As of Version 6.0, Spotfire comes with a tile-based web map supplied by TIBCO GeoAnalytics (http://geoanalytics.tibco.com/). This background map layer is created as a default base layer whenever you create a Map Chart visualization, but you must be connected to the Internet to access the full depth of the layer. Using a familiar zoom slider and hand tool, you can move quickly from a global view to a street map of a city, such as Mumbai, India, as shown in the following screenshot:

You can configure the level of cartographic detail in the map layer to include borders, labels, and roads, or you can build separate layers for each type of information and overlay them one on top of the other, allowing the user to choose which ones to show or hide.

Creating a map is very easy. First, load any small dataset containing some simple text values into a new analysis file. You need to have some nominal data in the analysis file before you can create any visualization. Next...