Build Maps & Dashboards with Databricks: A Step-by-Step Guide

Connect Databricks directly with Felt for instant maps and performant data dashboards.

Databricks: the new standard for big data processing

In the world of data analysis, Databricks has quickly become a favorite for data scientists and analysts. Built on top of Apache Spark and focused on collaboration, this cloud-native analytics toolkit makes it easy to work on huge datasets by abstracting over scalability challenges. And since its built on industry-standard tooling, integrating it with geospatial tools like GeoSpark and Sedona is just a couple clicks away. And of course, Felt works natively with your data stored on Databricks.

Felt: Innovating the Mapping Landscape

At Felt, we're committed to pushing the boundaries of what's possible in geospatial technology. Our platform has been continuously evolving, introducing features that make mapping and spatial analysis more accessible and powerful than ever before. Today, we're thrilled to announce our latest innovation: direct integration with Databricks.

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Connecting Your Databricks Database to Felt: A Simple Guide

Getting data from Databricks visualized in Felt is now easier than ever. Here's how you can set it up in just a few steps:

Create a new, read-only user on your Databricks database for Felt access.
In Felt, click on the Library in the toolbar.
Click "+ New Source" and select "Databricks".
Enter your connection details, including host, port, database name, and credentials.
Click "Connect", and voilà! You'll see a catalog of your data with previews.
Make it live from the layer preview at a refresh cadence of your choice.

Once connected, you can easily add any of these layers to your spatial dashboards, bringing your database directly into your Felt workspace.

See how easy it is to start building with Felt and Databricks.

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Unleashing the Power of Your Spatial Data with Components

But we didn't stop at just connecting your database. Felt's integration with Databricks unlocks a whole new world of possibilities, including our powerful Components feature. Components allow you to create interactive and informative dashboards that bring your Databricks data to life.

Power any Felt app or dashboard directly from Databricks.

Here's what you can do:

Statistic Component: Quickly summarize numeric values into essential metrics. Whether you need to show the count of features or calculate sums, averages, minimums, maximums, or medians, this component provides instant insights.
Bar Chart Component: Visualize and compare categories effortlessly. Perfect for comparing sales performance across different regions or visualizing user demographics.
Histogram Component: Identify data patterns and trends by displaying frequency distributions. Great for understanding the spread of data points, such as age distributions or elevation profiles.
Filter Component: Drill down into your data with on-the-fly filtering. Use dropdown menus for categorical data or sliders for numeric ranges, allowing users to focus on the most relevant information.
Time Series Component: Explore spatial trends over time with an intuitive time slider. Ideal for tracking changes in your data across different time periods, from hourly traffic patterns to yearly temperature variations.

Unlike business intelligence tools like Tableau, Felt’s Components were built from the ground up to handle spatial data analysis. These components work seamlessly with your Databricks data tables, updating in real-time as you pan and zoom your map or apply filters. This dynamic interaction between your database and Felt's visualization tools opens up new avenues for insight and decision-making.

More Than Just a Connection

Built to handle all your spatial use cases.

Our Databricks integration is designed to make your workflow as smooth as possible:

Live Data Updates: Keep your maps, dashboards, and components in sync with your database. Set up automatic refreshes or update on demand.
Geomatching and Geocoding: Leverage Felt's advanced features to enrich your Databricks datasets, matching geometries or adding location data to your tables.
Collaborative Mapping: Share your Databricks layers and interactive dashboards with your team, fostering collaboration and insights across your organization.
Automatic Field Population: Felt intelligently populates fields based on your Databricks data structure.
Granular Access Control: We're working on an allowlist feature to give you fine-grained control over who can access your Databricks data within Felt.

By bringing Databricks and Felt together, we're creating a powerful ecosystem for spatial data analysis and visualization. Whether you're a city planner working with infrastructure data, a researcher analyzing environmental patterns, or a business intelligence expert mapping market trends, this integration opens up new avenues for insight and decision-making.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to enhance this integration. We can't wait to see what you'll create with the combined power of Databricks and Felt!

Ready to supercharge your spatial data analysis? Contact our sales team to learn more about how Felt's Databricks integration can transform your workflow.

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