Extracting Shapefile Keys from a DBF File

If you want to use your own Shapefiles with CMaps Analytics, you will need to define Shapefile Order keys to identify in CMaps Analytics which locations will display in your geographic view.

For more details about Shapefile keys and linking to CMaps Analytics for SAP Dashboards, view Shapefile Order Key tutorial.

Extracting Shapefile Keys from DBF File

The following instructions will illustrate how to extract the unique country names within an existing shapefile, so those values can be utilized as Shapefile keys.

  1. Open Excel
  2. From inside of Excel, Click Open
  3. Set the file type to “ALL Files”
    DBFOpen
  4. Open the DBF file (Get an example results from a DBF file for Countries.shp)
  5. Copy the column(s) of data that you will use as unique identifiers (DBF Keys). Many times the filed will be an “ID” or “Name” which will identify each shape within the shape file.

    NOTE- Do NOT change the sort order of the DBF file keys when importing them into your application or CSV file.

How to use extracted Shapefile Keys

Using Shapefile Keys with CMaps Plugin for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius)

Using Shapefile Keys with CMaps Analytics Designer
(supports extensions like custom HTML5, Webi, and other HTML5 extensions)

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