Auto-Match of Spotfire Map Chart Geocoding not working

Auto-Match of Spotfire Map Chart Geocoding not working

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Article ID: KB0070999

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Updated On:

Products Versions
Spotfire Analyst All
TIBCO Cloud Spotfire All

Description

Spotfire automatically adds geocoding data tables if you add a map chart for a data table where geographical names can be found. For details on how the automatic geocoding works in Spotfire, please refer: Geographic_location_and_geocoding 

Once Spotfire has chosen a geocoding table, the visualization downloads and joins in that table in the map chart based on the found column matches. When Auto-Match is performed, we can see the matched columns in the "Columns matched in this visualization:" section. However, there are instances when the Auto-Matching does not work even if you click on Auto-Match button in Geocoding. In such situation, "Columns matched in this visualization:" section as seen in below image would be blank with no Auto-matching.
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Issue/Introduction

Sometimes Spotfire may not be able to auto-match your geographical columns with Spotfire's geocoding tables. It would not match even if you click the Auto-Match button in Geocode positioning property. This article provides the cause and solution to address this issue.

Environment

All

Resolution

The reason the Auto-Match command does nothing in such cases is because the application sees the data table as being a table already containing geocoding information. The reason is that the table contains columns that might have been added from multiple geocoding tables. More specifically, we need to check the columns containing longitude and latitude data that prevents the automatic matching from running. These columns have the column property "mapchart.columntypeid" set to either "XCenter" or "YCenter".

If this property is set to an empty value for all such columns, the auto-match command will perform geocoding of the data. For example, in below image you need to set the property "mapchart.columntypeid" to empty value.

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Steps to resolve:

  1. In your analysis, Go to Data > Column Properties.
  2. Select the Data Table > Select the concerned column/s containing geographic features/coordinates.
  3. Go to Properties tab and select the property "mapchart.columntypeid".
  4. Click Edit and set the property to empty/blank value and save it.

Additional Information

Doc: What is geocoding?