Release notes

What changed in each version of Icon Map Slicer, newest first. Use this page to check whether a fix or feature is in the version you are running.

Which version am I running?

Select the visual and open Format pane > Icon Map Slicer. The first line of the card shows the version that is running. The start page of an empty visual shows it too.

Power BI loads the newest version that Microsoft AppSource has published, so a report picks up a new version without any action from you. When a new version is submitted, AppSource can list its number before the visual itself is available, so the number on AppSource may not match the one you are running. The number in the Icon Map Slicer card is the one to trust.

1.1.0.11

Everything that changed since 1.1.0.9.

Map

• A new version of the underlying mapping library, MapLibre 6. WebGL 2 is now required. Where it is missing, the visual shows a clear message instead of a blank map.
• Globe projection, with an on-map Globe Toggle. The projection is saved with the report.
• Sky settings, and the Light settings now take effect.
• Improved 3D terrain handling.
• Smoother, antialiased map drawing.
• Right-to-left labels, such as Arabic and Hebrew, are drawn natively.

Getting started

• A new start page for an empty visual.
• A "What kind of map are you making?" guide replaces the field validation popup. It appears while you edit a map whose rows do not reach any layer, shows which fields each layer type needs, turns the layer on for you and opens the Layer Manager on it.
• Blank text cells in the fields that decide a row's layer are treated as empty, the same as BLANK().

Languages

• Now available in German, Spanish, French and Portuguese as well as English. The visual follows the language of the Power BI report: the Fields and Format panes, the map controls, the legend, the Layer Manager, Basemaps, Browse ArcGIS and Icon Map Catalog dialogs, and the messages. See Languages.
• Basemap place names follow the report's language. The label Language settings (Background Layer > Style > Language and the Map Labels reference layer's Language) have a new first option, Report language, which is the default: on styles that have several languages, labels are in German, Spanish, French or Portuguese when the report is, and in English otherwise. Choosing a language, English included, keeps that language. See Icon Map basemap styles.
• The Basemaps dialog's Language option offers Report language too, and choosing English keeps English.
• The style editor shows property names, layer types (the list reads, for example, "Line · transportation") and the Colors tab in the report's language.
• The Icon Library tabs are named Filled, Outlined, Round, Sharp and Two tone, and are translated.
• The Basemaps dialog's catalog screen is headed Add from the Icon Map Catalog.

Layer Manager

• A new Layer Manager dialog shows every layer on the map in drawing order. You can reorder, hide and remove layers, and add reference and data layers step by step.
• Links to files, tiles and services are checked as you add them, with a message that explains what is wrong when a link cannot be used.
• A Your data panel summarizes the rows the visual received. When a layer is on but draws nothing, the Layer Manager explains why, using your own rows.
• The Layer Manager replaces the Diagnostics card and its Data Configuration Summary.
• Circles and Images & icons have a row each when both are on, with its own editor, status, warnings and remove button. Each moves in the drawing order on its own, and the count of layers counts both.

Basemaps (maps added to a report in 1.1.0.11 or later)

• A new Basemaps dialog. Build a list of basemaps from Icon Map styles, the Icon Map Catalog, ArcGIS, tile servers, MapLibre style links, WMS and a blank color, and choose the default.
• Report readers can switch between the basemaps in the list with the basemap selector. Turn it on with Show basemap selector.
• A style editor, with a JSON view, to customize a basemap's layers, colors and zoom ranges.
• Hillshade, 3D terrain, light and sky are set in the same dialog, in a Terrain and lighting tab. A View and zoom tab holds the camera settings, with settings new to Icon Map Slicer: a Tilt switch, Steepest tilt (up to 180 degrees), Keep readers inside an area, Wrap the world, an Animation switch, and zooming to the selection with Zoom to selected items, Zoom back out afterwards and Zoom to the selection when the map redraws.
• The Pitch buttons are hidden when tilting is switched off, and stop at the steepest tilt.
• The reader's basemap switch is named Show basemap selector everywhere, on the Background Layer card and the User Interface card. It was Show Layer Selector.
• Maps created before 1.1.0.11 keep the Background Layer card, which now offers ArcGIS as a second basemap source.

