Deleting custom maps
Custom maps are great! I love how you can simply visualize your data in any given way – I’ve previously covered maps with some examples – see here. But some times you may want to delete custom maps; some might be too large and you made a more optimized version or your sales regions have changed and you need to update the map. There can be many reasons, so let’s see how you delete a map.
Custom map definitions
I’m in Analytics Studio and have a lens open showing house prices by London Boroughs. I want to illustrate this using a map – no problem I’ll pick the London custom map. But wait… I have multiple maps to choose from.
It’s important to note that any map that you can choose consists of two things 1) the geoJSON with coordinates 2) the map definition with boundaries etc. The latter is what you pick in the UI but it uses the geoJSON in the background.
Deleting the map
Now we have established that the map you see in a widget is two things, we can check out how to delete a map.
In most cases, your geoJSON will be related to a map definition, hence you have uploaded your geoJSON and created a map by clicking on the plus icon right next to the map type option (see how to create your map here plus some advanced exploration). Clicking on the plus sign will show you a list of all the geoJSON files and of course allow you to add more. If you hover over the geoJSON you are able to edit and delete the file. Clicking on the delete you may very well receive the same error as below.
The reason we are getting the error is there is a map definition that is using the geoJSON. It has nothing to do with a dashboard or a lens using the map. Therefore, we must go an select the map first, then click the “Edit Selected Map” right under the map type. This will open up a dialog box where you first have to select the checkbox “Apply Globally”, which then gives you the option to delete the map in the new button that appears.
Once the map definition has been deleted, you can go back to the geoJSON and delete the geoJSON file as described above – or simply follow the steps in the gif below.
Following these two steps, you are able to clean up your map definitions and your geoJSON keeping the list nice and clean – keeping only what sparks joy in case anyone out there is Marie Kondo fans.
Written by
