Amazon has announced a functional update to its business intelligence service, Amazon QuickSight, enhancing its layer map visuals with support for Point and LineString geometry types. This development extends the platform’s existing GeoJSON workflow, which was previously limited to polygon shapes such as sales territories or regional boundaries.
New capabilities for spatial data
By incorporating Point and LineString geometries, users can now represent granular spatial data directly on interactive dashboards. Point features allow for the mapping of individual locations, such as retail stores or facility sites. LineString features enable the visualization of movement or connections between locations, such as flight paths, shipping lanes, or delivery routes.
Unlike QuickSight’s native point maps, which geocode location names automatically, layer map visuals require users to provide explicit coordinates within a GeoJSON file. This configuration offers distinct advantages for specific use cases, including the ability to lock the map’s viewport to a fixed geographic region, thereby preventing users from inadvertently panning or zooming away from the intended area.
Technical implementation
The implementation requires a GeoJSON file—with a maximum file size of 100 MB—and a corresponding QuickSight dataset. Data linking is achieved through a shared join key found in both the GeoJSON properties and the dataset rows. Once linked, users can customize map layers by adjusting color, line width, and opacity to improve data clarity.
For complex visualizations, such as displaying customer distribution within specific territories or highlighting stops along a logistics route, QuickSight supports layering multiple visuals. By utilizing free-form layout settings, administrators can stack multiple layer map visuals to create a composite view. Each sheet supports up to five stacked layer map visuals.
Operational considerations
While standard QuickSight visuals update dynamically through SPICE or Direct Query, GeoJSON-based layer map geometry is static. Updates to locations or routes require either a manual re-upload of the GeoJSON file via the console or a programmatic approach using Amazon S3 and the QuickSight API. For automated workflows, developers can reference updated GeoJSON files stored in S3 and utilize the UpdateDashboard and UpdateDashboardPublishedVersion APIs to deploy changes to end users.
This update provides data analysts with more precise control over map-based insights, catering to scenarios where static geographic context is essential for operational reporting.
Source: aws.amazon.com
Original article: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/visualize-points-and-routes-with-geojson-in-amazon-quick-sight-layer-maps/
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