Jazz up your Geo Map or Network Analysis graph by applying icon-based display rule markers instead of color markers on the map. With SAS Visual Analytics, you may have already used display rules by populating intervals or adding color-mapped values for report objects. Now, you can jazz up your Geo Map or Network Analysis object by choosing from a curated set of icons and applying icon-based display rule markers.

The set of curated icons in SAS Visual Analytics 8.2 are classified into these groups for use with icon-based display rules:

Here is an example of the display-rule icons that are available for Status:

When your mouse hovers over an icon, the name of that icon is displayed.

Applying Icon-Based Display Rules to a Geo Map

While working with a data source that included a measure for the total number of cellular mobile subscriptions per 100 in each country, I wanted to display the results in a Geo Map. Before creating the display rules, I looked at the data for the mobile cellular subscriptions for various countries, and decided that I wanted to create four display rules, each one associated with the number of mobile cellular subscriptions per 100. The icons that I wanted for my display rules were all available under Status. So here’s how I decided to set up my operators, values, and the icon style and color:

Here are the steps I followed to setup the icon-based display rules.

Create the New Geography Item

1.  In my new SAS Visual Analytics 8.2 report, I went to Objects, chose Geo Map (available under Graphs) and dragged it over to the blank canvas.
2.  From Data, I searched for my data source and added it to the report.
3.  In my data source, I highlighted the category (Country), right clicked, and selected New Geography.
4.  In the New Geography Item dialog, I entered a name for the new geographic item that I was creating: Country (Geographic Item).

Change Geo Map Type to Coordinates

5.  I select the Geo Map, go to Options in SAS Visual Analytics and scroll down to Map.
6.  By default, the Type is set to Bubbles. I change it to Coordinates (this is a requirement to create the icon-based display rules).

7.  The default size for the Marker size is 11. I change it to 14 because I would like my markers to show up slightly bigger in the Geo Map.
8.   By default, Legend is displayed for the Geo Map and Visibility is set to On. I chose not to display Legend information for the Geo Map, so I chose Off for Visibility.

Choose Role for the Geo Map

9.  I choose Roles, and I am ready to assign the geographic data item to Category. So I choose the Country (Geographic Item) that I had just created, and drag it over to Category. I now see the Country (Geographic) data role applied to the Geo Map.

Create Icon-Based Display Rules for the Geo Map

10.  I click on Rules and under Display Rules, I click on New rule.

11.  In the New Display Rule dialog, I chose <= for Operator and entered a 250 for Value.
12.  I click on Style and choose Red as the color for this display rule.

13.  I click on Icon, and I am presented with seven categories for the icons. When I hover an icon, the icon name is displayed.
14.  I click on the Significantly Lower icon and click OK.

15.  A quick review of what I just created and I click OK.

16.  I continue to create three additional display rules for my Geo Map.

Now, I have completed creating the four display rules. Here’s how they show in the SAS Visual Analytics Viewer:

17.  When all of the display rules have been created, the Geo Map displays with the colorful icon-based display rules applied to the various countries.

You’ve just seen how you can create icon-based display rules for a Geo Map. You can also create icon-based display rules for a Network Analysis object as well.