Spectrum Spatial (SSA/LIM)

Objective: We will be importing Geoenrichment data US address Fabric and Property Attributes Data from flat file format, Create Thematic in MapInfo Pro, Publish map to Spectrum Spatial, and interact with spatial information of published map through Spectrum Spatial Analyst (SSA)

A step by step guide to meet above stated objective is illustrated below.

Data Import using MapInfo Pro

• To import US Address Fabric and GeoEnrichment Property Attributes Data (any variant Basic, Standard or Ultimate) in MapInfo Pro, download or copy zip file from designated location. Extract *.txt file from zip file for data import. For this demonstration, Ultimate variant of GeoEnrichment Property Attributes Data will be used as it has got all attributes (200 Fields) available for Property.
• Examine your tabular data source i.e. US Address Fabric and GeoEnrichment Property Attributes Data. US Address Fabric text file has coordinate values (Latitude/Longitude) information and can be used to create spatial layer whereas GeoEnrichment Property Attributes has attribute information only. PBKey is common field in both these dataset which will be used to join and transform non-spatial data to spatial layer. Close tabular data once verified data field contents.
• On the HOME tab, from the Open list, click Table to open the dialog box. From the Files of type box, select “Delimited ASCII (*.TXT)” file format. Navigate to the folder that contains the TEXT file i.e. US_AddressFabric.txt, you want to open and click to select it. Click open. In the Delimited ASCII Information dialog box, define delimiter which is TAB in this case, select the File Character Set for this file from the drop-down list and then select the Use First Line for Column Titles check box if applicable. Click OK to open the file. The file opens in a Browser window. MapInfo Pro creates a .TAB file in the same location and using the same name as the original .txt file. Repeat these steps to load GeoEnrichment Property Attributes Data Ultimate variant in the similar fashion as US Address Fabric file.

Create a Spatial Layer using MapInfo Pro

To create spatial layer, it is important to have Latitude and Longitude fields/Columns which holds coordinate information beside other field names. Let us now create point layer using US Address Fabric file as it has coordinate information related fields viz. LAT and LON.

• On the SPATIAL tab, under create Group, select Create Points function.  
• Choose US_AddressFabric table to create a point layer. In case coordinates information are not available in your table and you have address fields (House Number, Street Name, City, State, Postal Code attributes), you can use Geocode to derive coordinate information related fields.
• Click the Projection button to access the Choose Projection dialog box that defaults to the Longitude\Latitude (WGS84) projection.
• using symbol option displays the Symbol Style dialog box, which allows you to choose a symbol to represent the points. You can change Font style, size, color and assign effect of your choice.
• Get X and Y coordinates from column option displays a drop-down list where you specify the column for obtaining X or Y coordinate information.
• Click OK which begins the create point process.
• Once completed, Selected Map Window opens up to display created point layer if current mapper or new mapper option is selected.

Join Spatial and Non-Spatial tables using MapInfo Pro

Now we have map table containing graphic objects in US Address Fabric and Property related attributes in GeoEnrichment Property Attributes Data table. SQL Select allows you to create relational joins so that you can bring information from these various tables together into a single results table.

To create a table that holds information from both these tables, let us perform below listed steps:

• Open the US Address Fabric, and GeoEnrichment Property Attributes Data table
• On the MAP tab, click SQL Select to display the SQL Select dialog box
• In the From Tables box, choose US Address Fabric from the Tables drop-down list first and then choose GeoEnrichment Property Attributes Data because we want to add information non-spatial information to spatial table
• Leave the Select Columns box with * character which implies we want to select all columns from both the tables (if you want specific columns, remove * character and add required fields only)
• From the Columns drop-down list, choose PBKey field from both tables and add equal sign between these fields to select records with matched PBkey only
• Click Verify to verify syntax and then Click OK
• Result table with information from both tables are created and opens up in new mapper or existing mapper based on selection checkbox done in SQL Select Dialog box
• Save a copy of this table with the name US_AddressFabric_PropertyAttributes 

Create Thematic Map using MapInfo Pro

Now let us learn to how to create Thematic Map.

• Open Saved table called as “US_AddressFabric_PropertyAttributes”
• Click on Map window containing US_AddressFabric_PropertyAttributes Layer which will be used to create thematic Map. On the MAP tab, in the Content group, click Add Theme to open the Create Thematic Map wizard panel. Wizard Panel contains series of three dialog boxes to help you choose the type of thematic map you want, the tables and fields that will be used to construct the map, and a variety of options to customize your map
•  For this demonstration, we will use Range Thematic Map option to create Range Thematic Map. Now select a range template from the list. Click Next. Choose US_AddressFabric_PropertyAttributes table from the drop-down list. Choose Field Name. Field YRBLD is chosen which represents Build Year of Property. Select the Ignore Zeroes or Blanks check box to ignore zero values and blank values in the table. Click Next.
• This panel gives option to customize your thematic map using the Ranges Method, Styles, or Legend buttons. Range calculation method can be changed by clicking Ranges button. It opens up Customize Ranges Dialog Box. You can change from default method of Equal count to the method of your choice. Natural Break is selected here to define Range Method. Number of classes can be altered as well to suit your purpose. Click Recalculate Button to regenerate Ranges based on new settings. Click Styles to make edits to Font, Symbol and Effects to this layer based on your choice. You can make changes to Legend by clicking Legend option. Title and subtitles font, effects, background and color changes can be done as well. Click OK once changes to Legend dialog box has been done.
• Once all settings are done, you can also save this setting to be used for another map creation by clicking Save As under Template option. It opens up a dialog box to assign name to the custom template. You can make use of this Template from the Template List of Range Thematic list to be used in another map. Click OK to create Range Thematic Map.
• There are many kinds of thematic maps, but the process for creating each type of map is the same in MapInfo Pro. Theme manipulation is now possible on a new THEME ribbon of MapInfo Pro. This makes many theme editing tasks much easier and in most cases eliminates the need to use dialog box. 

Upload Data to Spectrum Spatial Server

The Spectrum Spatial Map Uploader is a tool that copies the properties of the layers in a MapInfo Pro map to a Spectrum Spatial server. The tool is available for download from the Spectrum Spatial section of the Welcome Page, under Map Uploader on the Utilities tab.

Spectrum Spatial uses a named connection to help with this process. These connections must be created before you run the Map Uploader so that the tool can use them to ensure that the data in the map can be found (Refer Map Uploader documentation for creating Named Connection). To upload Map to SSA

• Add the Uploader to the MapInfo Pro Tools Menu
  • Click Download Zip to save the map-uploader-v2.zip file. Unzip it to a location that is accessible to MapInfo Pro
  • Start MapInfo Pro
  • On the HOME tab, in the Tools group, click Tool Extensions
  • Click Options on any of the tabs then click Run Program
  • In the Run MapBasic Program dialog box, find and select the NRCreatorAddIn.mbx then click Open. This loads the tool under Tools Group as Map Uploader.
• Run Map Uploader tool – There are three ways in which you can run Map Uploader tool
  • On the HOME tab, in the Tools group, click Tool Extensions. On the Running tab, double-click Map Uploader
  • Right-click on an open map and select Upload Map
  • From the Explorer window, right-click the name of the map and select Upload Map
• Spectrum Spatial Server Configuration
  • Login Page is launched with Upload Map click. Enter required credentials to sign-in
  • Navigate to the folder where you wish to save Named Map or create New Folder by clicking Add Folder button to save Named Map. Click Continue.
  • Thematic Map is uploaded to Spectrum Spatial Server if right named connection is found  
  • Click weblink to open successfully uploaded Named Map as shown in Panel or login Spectrum Spatial to view uploaded Named Map
• Thematic Map is visible in Overview Window in Spectrum Spatial Manager

Publish Map through Spectrum Spatial Analyst

Next step is to configure created Named Map in Spectrum Spatial Analyst (SSA) for web browsing. Spectrum Spatial Analyst Administration Console is used to create a map configuration (or modify the defaultmap configuration) and add the published maps to it. These maps can be viewed and browsed from Spectrum Spatial Analyst by signing as “admin.

Note: Installation of SSA is beyond this scope of demonstration. Refer Spectrum Spatial Analyst Installation Guide for installation steps detail.

• Create Map Configurations
  • Open Admin Console of SSA and Go to Map Configs tab. The Map Configs tab contains these subtabs: Maps, Settings, and Summary Fields
  • Click New button to create a new map configuration. In the New Configuration dialog box, enter the name of the new map configuration, then click the Create button. A new map configuration is initially populated with the base maps and settings of the default map configuration which can be edited.
• Add Map and define Settings
  • The Maps tab enables you to modify a map configuration by adding, reordering, and deleting maps. Click Add Maps to Open the Add Maps dialog box so you can add maps to the map configuration. Browse the uploaded Named Map and Click OK.
  • In the Map Properties section you can view or modify the properties of the map that is currently selected in the Maps list based on how you want to view map in web browser. You can define Friendly Name for your maps, change transparency, make layer initially visible on start-up of SSA Map viewer etc. For this demonstration, initially visible option is checked to load and display this map on start-up of Spectrum Spatial Analyst
  • Setting tab enables you to add/modify various settings for the map configuration such as Bounds and Starting Position, Coordinate System, Watermark, Copyright, Zoom Levels and Pan-able Extents, and Functionality Options etc. Query, Create Thematic and Add/Browse Layers have been checked under Functionality option beside default settings.
• Add Permission to enable Map View
  • Permission tab, as the name suggests, is used to assign access permissions to Spectrum Spatial Analyst. You can assign access permissions to map configurations, find my nearest configurations, queries, and base maps as appropriate. There are various levels of permissions available depending on the options chosen when you signed up for Spectrum Spatial Analyst
  • Choose the permissions:
    • Administrators Only: Only administrators can access and see
    • Choose Roles: Allows the administrator to select the roles other than admin role which are created in the Spectrum Management Console. Analyst lists only those roles which starts with word Analyst, i.e. AnalystUserRole or AnalystGuestRole. The administrator can select one or more roles from the available list of roles and move them to assigned list of roles
• Click the Save button.

This completes all settings for Map Publishing. Click SSA Connect Console to launch newly Configured Map i.e. SSA_Demo. 

So grab you copy of MapInfo Pro, Spectrum and Spectrum Spatial Analyst to start publishing your web maps in a few quick steps to share meaningful insights out of your data.

Happy Learning!