I'm trying to visualize GPS points on PowerBI maps offline and wonder what would be the best way to achieve that.
Ideally, I'd like to see the offline mapping to have the same effect as directly using the "Map" visualization - GPS points (in data as longitude and latitude columns) plotted on the Bing map. However, our team will need this function offline, because our users are usually under bad internet connections. Also we are wary about Bing's data sharing policy as our GPS information is highly confidential.
So far I've tried PowerBI's shape map function, which allows me to upload a TopoJSON file and use it offline. However, it looks like shape map is better used for highlighting a region on the map, instead of plotting individual GPS points - shape map doesn't seem to allow longitude/latitude. Besides that, shape map does not have as much information like Bing map, such as showing city/road names and etc.
Is there a way to visualize GPS points offline on PowerBI, but still get enough information about what are around the GPS points? I'm referring to PowerBI here but all things I've been doing are on PowerBI Desktop. I don't plan to publish on the web as this will be my company's internal tool. Thanks in advance!
The built-in mapping functions such as the Map visual powered by the Bing maps API and the Eris mapping do not have an offline mode. Both require an online connection. Depending on the level of detail that you require, I would suggest looking into an R or Python visual with one of the mapping libraries. Here are some examples of the R mapping libraries. But getting the map json files into Power BI will also be an issue and may not meet your requirements on the level of detail that you need.
Also we are wary about Bing's data sharing policy as our GPS information is highly confidential.
I wouldn't worry about it, Bing & Power BI mapping is used by a wide number of organisation including heath and military customers. Your confidential data is more at risk with some one copying your Power BI report and sticking it on a USB drive.
However, our team will need this function offline, because our users are usually under bad internet connections
I would try some other options for offline mapping, for example Google Maps has the ability to down load a section of the map for offline/bad connections. I've downloaded the whole UK and its about 100meg.
Hope that helps