Upload your own data

You can bring your own spatial data into OrionGIS and use it like a catalogue dataset.

Your uploads are private. A dataset you upload can be seen only by you, and it stays that way until you choose to make it public. See Make an upload public or private below and Access and sharing.

#Supported files

For a Shapefile, zip the .shp, .shx, .dbf and .prj files together. See the supported formats reference.

#How OrionGIS prepares your file

Every upload is prepared before it is published, so that it has a location and a description.

A table is placed on the map from the best columns it has, in this order:

1. Coordinates: latitude and longitude columns (in degrees), or a column of WKT geometry.
2. An address: a full address column (address, full_address, physical_address…), or street, house number, town and postcode columns.
3. A name with its admin names: for example a facility, school or site name with its ward, sub-county, county or district (Facility_Name, Ward, County…). OrionGIS looks up the name within those areas, narrowing step by step.
4. Admin names alone: a row with only a county or district is placed at the centre of that area.

Each placed row gets a geocode_match column saying how it was placed (coordinates, address, street, place or admin), so a row placed only at its county's centre is never mistaken for an exact location. Rows that can't be placed are listed in the review and left out of the published layer. Lookups use OpenStreetMap (and the US Census geocoder for US street addresses); each distinct address or place is looked up once, so a big table can take a while. You can close the dialog and come back: it keeps going.

A description is suggested by OrionAI from the data itself: its columns, a few sample rows, the area it covers and its size. It also suggests a title. Check both and edit them before you publish.

#What can't be published

A dataset is published only when it has both:

• a location: its own geometry, or at least one row of a table placed on the map, and
• a description of at least 50 characters.

If none of a table's rows can be placed, or the description is missing, Publish stays unavailable and the review says what to add. Data nobody can place or understand isn't useful in the catalogue.

#Upload from a project

1. Open the project and go to its Data tab.
2. Choose Upload Dataset.
3. Pick your file and choose Upload and prepare.
4. Review the location summary, the title and the description, then choose Publish (private to you).

When it finishes the dataset is added to the project's Data tab, ready to map.

#Upload from the catalogue

In the Spatial Data Hub, choose Upload Dataset (visible when you are signed in), pick your file, choose Upload and prepare, review it and choose Publish (private to you). It appears in your searches (nobody else sees it) and can be added to any of your projects with Add to Project.

#Make an upload public or private

Open the dataset's page. As its owner you will see a PRIVATE or PUBLIC marker with a button beside it:

• Make public lets anyone find, view and download the dataset. You are asked to confirm first.
• Make private takes it back so that only you can see it again.

A public dataset that has no licence is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0): anyone may reuse it if they credit you. To use a different licence, set it in the dataset's metadata before you make it public.

While a dataset is private you can still preview it, read its full attribute table and add it to your projects and maps: it is served to you, and only you, through your own sign-in. It has no public web-service links, and a map that uses it cannot be published until it is public (see Publish and share a map). The change is confirmed before the page says it worked. Anything you have already shared or published from a public dataset, such as a downloaded copy, stays with whoever has it.

#Edit the title or description

Open your dataset's page and choose Edit title and description under its description. Change either one and choose Save. Only you (and Orion's data team) can edit a dataset you uploaded.

#While it processes

Larger files take longer to be converted. The button reads Importing and securing… while the file is imported and locked to you; the upload is only reported as finished once it is private. Wait for the dialog to finish. If an upload fails, check the file opens in desktop GIS software and that a Shapefile zip contains all of its parts, then try again — see Troubleshooting.

#Coordinate systems

OrionGIS reprojects on the fly so that layers in different coordinate systems line up on one map. Give your data a coordinate system (a Shapefile's .prj, for instance) so it lands in the right place.