Custom Shape Map in PBI

In this blog I am going to demonstrate steps by step guidance to create a custom shape map of Sri Lanka in Power BI. To learn more  refer the microsoft officical page here.
The first you need to enable shape maps option in Power BI Desktop. Go to File > Options and Settings > Options > Preview Features, select and check the first option. 

After you select OK. You need to restart Power BI Desktop. Then you will see shape map option in visualizations pane. Next you need to import your dataset from Get Data option. In this article I am going to visualize custom shape map of Sri Lanka by districts level.  For that I have generated a dummy dataset. It contain two columns, District name and no of schools. Note: You can try these to steps to populated custom shape map of any country.

After importing data, add a shape map visual from visualization pane to the canvas. Add District name column to the Location and No of schools column to the Color of saturation and make it a Sum like below picture.

But still you can't see a map? Don't worry the magic will happen now.  Go to this github repository (I am not the owner) and download the json file. Note: You can also try creating your own shape files.

Now go to your Power BI report visual and check map settings. From that select custom map. 

Now add the json file you have downloaded to the Add a map type option like below.

Now you can see nicely populated Sri Lankan map. You can Customize the colors as your wish.

Those were the steps to populate a custom shape map of Sri Lanka in Power BI. I selected Sri Lanka because it’s my mother country, and I wanted to showcase its unique geography while addressing the lack of online resources available for developing a shape map of Sri Lanka in Power BI. I hope you found this blog helpful and that it inspires you to create visualizations that highlight your own region or areas of interest. Happy Visualizing!