Design map using marker rule

The following steps guides you to design a map using marker rule and color rule to display the mineral resources production plants of a company in USA.

Create data set

1. In the data panel, click New Data.
2. Choose the JSON connection type.
3. Choose File as Type.
4. Click on the upload button, browse and upload the JSON file in File Path field.
5. Click on the Connect button.
6. In the query builder, the available fields in JSON file will be loaded under default table name, Result.
7. Drag and drop the Result table and execute.
8. Modify the data set Name and click Finish.

Note: This Data is created on our own for demonstration purpose. Download the sample JSON file from here.

Add map to the report design

The Map report item is listed under Data Regions category in the item panel.

To add a Map report item to the report, drag the map from the item panel into design area.

Now, the map item will be rendered in the design area and the map properties will be listed in properties panel.

By default map report item renders with world map shapes.

Bind analytical and shape data

In the Properties panel, under the Basic Settings category, set the USA in Shapes property and choose the data set in the DataSet property.

Then click on the edit icon for the Binding Data property under Basic Settings.

Refer Binding Data section and match analytical and shape data. Choose name in the Field Name drop-down and choose the =Fields!Country.Value expression in Binding Expression.

Click on the Update.

Customize map appearance

Let’s customize the map title, color settings, and other properties.

Appearance

Under the Appearance category, set the border width and color properties as required.

Title

Under the Title category, set the title text, position, and font properties for the map title. First, enable the Enable Title check box. Then, set the title as = "Mineral Production Plants of " & Fields!CompanyName.Value and position as center.

Shape settings

Under the Shape Settings, set the background color as #ffffff, border color as #676767, width as 0.672px and tooltip as =Fields!State.Value.

Define marker rule

Under Marker Settings category enable the Enable Marker checkbox. Set the marker size as 12.333, tooltip as =Fields!Resource.Value expression and let other values to default.

Marker rule

Under Marker rule category, enable the Enable Marker Rule check box.

• Choose Resource field in Data Value.
• Refer Marker property section and define custom marker style. Here, totally seven styles are defined to achieve the data in map surface.
• Set Bucket Count as seven.

The marker rule configuration should be as below,

Marker color rule

In above marker style configuration, we have defined seven marker styles. In which, we defined Diamond multiple times. So, in preview two items will denote Diamond shape. To differentiate these items, we can apply marker color rule.

Under Marker color rule category, enable the Enable Color Rule check box.

• Choose the Resource in Data Value.
• Choose Type as Color Palette.
• Choose Palette as Random.
• Choose Optimal for Distribution type.
• Set Bucket Count as seven.

The marker color rule configuration should be as below,

Now, the marker are applied to the map shapes but with sample data.

To see the actual data on map surface, preview the report. Before that, resize the width and height of the map, so as to view the information clearly in preview.

Preview report

You can preview the report at design time using the built-in Bold Reports Viewer to ensure the report design is as expected. Switch to the preview mode to visualize the different mineral resources production plants located in states of USA. In the following snapshot, we can observe that the marker style is distributed based on the type of mineral resource plant.

Download the above report design from link.