How to create a choropleth Map or Geographic HeatMap in React

A Choropleth Map is a thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed on the map, such as population density or per-capita income.In this guide we’ll be creating a Choropleth map of Canada, But it can be used as a guide to create a similar map of any country. We’ll be using Datamap for this purpose. I am assuming that you are familiar with React.

1. Create a new project using create-react-app

   $ create-react-app map-example

   Go inside the project folder and start the development server -

   $ cd map-example
$ yarn start

2. Install datamaps using yarn or npm

   Datamaps is intended to provide some data visualizations based on geographical data. It’s SVG-based, can scale to any screen size, and includes everything inside of 1 script file. It heavily relies on the amazing D3.js library.

   $ yarn add datamaps

3. Get the topoJson file of the country for which the map has to be created

   The topoJson file contains the geometric data to plot the map of the country. To get the TopoJson file of a specific country, follow these steps:

   • Go to https://github.com/markmarkoh/datamaps/tree/master/dist
   • Find the datamaps.{xyz}.js file for the country xyz. xyz is the 3 character code for any country. Since we are creating a map for Canada, we’ll find the file named datamaps.can.js in the above repository (“can” is the 3 character code for Canada).
   • Copy the contents of the file and paste it in the browser console (You can open the console by pressing F12 in the browser).

   • Execute the following code after running the above code in the browser.
     

     copy(Datamap.prototype.canTopo);

     It will copy the data returned by Datamap.prototype.canTopo function to the clipboard. (You can replace “can” with any other country code if you are creating the map for another country).

   • Create a new file named Canada.topo.json inside the src/components directory in the project folder.
   • Paste the contents copied from the browser console. If the state codes contains dot(.) in the topo json, then you need to remove the dot from the code e.g, if your state code is CA.AL, remove CA. part to get 2-digit ISO code AL. If the states code are already in 2-digit ISO or do’t have dot(.) then don’t do any modification follow next steps. Objects country name in {xyz}.topo.json should be same as we have declared in the Datamap scope. e.g, for Canada, in canada.topo.json we have {“type”:”Topology”,
“objects”:{“can”:{“type”:”GeometryCollection”}}}

     and we have provided scope as ‘canada’ in the map component in next step. So this case ‘can’ in canada.topo.json must be as ‘canada’ i.e.

     {“type”:”Topology”,
“objects”:{“canada”:{“type”:”GeometryCollection”}}}

4. Create the ChoroplethMap component

   This will be the component which will render the choropleth map (or geographic heatmap) in the DOM.
   Create a new file named ChoroplethMap.js inside src/components directory in the project folder.
   The contents of the file should be as below -

   Now, we’ll walk through the code above - Starting with the usual react stuff, we have imported all the required packages as well as the topo json fiile.

   Inside the componentDidMount lifecycle method, we have configured and rendered the choropleth Choropleth map using datemaps and d3.

   We have transformed the data coming as the props to the format that Datamaps expects it to be in by finding the minimum and the maximum value from the data and then generating the colour palette using d3 scale. After that, we have created the map using new Datamap() and passing all the configurations and the data to plot the map.

   Note that we have overridden the setProjection method to define the properties of the map like the center and the scale.The center of the map varies according to the country.

   We have set [-106.3468, 68.1304] to locate center point for Canada in the world map. That means Latitude = -106.3468 E and Longitude = 68.1304 N. Remember Latitude and Longitude are always East and North. For western countries, Latitude are in West so make it convert as Negative of East. e.g 102.3421 W ==> -102.3421 E.

   After that, we have rendered a div with the id=”choropleth_map”, which is used by Datamap to render the map.

5. Import and render the ChoroplethMap component in App.js

   Now inside App.js component, we have to import the ChoroplethMap component that we created in the above steps and render it inside a div so that the App component looks like below -

   We have defined some sample data in the state and passed it to the map component as props. Also, we have set the height and width of the container div through inline styles. This is important as the map component has the height and width set to 100% of the parent element.

   Now run $ react start in the terminal and test the app.

   You can clone and test the project from the following repository on github -

   WebDevRaj / choropleth-map

   A chloropleth map or Geographic heatmap created in react using datamaps.

   This project was bootstrapped with Create React App.

   Available Scripts

   In the project directory, you can run:

   npm start

   Runs the app in the development mode.
   Open http://localhost:3000 to view it in the browser.

   The page will reload if you make edits.
   You will also see any lint errors in the console.

   npm test

   Launches the test runner in the interactive watch mode.
   See the section about running tests for more information.

   npm run build

   Builds the app for production to the build folder.
   It correctly bundles React in production mode and optimizes the build for the best performance.

   The build is minified and the filenames include the hashes.
   Your app is ready to be deployed!

   See the section about deployment for more information.

   npm run eject

   Note: this is a one-way operation. Once you eject, you can’t go back!

   If you aren’t satisfied with the build tool…

   
   

   View on GitHub

   
   

References :

• npm/datamaps
• Wikipedia

Originally published on medium - How to create a choropleth Map or a Geographic HeatMap in React

Comments

[Blessing Hirwa]

Hey man!

I downloaded your app and only changed data in Canada.top.json and I wanted to collect data for Rwanda.

{“type”:”Topology”,
“objects”:{“ind”:{“type”:”GeometryCollection”}}}

I did the above but I'm getting this error:

[jasonnn0210]

Hello Rajesh, I tried doing this, but I am met with an error of "Attempted import error: 'd3' does not contain a default export (imported as 'd3'). " I googled around and instead changed the import to "import * as d3 from 'd3' " but I am met with another error of " Attempted import error: 'geo' is not exported from 'd3' (imported as 'd3'). " Do you have any idea on how to get around this issue? I used npm i d3, is there any further steps that I have to take in order for d3 to be imported correctly? Thanks and I look forward to your reply! :-)

[Rajesh Sharma]

Hi,
You don't need to install d3 separately, just install 'datamaps'.
You can have a look at my github repository -
github.com/WebDevRaj/choropleth-map

[gentlejoseph]

Hey Rajesh, so if my scope is lets say ind, so topo file should be {“type”:”Topology”,
“objects”:{“ind”:{“type”:”GeometryCollection”}}} ? If yes I tried but I am getting an error. Any idea why?

[Rajesh Sharma]

Can you please tell me the exact error that you're getting ?