DDJM Guide

The geographic data table gives editors the opportunity to collect and manage large data amounts with geographic information in tabular form. The table can be customized individually and can be used for varied geographic information.

Use cases

Based upon points:

• Traffic accidents and its causes on certain traffic junctions
• Average income per town

• Amount of traffic accidents per federal state
• Average rental prices per federal state

Wording

This gives a brief overview on the terminology of this document.

Map Configuration

You can change settings in the map document for the entire map regardless of its geographic information.

Libraries

By using libraries, it is possible to assemble geographic information, which can be reused for different maps (for different use cases).

Demonstration – Federal States of Germany

The following data table contains an example library with the trade fairs in Germany and is completely configured and ready to use:

The column called "ID" (key: "id") contains the municipality keys of Germany’s federal states. The column "name" (key: "label") contains the names of the federal states and will be used as the label for the geographic information of the respective row.
Furthermore, this example contains three additional "Area" columns, each containing a state's area in different resolutions. Those areas can be used for different zoom levels in the playout, in order to reduce the amount of transferred data in the currently visible part of the map. If users zoom out of the map, they get lower resolution variants of Germany’s federal states hence allowing all federal states to be displayed while avoiding to transfer large amounts of data.

The library of federal states can now be referenced in map documents by using the column type "Library reference". The respective map document can enrich the library with even more information, in order to adapt the information to a specific use case.

By using the library of Germany's federal states, editors can create a map document with all registered domains per state and another map document with the average rents per state. The same library is used as the basis for both map documents and can be extended individually with additional information.

Column Actions

The menu for column actions can be opened via right click on the column header of the desired column.

Column Configuration

The column configuration can be opened via the column’s context menu and contains various settings for the chosen column, for instance name, type etc. Depending on the column’s type, the configuration options may differ.

Row Actions

The menu for row actions can be opened by right-clicking on the row header of the desired row.

Editing Rows

The editing area called "Edit row" for a table row is located above the geographic table.

In the editing area an input field is located for each column, in order to edit the respective cell of the row. An additional input field for the layout of the cell exists for the following types: "Library reference", "Area", "Line" and "Geo point". Here, the layout which is used in the playout is determined. The selectable values come from the chosen layout group in the column configuration.

Map Legend

The map legend can be opened via the corresponding button below the geographic table.

In the opening dialog you can find all layout elements which are currently in use (see editing area). These can be sorted and provided with a description. Layout elements which are not in use can be added manually as well.
You may also provide an info text which gives more explanation about the legend.

Additional Possibilities To Manipulate The Table

Drag & Drop

Columns and rows can be resorted via drag & drop, in order to change the table’s structure.

Sorting Columns

Content of a table can be sorted (virtually) according to columns. Double click on the column header to sort the appropriate column.

1. Double click: Column is sorted in ascending order.
2. Double click: Column is sorted in descending order.
3. Double click: Column is no longer sorted.

Filtering

Filtering is possible for an easier editing of data. This is done by a corresponding text field above the geographic data table. When using the filter, only rows are displayed that contain the respective filter text.

Export as XLSX/CSV file

To export geo data, open the geo data table and click on "Export data" at the bottom of the table.

Click browse to choose the file location and file type. You may export the table as XLSX or CSV.
When exporting as XLSX you can also select the checkbox "Export column configurations" to export the column configurations as well. As a result, a special notation will be written into the topline which contains the column configurations and can be reimported.
You may also choose to export missing library reference entries of a referenced library. To do so, select the checkbox "Export missing library reference entries". All missing entries will be appended to the end of the Excel table.

Exporting as XLSX will export a binary file which can be opened with Microsoft Excel or the Open Office alternatives. Exporting as CSV will create a text file which can also be opened in any text editor and then be processed the way the user sees fit.

Import of Excel files

The Sophora DeskClient offers the possiblity to import geo data from Excel files.

The import process can be initiated via a button at the bottom of the table.

Once the button has been clicked, the import dialog will open, where you will be able to select the Excel file to import. The dialog supports the following file extensions: XLS, XLSX and XLSM. You also have to choose whether the current geo data table should be overwritten completely by the imported table or whether the new data should be appended to the existing table. When appending an existing table, new columns and rows will be appended to the respective end. The column configuration of an existing column that matches the key of an imported column configuration will be overwritten.
It is also possible to have the first few lines in the Excel table ignored. This is useful if the table contains additional information or documentation above the actual table content.

In order to successfully import an Excel table, a particular format must be matched.

Column configuration

The first line of the Excel table (after the lines that should be ignored) is designated for the import of the column configuration. In this line you have to specify which key, name and type the column has. Furthermore you can specify all settings that can also be configured comfortably via the DeskClient. The column configuration must match a specific notation in order to be recognized correctly during the import process. This notation is described below.

The following attributes can be used to configure a column. The assignment of attributes to its values is made with the equality sign "=". Multiple attributes (including their values) must be separated by the pipe "|".

The type attribute specifies which kind of data can be within the column. This attribute is mandatory. The specified type is case insensitive.

Some complex values consist of fraction values. In order to be able to import such values, the fraction values will be split into multiple columns. If multiple columns refer to the same value they must have the same key. Columns with the same key will be merged to one column during the import process.

Additional column settings can be declared via more attributes.

Example

A fully prepared Excel table might look like this: