Operational data often answers two related questions: what is happening, and where is it happening? Real-Time Dashboards help you monitor changing metrics, trends, and events. With Fabric Map integration, you can add an authored map to the same dashboard and provide geospatial context alongside your other visuals.
The integration treats a Fabric Map as a self-contained visual. You build and maintain the map in its own Fabric item, then reuse its published state in a Real-Time Dashboard. This approach keeps map queries, layers, filters, and styling in one place instead of requiring you to recreate that logic in each dashboard.
Add a Fabric Map as a dashboard visual
When you edit a Real-Time Dashboard, the visual picker includes a distinct Fabric Map option. This option is separate from the existing map visual in Real-Time Dashboards and does not replace it.
After you select Fabric Map, you can browse the maps available to you and choose an existing item. Real-Time Dashboard adds the selected map as a tile and renders its published configuration. You can position and resize the tile to fit the surrounding dashboard layout.
If you need a new map, the Phase 1 experience opens Fabric Map creation in a separate browser tab. After you create and save the map, return to the dashboard and select it from the available items. Creating or editing the map directly inside the dashboard is outside the Phase 1 scope.
Explore data in consumer view
The embedded tile uses the Fabric Maps consumer experience. Dashboard viewers can interact with the map without changing its authored configuration. They can:
- Pan and zoom to inspect an area.
- Hover over and select map features.
- Change the basemap style.
- Show or hide layers.
- Add, remove, or modify unlocked data filters during the session.
- Maximize the tile for a larger view with the same controls.
Fabric Maps support categorical, numeric range, boolean, and date/time filters, depending on the layer's data source and field type. Filters are scoped to individual layers and change which records the layer renders. They do not modify the underlying data source.
Map authors can also lock filters to define a required baseline data scope. Locked filters are applied automatically and cannot be removed in consumer view. Changes that viewers make to unlocked filters are temporary and reset when the map is reopened. For more information, explore Data filtering in Fabric Maps.
Keep map configuration in one place
Real-Time Dashboard stores a reference to the Fabric Map item together with tile-level information such as position and size. It does not copy the map's queries, data source configuration, layers, filters, or styling into the dashboard.
This reference model lets the Fabric Map remain the source of truth. When an author updates the source map, the dashboard continues to reference that item rather than a separately maintained copy. It also keeps the dashboard authoring experience focused on arranging and monitoring visuals instead of exposing the map's internal data logic.
Viewers still need permission to access the referenced map. If the map or its data source is unavailable, the tile surfaces the resulting error rather than exposing or reconstructing the map configuration in the dashboard.
Why this matters
A map can contain more than coordinates. It can combine data sources, layer definitions, styling, filters, and interaction settings that map authors refine over time. Rebuilding those choices in every dashboard creates duplicate work and makes updates harder to manage.
By referencing a Fabric Map item, you can pair geospatial analysis with operational metrics while maintaining the map once. Dashboard authors can focus on the monitoring experience, map authors can manage the geospatial presentation, and viewers can explore location-based patterns without changing the saved map.
Get started
- Create and publish the Fabric Map that you want to reuse.
- Create and save a Real-Time Dashboard with its required data source.
- In dashboard edit mode, add a visual and select Fabric Map.
- Choose an available map from the item picker.
- Position and resize the tile, then save the dashboard.
- Open the dashboard in view mode and confirm that viewers have access to the referenced map.
Next steps
To learn more, explore Data filtering in Fabric Maps and Add a Fabric Maps tile to a Real-Time Dashboard.
Use the embedded map alongside metrics, charts, and tables when location helps explain an operational change. Before sharing the dashboard, review the map's published configuration, permissions, and locked filters so viewers see the intended data scope.
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