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Excel Maps

This application generates Excel maps from TopoJSON files.

Use mapshaper to convert shapefiles to topojson:

npm install -g mapshaper
mapshaper-gui

On the GUI, import your map. Then export as TopoJSON.

Now follow the command line usage or batch usage below.

Command Line Usage

Clone this repository. Then, from that directory, run:

python shape.py -t path/to/topo.json --out output

This creates output.xlsm in the current directory with the map.

This takes a number of options that can be used independently:

python shape.py -t topo.json --col STATE,DISTRICT     # Only add STATE and DISTRICT columns to Excel
python shape.py -t topo.json --key STATE,DISTRICT     # Uses STATE:DISTRICT columns as key
python shape.py -t topo.json --filters ST=AP|TN,C=IN  # Only draw features where C is IN, and ST is AP or TN
python shape.py -t topo.json --view                   # View Excel while drawing (slow, useful to debug)
python shape.py -t topo.json --enc cp1252             # Switch encoding of the TopoJSON file
python shape.py -t topo.json --license license-key    # Generate protected Excel file with specified license key

If you don't know the columns (called properties) in the JSON file, use:

python shape.py -t topo.json --prop prop.csv          # Saves all columns in prop.csv
python shape.py -t topo.json --prop -                 # Summarises columns on screen

Troubleshooting

  • If you get a "Programmatic access to Visual Basic Project is not trusted" error, open Excel > File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Setttings > Macro Settings > Trust Access to the VBA Project object model. Ref.

Notes

This application uses Windows' COM for automation. It "manually" opens Excel and draws the map. So:

  • It only runs Windows
  • MS Excel must be installed
  • You mustn't copy-paste things while it's running. It uses the clipboard

Batch Usage

Create a config.yaml with this structure:

# These config files consolidate multiple shape.py commands into a single file.
# The file has 2 sections: common and maps.
# The maps section is a list of command line arguments passed to shape.py.
# The common section has default arguments passed to all maps.
common:
    topo: maps/india-districts.json         # --topo=...
    key: ...                                # --key=...
    # The --csv option generates a CSV file with specified attributes
    # This is used to create output for Shopify uploads, for example.
    csv: out/shopify.csv
    # attr: holds columns added to the CSV file.
    # Keys beginning with "_" are ignored, but can be used as {template} variables.
    attr:
        _name: 'India'          # An internal column that will not be saved
        text: 'map of {_name}'  # Picks up {_name} from the _name attribute
        desc: '{table}'         # table is a pre-defined attr that holds the HTML table of all properties.
maps:
    -
        out: "out/India-Districts-2011-AP"      # Save the first map file here
        filters: "STATE_NAME=ANDHRA PRADESH"
        attr: {_name: Andhra Pradesh}
    -
        ...

Sample usage:

python shape.py -y config.yaml

Protection

  • Generate the Excel file using a --license key
  • Open the generated Excel file
  • Press Alt-F11 to go to the Visual Basic Editor
  • On the left pane, right-click on VBAProject (for your filename) and select VBAProject Properties...
  • Go to the Protection tab and
    • Check "Lock project for viewing"
    • Select a password
  • Save the Excel sheet on share.gramener.com
  • Note the command line script

Here is a sample usage of the --license key. Only users with a machine ID matching A1B2C3D4 will be able to open it. For others, it will pop up their machine ID. You can copy-paste that and regenerate a license for their machine.

python shape.py maps/india-districts.json --filter "STATE_NAME=ANDHRA PRADESH" --key DISTRICT --col DISTRICT --license A1B2C3D4 --out Airtel-AP-TS

Sourcing shapefiles

getshapefiles.py downloads Shapefiles and converts them into topojson. To be documented.

python getshapefiles.py --help
usage: getshapefiles.py [-h] [-d DIRECTORY]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -d DIRECTORY, --directory DIRECTORY
                        directory path inside which zipfiles should be
                        downloaded