Maps in Power View reports

If Data model contains some universal geographic information (name of city, region, country, etc.) we can use them to create a chart within Power View. It enables creating maps based on Bing maps, after it automatically turns on the mechanism for searching and comparing geographical data from the model with the database of geographical locations. Maps are part of Power View reports ecosystem and they make a great supplement to the reporting panel.

Let’s create new Power View report. We’ll perform this by selecting Insert ribbon, and then should select option PowerView. On a blank sheet of the report add a table with two reporting dimensions: LOCATION and SUM of KOL. Make a copy of this table, then go to the Design toolbar and change Table object with Map. Further, drag a dimension containing geographical data about retail stores in our example in field Location. We will get a warning that the Excel connects to an external data source, and once you allow the connection a Map object will appear.

For better appearance of a map we should zoom it over desired area. As well we can use several options to influence display of Pie Chart graphs that are used to make such reports.

When we create maps, and then add Serbian cities, it would be good to prepare data in advance. We do this by creating a separate calculated column that will contain the name of the city and country name in English. For example, Belgrade, SERBIA; Niš, SERBIA; Novi Sad, SERBIA … This is important because otherwise data could be shown on wrong location. For example: Niš SERBIA is often confused with Nice, FRANCE. Also, in USA there are several cities named Belgrade (mostly they founded Serbian settlers), and if you do not emphasize the country in which the city is located you may get wrong report.