Voyager is a Slate reporting tool for geospatial mapping.

Reports in Voyager let you superimpose layers that represent data from records, events, organizations, American Community Survey (ACS) data, and more onto a map of the United States.

Creating a new Voyage

To create a new Voyage:

1. Go to Queries / Reports.

2. Select Voyager.

3. Select New Voyage.

4. Configure the following settings:

   • Name: Enter a descriptive name for the report.

   • User: Select the user to be associated with the report.

   • Folder: Keep reports organized in folders. Select Other to create folder.

     

5. Select Save.

Layers

There are two ways to visualize data, called layers, in Voyager:

Markers

Markers are weighted numerical representations of geographic clusters of data. They can represent applicants, prospects, high schools, events, or other geographically significant quantities.

Show or hide marker types by selecting them from the Markers list.

Marker data that appears in the current map view is also listed in a corresponding data tab below the map.

Select a marker to view its data as a list of records, downloadable as a spreadsheet.

✨ If you’re mapping records from the Organizations dataset as a marker layer, you can select New Event to create an event associated with the selected organization.

Overlays

Overlays let you visualize quantitative data as a gradation of colors, as with a heatmap. For example, you might use an overlay to show you where the strongest SAT scores are, or where a large number of first generation students live.

Data like this is readily available from the American Community Survey (ACS), which Slate includes through the 2022 survey year.

Select an overlay from the Overlays list to apply it to your map.

✨ You can view markers and an overlay simultaneously.

Creating a new layer

To create a new layer:

1. Select Edit Layers.

2. Select New Layer.

3. Configure the following settings:

   • Name: Appears on the voyage in the legend and the data tab.

   • Type: Select the layer type, either marker or overlay.  

   • Color (marker only): Set the color of the marker cluster. Also appears in the legend and the corresponding data tab.

   • Default Visibility (marker only): Any active marker layers can be toggled on and off when viewing the voyage map. When Default Visibility is set to On, the markers for this layer will automatically be toggled on when the voyage is opened for all users. If the setting is set to Off, the markers will not be displayed automatically, but the layer does appear as an option to turn on if the user wishes to do so.

   • Order (marker only): Enter a number to determine the order in which this marker’s data tab and legend appear.

   • Type: Defaults to Configurable Joins.

   • Category: Select the query base category for the report.

     • Overlays only: To access ACS data, select System.

   • Base: Select the query base for the report.

     • Overlays only: To access ACS data, select World - US Zip Code.

       

4. Select Save.

Your new layer requires additional configuration before it appears on the map.

Configuring a layer query

The layer needs query results, including a location export, to populate the map.

To add a query to a layer, select Edit Query. A new query appears with a base specified by the layer configuration.

Exports

Add the data that you want to appear in your marker or overlay.

For markers, exports appear as a column in the table on the query’s data tab.

📝 Unlike markers, overlay exports must be numerically quantifiable within a range: so, no exports for name, CEEB code, and so on.

Postal code export

Voyager layer queries require a postal code data point. Some exports that satisfy this requirement include:

• mailing address

• permanent address

• active address

• school #1 address

📖 Further reading: Access address exports with joins.

Accessing American Community Survey data

There are dozens of American Community Survey (ACS) data points available in Slate.

Some of these are on a percentile, while others provide a raw numeric value. Keep this in mind when choosing data points: the percentage of the population with household income greater than $200,000 per year provides a different representation than the median household income.

The numeric nature of this data lends itself most logically to the overlay type.

📝 To access this data, the overlay layer must be built on the World - US Zip Code system base.

To add an export for data from ACS in an overlay:

1. Select Subquery Export.

2. Configure the following:

   • Name: Enter a name for the data as it will appear in the Overlay list.

   • Type: Dependent subquery

   • Output: Rank

3. Select Join.

4. Select World - US Zip Data by Data Point.

5. Select Continue.

6. From the Data Point list, select the data point to be represented by this subquery export.

   

7. Select Save.

8. Select Export.

9. Select Value.

10. Select Save.

11. Select Save to save the subquery export.

Repeat for as many ACS data points as you want made available in the report.

Column width

Column widths are equal by default.

To specify a column’s width, select an export and enter one of the following formats in the Name field:

• Export Name:XXpx, where XX is the column’s width in pixels

• Export Name:XX%, where XX is the percent of the total width of the table

In both cases, Export Name appears as the column label.

Filters and sorts

Filters and sort keys are unnecessary in most circumstances for overlay queries.

Setting the layer’s location export

Voyager needs to associate each record returned by the query with a location on the map. We do this by designating one export from the query as the location export.

To set the layer’s location export:

1. Select Edit Layers from the breadcrumb navigation.

2. Select Edit Layer.

3. Configure the following settings:

   • Location Export: Select the geographic export you added to the query.

   • Location Type: Select the applicable type, either Geocode or US Zip Code.

   • Pre-selected Value (overlays only): Optionally select an overlay value to appear by default.

4. Select Save.

With your layer configured, add as many other layers as is required.

Then, use the breadcrumb navigation to return to the Voyager map and admire your new report.