Dashboard for MS CRM 4.0 provides several maps (World-map, Europe, U.S., Germany, Netherlands,…) in order to e.g. display customer-distributions.
This blog contains basic information on how to configure maps. This is explained with a Step-by-Step-Setup of a Customers in the U.S.A-chart.

1. Main-Chart settings: The following settings need to be configured within the Dashboard-Chart-configuration:
   
   
   
   Figure 1: Main chart settings
   
   
   1. Chart Series: Select Map to load the available maps into the chart-type configuration
   2. Chart Type: All available maps are listed. Choose the country/area you want to use
   3. Label(X): Select the CRM-attribute that contains country-specific data (e.g. Country-code, Contry-name,.. see below)
      
      Example US-Map: We choose Chart-Type: [Shapefiles/Usa_st] 
                                and Lablel(x) : [Adress1: State/Province]
      
      
2. Map-definition: Within the Dashboard for MS CRM 4.0 - [Installation-directory]\ClientBin\Shapefiles we can find a *.dbf-File for each available map.
   
   Each of this files contains several info like name, code, population... about the areas within the maps, marked by an UNIQUE-Columnname (AREA,STATE_NAME,…)
   E.g usa_st.dbf:
   
   Figure 2: usa_st.dbf
   
   
3. Data-mapping: But how to link this data with CRM? Like all dashboard-charts, map charts are based on the results of an Advanced Find. This advanced find needs to deliver an attribute that fits to one of our UNIQE-columns within the *.dbf-file.
   
   In most cases this will prospectively be Address1: Country or Adress1: State/Province
   
   Example US-map: Adress1: State/Province delivers the names of the US-state Winsconsin, Washington:
   
   
   
   
   Figure 3: names of Winsconsin, Washington
   
   So in this example, the Label(x)-Value (Adress1: State/Province) needs to be linked to the STATE_NAME-column in the *.dbf-file.
   
   Therefore we have to switch to the Values-tab on the Dashboard-chart record:
   
   
   
   Figure 4: Dashboard chart record (value-tab)
   
   The mapping is defined in the StyleValue-column:
   |reader.DataMapping-Name=STATE_NAME; ToolTip=STATE_NAME|
• reader-DataMapping: Specifies the mapped column
• ToolTip: It is possible to choose any of the columns from the *.dbf-file to appear in the tooltip of the country
4. Result: Now, we get following result:
   
   

That’s it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com.