ArcGIS (new to Icon Map Slicer)

• ArcGIS reference layers: feature layers, map, image, tile and vector tile services and web maps, up to five, with the layer's own symbology, labels and pop-ups, Pop-up on Click and a refresh interval.
• An ArcGIS data layer joined to your data, in Data Layers > ArcGIS Layer. Selecting its shapes filters the report like any other layer.
• ArcGIS basemaps and web maps.
• ArcGIS elevation for hillshade and 3D terrain, read with the report's ArcGIS credential.
• A Browse ArcGIS dialog to find content in ArcGIS Online or your own portal.
• Sign in with ArcGIS: each person signs in with their own ArcGIS account.
• With API Key authentication and no key, public tiled services, styles given by their URL and web maps load. Only Esri's basemap styles need a key, and a secured tiled service still says that the key is missing.
• Test Connection checks the portal, the credential and every ArcGIS layer in the map. Send Credential As sends the credential as a URL parameter or an authorization header.
• The ArcGIS Authentication card appears in the Format pane once the map uses ArcGIS. See ArcGIS sign-in and the proxy.

Connections

• Use proxy when required: a server that does not allow Power BI to read it can be fetched through the Icon Map proxy. Each server is tried directly first, and the proxy is off when Airgapped Environment is on or the license rules it out.
• With Airgapped Environment on and no Custom Styles URL, the list of Icon Map styles is not read: the map draws a fallback style.
• Custom Styles URL works with or without a trailing /.

Reference layers (added through the Layer Manager)

• File reference layers added by link read GeoJSON, TopoJSON, KML, KMZ, CSV files with latitude and longitude columns, and WFS services, and can refresh on an interval.
• Raster reference layers accept a WMTS service link or a raster PMTiles link as well as a tile template.
• A file or raster layer's proxy can be changed after it is added, with Use proxy when required in its editor.
• Tooltips on file reference layers show HTML content, such as KML descriptions, as plain text.

Cells

• Geohash cells alongside H3, S2 and A5, aggregated from coordinates or drawn from geohash IDs. S2 cells can also be supplied as hex tokens.
• Custom shapes: count points into the shapes of a file you upload.
• Cell extrusions up to 10,000 km.

3D columns

• Column heights up to 10,000 km.
• Columns can be picked reliably with terrain on and the map tilted.

Uploads

• PMTiles archives can be uploaded as shapes from files and as reference layers.
• Data labels on uploaded PMTiles shapes.
• Zoom to a clicked PMTiles shape.

Lines

• New Flow Arcs line shape for origin-destination flows: outlined curved arcs, arrowheads, value labels, taper and a color per row.
• New Flow Tree line shape, which bundles the flows from one origin into branches, with optional labels at the branch midpoints.
• New Routes line shape, which draws lines that share a street side by side.
• 3D Arcs are drawn on the globe, are selectable, show tooltips, and take their Amplitude per row through conditional formatting. Switching to and from flat lines is clean, and arcs no longer draw through the globe.
• Animated dashed lines: dash patterns can differ per row and animate at a chosen speed, with a negative speed running them the other way.
• Lines without both an origin and a destination are no longer drawn. Flow rows whose origin and destination are the same are skipped.
• One Line Symbol Orientation list, and Line Shape first in Lines - Formatting. Fixes for Smoothed Flow.

Catalog

• Up to 20 Icon Map Catalog layers.

Labels

• New data label styles: Glass, Dark Glass, Card, Neon and Halo Text, with title, body, image and footer content.
• Body layout, solid fill, vertical alignment and a Label Visibility setting.
• The Pill style is retired, and corners are square when the border radius is 0.
• Label containers update as soon as their transparency, colors or margins change.
• Each file reference layer has its own label settings, with card styles and pointers (Callout Tail, Pin and Stem).

