Table of Contents
Accepted file types and size limits
All uploaded files can be points, lines, or polygons (no rasters). Each layer must contain 5000 or fewer features. You can upload as many layers as you want in a zipped file, including different layer types, so long as the total file size is less than 50MB.
Accepted file formats
Esri Shapefile: A shapefile consists of several individual files all with the same name but different file extensions.
Each shapefile must include the file extensions .shp and .prj. We recommend including the other file extensions too.
Multiple shapefiles can be included in the same zipped folder
Any m-values or z-values will be ignored
Esri File Geodatabase (.gdb – must be zipped): A File Geodatabase can contain several point, line, and polygon feature classes. By uploading one zipped file geodatabase, all of the contained feature classes are uploaded at once.
ArcGIS file geodatabase versions 9.x and 10.x are supported
Since a file geodatabase is a folder containing data, you will need to zip the file geodatabase to upload it
Only the point, line, polygon feature classes will upload. No rasters, annotations, or relational tables
Keyhole Markup Language (.kml)
You can upload .kml files that mix points, lines, and polygons
During the upload process, a .kml file that contains a mix of points, lines, and polygons will be split into three. A separate layer for the points, the lines, and the polygons will appear in the app.
The .kmz extension will not work, as it is a zipped (compressed) version of a .kml. To use it, simply unzip (extract) the .kmz file and upload the uncompressed .kml
Geography Markup Language (.gml): Uploaded .gml files can be a mix of points, lines, and polygons. During the upload process, a .gml file that contains a mix of points, lines, and polygons will be split into three. A separate layer for the points, the lines, and the polygons will appear in the app.
GeoJSON (.json or .geojson)
Uploaded geojson files can be a mix of points, lines, and polygons.
During the upload process, a layer that contains a mix of points, lines, and polygons will be split into three. A separate layer for the points, the lines, and the polygons will appear in the app.
The default projection for geojson is WGS84. If the coordinate reference system (crs) either doesn't exist or it contains unrecognizable text, it will default to WGS84
Comma Separated Values / Comma delimited (.csv)
The first row of your .csv should be the column headers
The .csv table needs to have two geography columns, one for the longitude and one for the latitude.
The latitude and longitude must be in separate columns
We suggest giving the longitude and latitude columns common names like the examples below. Otherwise, the upload process will attempt to determine which columns contain the coordinates, which may result in the columns not being found or the wrong columns chosen
point_x, point_y
longitude, latitude
x, y
long, lat
lon, lat
lng, lat
The coordinates must be in World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) reference system
The coordinates must be in decimal degree format. Example: 37.624843, -122.381905 (with each value in a separate column)
Do not include text like N/North/Northing or E/East/Easting in the latitude and longitude columns
Latitude must be between -90 and 90
Longitude must be between -180 and 180
Correct Examples:
Incorrect Examples:
Supported Geometries
TmySidewalk supports many common GIS geometry types for upload. Below is a list of the types we support, as well as a list of the types we currently do not support.
Supported Geometries
wkbPoint
wkbLineString
wkbPolygon
wkbMultiPoint
wkbMultiLineString
wkbMultiPolygon
wkbPoint25D
wkbLineString25D
wkbPolygon25D
wkbMultiPoint25D
wkbMultiLineString25D
wkbMultiPolygon25D
wkbPointM
wkbLineStringM
wkbPolygonM
wkbMultiPointM
wkbMultiLineStringM
wkbMultiPolygonM
Unsupported Geometries
wkbUnknown
wkbGeometryCollection
wkbCircularString
wkbCompoundCurve
wkbCurvePolygon
wkbMultiCurve
wkbMultiSurface
wkbCurve
wkbSurface
wkbPolyhedralSurface
wkbTIN
wkbTriangle
wkbNone
wkbLinearRing
wkbCircularStringZ
wkbCompoundCurveZ
wkbCurvePolygonZ
wkbMultiCurveZ
wkbMultiSurfaceZ
wkbCurveZ
wkbSurfaceZ
wkbPolyhedralSurfaceZ
wkbTINZ
wkbTriangleZ
wkbGeometryCollectionM
wkbCircularStringM
wkbCompoundCurveM
wkbCurvePolygonM
wkbMultiCurveM
wkbMultiSurfaceM
wkbCurveM
wkbSurfaceM
wkbPolyhedralSurfaceM
wkbTINM
wkbTriangleM
wkbPointZM
wkbLineStringZM
wkbPolygonZM
wkbMultiPointZM
wkbMultiLineStringZM
wkbMultiPolygonZM
wkbGeometryCollectionZM
wkbCircularStringZM
wkbCompoundCurveZM
wkbCurvePolygonZM
wkbMultiCurveZM
wkbMultiSurfaceZM
wkbCurveZM
wkbSurfaceZM
wkbPolyhedralSurfaceZM
wkbTINZM
wkbTriangleZM
wkbGeometryCollection25D
Format your data
Follow these formatting rules for a successful upload:
Geography is required.
