How to use Smart Upload
Drag-and-drop your file (csv, geojson) to initialize the upload process.
Smart Upload will tell you via chat its plan for processing your data.
Review the plan, ask it to adjust (if necessary), and tell it to proceed.
If Smart Upload gets stuck during its processing steps, it may ask questions. Respond to the questions to help it along. You can ask it questions, too.
When Smart Upload has completed processing and the file is ready, the Save Layer button will activate. Click the button to save the layer to your library.
How Smart Upload Works
When you upload a file, as an AI assistant, Smart Upload has 4 tasks to complete:
Review the file
Clean it (if necessary)
Reformat it to work in mySidewalk (if necessary)
Designate What (variables), When (time), and Where (geography) data
In its first message, it will tell you its plan to complete these tasks and ask if there's anything you want to add or change before it proceeds.
Let's break down a typical plan.
Review the file
Smart Upload will take a look at your file and tell you what it found, with a particular focus on the pieces it's most interested in: variables, geographies, and time.
Clean the file (if necessary)
Smart Upload is currently capable of converting string to numeric data, removing special characters and white space, dropping unnecessary columns and rows, managing empty or null cells, and more.
Reformat the file for use in mySidewalk (if necessary)
Importantly, this does not change your data; it changes the shape of the file from a wide format to a long format. There are many reasons why long is the preferred shape for storing your data in mySidewalk, but the big ones are:
Current benefits (i.e. available in mySidewalk now)
Maximum flexibility for analysis and visualization
Future benefits (i.e. on the roadmap)
Blend your data with ours - and use your data in Seek and Sidekick
Data manipulation - filtering, grouping, and aggregating
Create new insights - transformations and calculations
Append new data - new observations or time elements
Designate the What, When, and Where metadata
This is the final step. Behind the scene, Smart Upload is reviewing the reshaped file and designating, or setting, these columns.
Save the layer
When Smart Upload has successfully completed its tasks, it will tell you so and the Save layer button will activate. Click the button to save the layer to your library and click View layer to view it.
Review the layer and make changes if needed
Now that your data is in mySidewalk, you can review its work and make corrections to the geographies it matched your data to (if necessary), and changes to variable labels and number formatting.
FAQ
What should I do if Smart Upload "encounters an issue" uploading my file?
You'll know Smart Upload is having trouble processing your file because it will tell you. Often, it will also suggest a plan for correcting the issue, and often it will be able to successfully do so. Other times, it might get into a pattern of encountering an issue, suggesting a fix, and continuing to fail. If this happens, we recommend giving Smart Upload 1-2 chances to resolve the issue, but then restarting the upload or using regular upload instead.
What should I do if my upload keeps failing?
Restart the upload or use regular upload. We're keeping track of these failures too, so we'll be able to investigate the problems it encountered and work on potential fixes as part of our continuous improvement efforts.
What if I don't understand something Smart Upload says?
Ask it to clarify, explain in a different way, give specifics and examples. You can talk to Smart Upload like you would an assistant and it will do its best to communicate more clearly and help you understand its plan and process.
Is my data being used to train an AI model?
No. User submitted prompts, data, and work are not used to train any AI models. mySidewalk leverages OpenAI's large language models for Smart Upload, generally shares only simple summaries of uploaded data with OpenAI, and OpenAI does not store data long-term or use it train its models. Please reach out if you'd like more information. We're happy to answer any questions and can provide you with a detailed AI Factsheet based off the GovAI Coalition's recommendations for explaining AI products and features. See also our principles for building responsibly with AI.
Where can I give feedback?
Your feedback is essential for continuing to improve Smart Upload so that it helps make your organization's most valuable data as open and accessible as possible to your community. We have many ways to provide feedback:
Email your customer success representative
Use live chat to ask questions or share your thoughts
Related resources
File example gallery with recorded demos