I want to show a map where each zip is a shade that represents how many jobs are pending in that zip for a field automation system. I have no problem doing this from Excel, but I am having some trouble finding how to do this under program control. Could anyone point me in the right direction?

The method DisplayDataMap has a nice example in the MapPoint help file:

Code:

void CreateShadedAreaMapUsingMapPointDemographics()
{
  MapPoint.ApplicationClass objApp = new MapPoint.ApplicationClass();
  MapPoint.DataSet objDataSet;
  MapPoint.DataMap objDataMap;
  MapPoint.Field objField;

  //Set up application
  objApp.Visible = true;
  objApp.UserControl = true;

  //Get a new demographics set to DataMap
  objDataSet = objApp.ActiveMap.DataSets.GetDemographics(MapPoint.GeoCountry.geoCountryDefault);

  //Get a field from the demographics
  object key = "Households (2000)"; 
  object missing = System.Type.Missing;
  objField = objDataSet.Fields.get_Item(ref key);
  //Create the data map and give it a name
  objDataMap = objDataSet.DisplayDataMap(MapPoint.GeoDataMapType.geoDataMapTypeShadedArea, 
    objField, MapPoint.GeoShowDataBy.geoShowByRegion1, 
    MapPoint.GeoCombineDataBy.geoCombineByDefault,
    MapPoint.GeoDataRangeType.geoRangeTypeDiscreteEqualRanges, 
    MapPoint.GeoDataRangeOrder.geoRangeOrderDefault, 15,
    0, missing, missing, missing, missing, missing);
  objDataMap.LegendTitle = "State Households";
}

You'll most likely only need to replace the objField assignment with your own, and select the proper GeoShowDataBy entity level.

HTH
Paul

Hello,

This method is good for data contained internally in MapPoint (i.e. data taken from MapPoint itself which demographic data is).

In case when we are trying to import territories from our custom source (text file) using ImportTerritories or LinkTerritories, further calling of DisplayDataMap raises "Access is denied" exception.

However, I've found that ImportData prior to calling DisplayDataMap, instead of Import/LinkTerritories, works fine.

I have the next question now: how to manage colors, setting some scheme of "temperature" colors correspondinly to counts in each area (sorry for my bad English but I hope you understand what I mean). For example, blue color means minimal value in appropriate field of dataset, red color means max value, and all values between min and max are gradations from blue to red corresponding to values in each record.

Sure I continue researches now myself but any help would be appreciated if anybody already knows how to implement this. A code snippet would be very appreciated

One clarification for my question in previous post.

I know how to use different color schemes for displaying shaded areas.

But each scheme is limited to 6 colors, and it doesn't actually reflect a "temperature" which means colors corresponding to counts in each area. It's just a discrete coloring of areas, with same colors for areas having "near" counts (in case if we have more than 6 distinct values).

Any way to implement exactly (or at least something close to) what I asked in prev. post - i.e. "temperature colors" for each area? Or at least, expanding number of available colors to some number bigger than 6?

Right-click on the dataset and choose "Format Legend".
In the range-type dropdown, select "Distinct equal ranges".
Set the number of ranges to 8.
Set the order to High-to-low.
Set the color scheme to the 3rd-from-the-right on the bottom, which is blue to white to red.

You could also perform much more detailed coloring by using shapes outlining the zipcode boundaries, and then setting the color for each shape manually. With a little tweaking of 2DMGR100.DLL, you could even expand the colorset beyond the 41 colors known to mappoint.

-Paul

Hello Paul,

Any way to do this programmatically?

Check the help reference for DisplayDataMap()
Specifically, the parameters for

DataRangeType = geoRangeTypeDiscreteEqualRanges
ColorScheme = 13
DataRangeCount = 8

Ok, thanks - I'll research this