Legend

• File reference layers appear in the legend and the layer control, under their title, file name or "Reference layer n". Their Legend labels settings are named Reference layer 1 to Reference layer 5 (they were Overlay 1 to Overlay 5).
• ArcGIS reference layers and the ArcGIS data layer appear in the legend and the layer control, with their ArcGIS legends.

Selection and filtering

• Faster selection, with no tiles reloaded when the selection changes.
• Travel time selection uses a calibrated travel model, with a new Area Outline setting.
• Lasso Mode is now shown when Isochrone Select is on, because it decides which items a travel time area selects.
• A lasso, circle or travel time area that selects exactly the current items no longer clears the selection.
• The lasso, circle select and travel time leave out items whose Selectable setting is No.
• Clicking a selected cell or shape again now clears the selection.
• Ctrl+click on the last selected item clears the filter.
• Map Location works with fields summarized as Average.
• Selecting or clearing items keeps the map view (Map Location) filter. It used to be dropped until the map moved.
• The map view filter works when the view crosses the 180 degree meridian.
• Fix for zooming to the selected items.
• Reference layer filters read every row.
• Use Polygons for Selection works with reference layers from PMTiles archives.

Format pane

• Consistent "Subject - Section" group titles, and the Reference Layers card title.

Fixes

• Labels on circles and images no longer fail after the map is rebuilt while editing.
• Circle Size applies to the points of GeoJSON, TopoJSON, KML and shapefile reference layers.
• The daylight terminator's color and transparency change on the map straight away.
• WMS additional layers have Custom Parameter Name (optional) and Custom Parameter Value (optional), and Basic authentication is used to read the first layer's list of layers.
• The WMS Authentication Type list no longer offers ArcGIS, which added no credential, unless a report already uses it.
• Map labels are drawn in reports built in Icon Map Pro with another label source.
• The Images layer's Z Index takes effect: images are drawn at their own place in the drawing order, 410 by default, above Lines (409) and Circles (405).
• Shapes (from files): the link field is named File or Service Link, and the outline group is Shapes (from files) - Outline Formatting. A gradient or text color type saved by Icon Map Pro is drawn as the single fill and outline color.
• The map's credit links to the Icon Map Slicer page on icon-map.com.
• The lasso and circle select include the item in the first row of your data, which they used to miss.
• A lasso that ends where it started no longer clears the selection.
• Shapes (from files) drill-down draws the files from links at every level.
• Air-gapped license keys work without a connection to the licensing service.
• Fix for the visual showing blank on a Power BI Report Server reached over HTTP.
• Fix for reports opened through a Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps session.
• Reports built in Icon Map Lite now draw Icon Map basemaps.
• No camera jump when flow lines and circles are on together.
• Fix for heatmap points being lost when the map style changed.
• Fixes for the vector tile overlay: it could fail to appear, stay on the map after being switched off, or disappear after a style change.
• The vector tile overlay: fonts that the basemap's font server lacks are swapped for the closest one it has, the overlay's icons and patterns draw, and a layer is no longer added twice on first load.
• Fix for layers that were blank on first load.

Privacy

• The visual now asks for the optional local storage privilege, used only to remember an ArcGIS sign-in. See Security and certification.

1.1.0.9 and earlier

The notes and downloads for 1.1.0.9 and every earlier version are in the release history for 1.1.0.9 and earlier. Their documentation is the documentation for 1.1.0.9 and earlier.

Known issues

• Report page tooltips close as soon as they open. This is a known Power BI issue. Microsoft has not given a date for a fix.

Test a version before it reaches AppSource

You can import a downloaded version of the visual into Power BI Desktop with Import a visual from a file. If AppSource holds a different version, Power BI uses the AppSource version instead of the file you imported. This applies to sample reports too. To test your file:

1. In Power BI Desktop, open File > Options and settings > Options.
2. Under Current file, select Report settings.
3. Under Develop a visual, turn on Override the available AppSource visual's version for this session, so you can upload and test a visual file.
4. Import the visual file. You may need to move to another report page and back before the map shows the imported version.

Check Format pane > Icon Map Slicer to confirm the version that is running.

Related

• What's new
• Power BI Report Server (on-premises)
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