Overview
Comparison data are usually regional or national averages of your indicators which you would like to display in your report. You can display comparison areas in table and chart widgets or show their values in text widgets by using variables.
It is currently only possible to add comparison areas when you use a CSV file or an InstantAtlas Data Catalog as your data source.
How to set up comparison areas when using a CSV file
The first two columns of the CSV file are where you set the IDs and Names for the comparison areas. In a CSV file,
- define a header for the first column. You can set the header to be identical to the feature service field you use as the report Feature ID (set this in Report Settings > Properties). Report Builder will use this common field to create a link between the feature service and the CSV file.
- Copy all records of the Feature ID field from the feature service table to the first column of the CSV file. Here the feature service only contains 3 features, their feature ids are ‘EH11’, ‘EH12’ and ‘EH13’.
- Specify the comparison area IDs in the first column below the feature service feature IDs. The IDs must be given a prefix of ‘#’ (e.g. #001 or #UK) to distinguish them from the feature service features. Here there are two comparison areas: the City of Edinburgh and Scotland with ‘#Edinburgh’ and ‘#Scotland’ as their IDs.
- Now specify the header of the second column. The header name must be identical to the feature service field you use as the report Feature Name (set this in Report Settings > Properties).
- Add the names of the comparison areas on the second column. Note you do not need to specify the names for the features from the feature service in the CSV file as Report Builder will take the information from the feature service itself.
- Once you have set up the first two columns, you can then add the indicators starting from the third column. Note that each indicator set in Report Builder can only retrieve information from one data source, e.g. it is not possible for an indicator ‘Population 2015’ to retrieve field data from a feature service for your geography features and then retrieve field data from a CSV file for your comparison areas. Therefore the indicator values for all geography features must be included in conjunction with the values for comparison areas.
- Once you have finished with setting up all the data for the comparison areas in the CSV file, please refer to the CSV Data section of the Report Builder help pages to link the CSV file to the report. You will be able to display indicator values for comparison areas in a range of widgets.
Note you can combine CSV files which contain comparison areas with ones which do not contain any comparison areas. However, any CSV files that do contain comparison areas must contain the exact same comparison areas. Even if you do not have data for all of them you still have to add them and leave the data cells blank.
Using comparison areas with an InstantAtlas Data Catalog
If the source of data for your report is an InstantAtlas data catalog, the core feature layer item in ArcGIS Online must have the following tag for the comparison areas list to be visible when editing the report widgets:
ia-item-type=CatalogFeatureService
The available comparison areas will be defined by the relationship classes in the feature services belonging to the data catalog.
NB Following any update to the core feature layer, check that the above tag is still applied. If the tag has been removed, comparisons shall no longer display in widgets if they are edited following the layer update.