settings allow access to the drive for which your .SHP is loaded.

Note: When binding a .SHP file path to a web server:
Not all web servers will support .SHP as a file type. The .SHP extension can be modified to ".TXT" by simply modifying the file extension.

The web server will require a crossdomain.xml file for GMaps Plugin to successfully access and load the .SHP (or .TXT) file. A crossdomain.xml file should be placed into the ROOT directory of your web/application server.
Download sample crossdomain.xml policy file

Save your dashboard before previewing
Preview your dashboard to ensure the shapefile loads in the map.

STEP 4:
Extracting Shape Labels from DBF File
With a shapefile successfully rendered in GMaps Plugin, you will need to link labels to identify each shape. With all of the metadata contained in the DBF file, you will need to extract that information.

GMaps Plugin does not currently support a direct import of a DBF file though you can easily view its contents inside of MSFT Excel.

Open Excel
From inside of Excel, Click Open
Set the file type to "ALL Files"
Open the DBF file
Copy the column(s) of data that you will use as unique identifiers (DBF Keys). Many times the filed will be an "ID" or "Name" which will identify each shape within the shape file.

CRITICAL NOTE- Do NOT change the sort order of the DBF file when importing to Xcelsius. If the sort order for the data is not desirable, you will adjust it in Step 5 inside of Xcelsius.
Paste the column(s) from Excel into Xcelsius which will identify the SHP keys.

STEP 5:
Define GMaps Plugin Shapefile Keys
Shape Data Keys
Shape data keys provides absolute control over what contents from a Shape File are displayed inside of GMaps Plugin. Using DBF Key and Shape Data Key properties, dashboard designers can show/hide any shapes from a shapefile while using any sort order from business intelligence dashboard queries.

For example, if the contents of a DBF file are listed as: "AZ, CA, NM, KY" and the dashboard query returns data listed as "CA, NM, AZ". this scenario presents two challenges:

The sort order from the DBF is different from the actual dashboard data
Not all regions from the SHP / DBF are required for the required map analysis.

Address/Long,Lat

Labels

Values

Selector Source Data

Selector Position

Colors (alerts tab)

Alerts Targets (when using % alerts)

Select the configuration icon from the GMaps Plugin property sheet
Click on "Shape File URL"
Bind the DBF Key to a data range obtained from the DBF file.
Note: The actual values within the DBF key can be changed to meet the requirements of your data source so you can modify the DBF key to match what your dashboard queries return. For example, if the DBF file value is "District of Columbia," you can modify the value to "DC" without impacting the dashboard.
Bind the Shape Data Key to a data range where you will control what shapes are visible from the .SHP file.

Troubleshooting

You have downloaded a shapefile connected the URL publish and no shapefile shows up. The following will walk you through a checklist to ensure you have everything configured correctly.

1. The shapefile appears in Xcelsius preview mode and on my desktop, but not when I deploy the dashboard to my web site/portal?
Yes- If it DOES work on your local PC but NOT when you published the SWF to your server, there are 3 common issues that cause the shapefile not to work

The shapefile has been placed on a MS IIS web server and .SHP is not supported out of the box. Click here to learn how to enable SHP MIME support
The web server where the SHP files are located needs a crossdomain.xml policy file
You have deployed the SWF to a web server but the SHP files are still on your local PC or file share- This is not supported by flash player. When a SWF is accessed via HTTP, the SHP files must also be loaded via HTTP.

No- If it does not work at all, you should proceed to the next troubleshooting questions.

2. Does the shapefile does not appear at all

Quick checks:

Make sure the URL to your shapefile is bound to 1 cell
Make sure the URL to the shapefile is correct
In the shape data options, make sure that shapefile is selected and not CSV or Spreadsheet

Shapefile projection

If you did NOT obtain your shape data from Centigon Solutions, there is a chance that your shapefile is not configured properly for use in Google Maps. Different GIS data sets are captured for different purposes and saved with a specific projection. In many cases shapefiles obtained for use with GMaps Plugin simply have the wrong projection applied. The good news is that its extremely easy to change this using any GIS software. Our favorite is an open source tool called Quantum GIS. Instructions for downloading and re-projecting your shapefiles with Quantum GIS are available here: Editing Shapefiles

If you require help with this, our knowledgeable support staff is always here to help you:support@centigonsolutions.com

Shapefile Size

If your shapefile is large in size (1.5 MB) there is a chance that GMaps Plugin is simply lagging trying to consume and render all of the data points that make up your shapefile. If this is a scenario you are running into, there are several ways to simplify your shapefile. You can learn how to simplify your shapefiles in ourediting shapefiles tutorial or contact support

Related Articles

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