Make sure your geography (e.g. ZIP code, city, county) is in the first column.
If you’re using latitude and longitude values, those should fill the first two columns. Note: For CSVs with street addresses instead of lat/long coordinates, follow these instructions to add lat/longs to your file before upload.
Include only one boundary if your goal is to apportion mySidewalk data to it.
For example, if you want to visualize data from mySidewalk’s data library for your city council districts, you must upload the boundary for each district separately.
You can include multiple shapes/boundaries if your file contains all the data you wish to display (i.e. you do not need to apportion mySidewalk data to your boundary).
Learn more about apportioning data to custom geos here.
Include only one header row.
Excel has quick methods for combining multiple header rows if you need to merge them to create a single row.
Use headers formatted like Covid_Total Cases and Covid_Total Vaccines if you have subcategories you want to leverage in the names.
If you have time elements in your data, follow these instructions.
Remove unnecessary data.
A mass upload including data points you don’t plan to use in mySidewalk may cause issues later. It’s best to narrow your dataset now to the critical data.
Manage the blank rows, columns, and cells.
Remove any blank columns or rows. Having blank rows and/or columns in your file will cause the upload to fail.
Put a value in blank cells (“0” if applicable; otherwise, “null” or “none”). Empty cells will not become “0” values.
Move “Total” values to a separate column.
A spreadsheet of ZIP codes and an additional row for the county total, for example, will cause issues when you try to map the data.
Add totals as a column instead of a raw, which will allow you to use the total as a denominator when you want to display the data as a percentage. The total column will be the same value on every row (see image below).
👉🏽 Use the template attached to this article to help format your data.
Geocode street addresses
Displaying the location of places like health or childcare centers is a helpful way to visualize access to critical resources in a community. In order to upload this information in mySidewalk, your file must contain the latitude and longitude coordinates for each location. If you only have street addresses, you'll need to geocode them to get the lat-long coordinates.
Geocoding addresses can be done with a number of third-party online services. We like one called geocod.io but there are several that you can use. Depending on how many addresses you have, you might need to pay for the service to get those points geocoded (geocod.io offers 2500 free lookups per day). The Census offers a free geocoder here.
To prepare your .csv or .xls file for geocoding you will need to format your list of addresses in a way that the geocoder will accept. Typically this means you will need to split your address into separate columns, like this:
You can then follow the directions on the service to submit the addresses and get back an output that contains the latitude and longitude of each address.
Once you have a lat/long for each address, you can format a spreadsheet to upload as a geographic file (layer) into mySidewalk.
Be sure to include just 1 header row, and at least 2 columns (ideally the first two) should be named latitude and longitude (or lat/long or x/y).
You can also give these points names by adding a column called “Name” or “Description” and filling out the name for each point.
Uploading the address isn’t necessary but if you want that data to live in mySidewalk, you can certainly include it. Check out a good upload example below.
Now that you have clean, formatted data, you can upload it!
Upload your data
Go to Upload data from the navigation.
Select Upload geographies.
Drag and drop your file.
The upload process will create a Layer, which you can now access in your Layer library.