After progressing past my initial excitement with the new ArcGIS Maps for Power BI, I wanted to explore how to add my own custom layers to my maps. One of the great features of the ArcGIS visual is that you can add a reference layer that sits on top of your basemap but below your data — for “reference”. It’s not simply a visual layer though. You can click on a feature in the reference layer and view data associated with that layer.
When adding a reference layer, you can use either the provided options or search among the thousands of layers on ArcGIS Online. The ability to search also means that you can provide your own custom reference layers simply by creating and sharing them first in ArcGIS Online.
I had done a lot of work converting files to TopoJSON for the Power BI Shape Map this summer, and I had many Shapefiles and GeoJSON files that I had obtained for conversion efforts or for other mapping projects. For this tutorial, I used a GeoJSON file of Michigan State Park Campgrounds that I originally found at data.michigan.gov. In only a few simple steps, I added my layer to ArcGIS Online and was able to use it in Power BI.
Make sure that you have the following two prerequisites done, and then follow the six steps below to add your own custom layer:
Prerequisites:
- ArcGIS – Have an ArcGIS Online account or sign up for the 60 day free trial
- Power BI – Use the latest version of Power BI Desktop that includes ArcGIS Maps for Power BI, get your data in, add the ArcGIS visual to the report canvas, and drag some data into the field well
Instructions:
Step 1 – Sign in to ArcGIS Online and go to My Content. Select Add Item and then choose From my computer (Note that you can also select the web or application option if applicable).
Step 2 – Choose the source file from your computer, add a Title, add some Tags, and then click the ADD ITEM button.
Step 3 – Once the file is available, you should see a series of buttons to the right of the screen in ArcGIS Online. Perform any layer edits you might want in ArcGIS or leave the layer as it is, and then click the Share button when you are ready.
Step 4 – Choose the option to share with Everyone (public), and then click the OK button. By default your own organization will be checked when you select Everyone.
Step 5 – Switch over to Power BI and click on the In-Focus Edit Mode icon in the top right corner of the ArcGIS visual. Select the Reference layer option and then click ArcGIS to search for the publicly shared ArcGIS layers.
Step 6 – Search for your layer based on title or tags. Select your layer and check the box next to Add (which changes to Remove once selected).
You should now see your own reference data on the map in Power BI! Just to be sure that I was not fooling myself and using someone else’s layer, I edited the MichiganStateParkCampgrounds layer in ArcGIS Online. I added spaces to my title and appended Power BI Test to the end, searched again in Power BI, and confirmed that I was indeed using my own custom reference layer in Power BI!
UPDATE 10/5/2016: An experienced ArcGIS user (which I’m not) pointed out in the comments to another post that you can refine your search by owner or other criteria. For more detail, see the Esri search documentation. For example, using my example above, I could have typed owner:DavidA2 to see only my ArcGIS account’s shared layers.
Read 10 Ways to Create Maps in Microsoft Power BI.
That’s very informative. Thank you. I have subscribed to ArcGIS. May be you know how to do it; is there any way to ArcGIS premium contents which are available on the arcgis online site as a map layer?
What content in particular?
At this time there is no way to access additional ArcGIS premium content via Power BI. As Lukasz mentions in the community thread (http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/ArcGIS-Maps-for-Power-BI-Preview-Discussion/td-p/72947), signing in to ArcGIS and leveraging more of the ArcGIS content you have access to is something that is planned for the visual.
Thanks for the clarification Scott, and thanks for all of your work to help make these maps possible in Power BI!
thanks for the explanations. it’s hard to catch up with improvements in Power BI.
“Purchasing Power per Capita in Turkey” and “Average Household Size in Turkey”
and by the way I have a working topojson file for Turkey. how should I send it to you?
Post to OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc and pass me the link. Thanks!
here is the link, it will expire in a few days. pls let me know if there is an issue.
https://goo.gl/NuMpSc
Thanks for contributing. It’s available now at https://github.com/deldersveld/topojson.
you’r welcome. I appreciate your blog and sharings.
One more nuance about ArcGIS Online. A user might discover some publicly available content on the ArcGIS Online portal and think it should be available to them in the Power BI visualization. The only type of content currently available to Power BI is what is known as a “feature layer”. So if you’re poking around the the ArcGIS Online portal make sure you select “Search for Layers” on the drop-down associated with the search box. Then you know that whatever you see in the results are available in Power BI.
Hi. I followed your instructions to the tee. But simply cannot find my content when searching in PBI. I shared, ensured its public, searched on tags and title as well as my name as owner, but nadda 🙁
Any ideas?
Unfortunately I have not run into any issues with my searches. I’m not able to help troubleshoot other than to maybe suggest try it in Power BI after having shared it in ArcGIS Online.
have you solved it?
Hey,
I have exactly followed these steps to add my own layer that I made public in Arcgis Online. But when I come to step 6 to search by tag or layer name, the layer didn’t show up! what might went wrong?
Many thanks in advance.
Is it resolved? I am having the same issue, can’t see the new layer. I also can’t find anything from my owner name
I am experiencing the same issue. They show up when i search layers in the online portal, but not in Power BI
Hola, segui exactamente los pasos pero no logro ver la capa/mapa desde powerBI. SLds.
dear David,
thansk for this i have successfully added new reference layers – however in your presentation you state that this should interact with data points above or below the layer, i can’t seem to get this to happen.
Do you happen to recall how you ensured the data interacts with these layers please?
kind regards
james
I stated that you can click on a feature in the reference layer and view data associated with that layer. ArcGIS provides demographic and other data related to any of the reference layers you add. A reference layer does not interact with Power BI data though. There is some interactivity for drive time radius, but not reference layers.
I stated that you can click on a feature in the reference layer and view data associated with that layer. ArcGIS provides demographic and other data related to any of the reference layers you add. A reference layer does not interact with Power BI data though. There is some interactivity for drive time radius, but not reference layers.
Does anyone else need to use the reference date to interact with their visuals. i.e., polygon color change based on variable
Can u consume layer from AGO which is not public? only available for a closed group
@David When trying to log into ArcGIS via Power BI when it asks Enterprise, Online and Standard it says that Power BI does not allow Public accounts so it wont allow you to log into the online ESRI platform to find your map. As it shows you have a company “Blue Granite” in the selection below Public is your ArcGIS account based off your companies profile? This would be why there are so many comments they are not finding their (and mine) custom Maps. Do you know if this requires a creator license and PBI plugin addon that ESRI sells?
Thank you for posting this. I would like to make my data only available to anyone inside my company (not public). Is this possible?