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Add Data to the Map

Ways to Add Data

  • Open kepler.gl/demo. You should see the following prompt:
Add data to the map pop up
kepler.gl is a pure client side app. Data lives only in your machine/browser. No information or maps is sent back up to our server.
  • Choose one of three ways to add data to your map
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Local files
Upload CSV / GeoJSON files. Because data is only stored in your browser, there is a 250mb limit on how much data Chrome allows you to upload into a browser. For datasets larger than 250mb you should directly load them from a remote URL. See below.
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From URL
Directly load data or map json by pasting a remote URL. You can link it to CSV
JSON
Kepler.gl config json. Make sure the url contains the file extension. CORS policy must be defined on your custom url domain.
Sample data
Load one of kepler.gl’s sample datasets. The sample map data and config are directly loaded from kepler.gl-data github repo
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Supported Projection Coordinate System

kepler.gl only supports Web Mercator EPSG:3857 -- WGS84.
Geometry coordinates should be presented with a geographic coordinate reference system, using the WGS84 datum, and with longitude and latitude units of decimal degrees.

Supported File Formats

CSV

CSV file should contain header row and multiple columns. Each row should be 1 feature. Each column should contain only 1 data type, based on which kepler.gl will use to create layers and filters.
id
point_latitude
point_longitude
value
start_time
a
31.2384
-127.30948
5
2019-08-01 12:00
b
31.2311
-127.30231
11
2019-08-01 12:05
c
31.2334
-127.30238
9
2019-08-01 11:55

1. Data type detection

Because CSV file content is uploaded as strings, kepler.gl will attempt to detect column data type by parsing a sample of data in each column. kepler.gl can detect
type
data
boolean
True, False
date
2019-01-01
geojson
WKT string: POLYGON ((-74.158 40.835, -74.148 40.830, -74.151 40.832, -74.158 40.835)), or GeoJson String {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-74.158,40.835],[-74.157,40.839],[-74.148,40.830],[-74.150,40.833],[-74.151,40.832],[-74.158,40.835]]]}
integer
1, 2, 3
real
-74.158, 40.832
string
hello, world
timestamp
2018-09-01 00:00, 1570306147, 1570306147000
Note: Make sure to clean up values such as N/A, Null, \N. If your column contains mixed type, kepler.gl will treat it as string to be safe.

2. Layer detection based on column names

kepler.gl will auto detect layer, if the column names follows certain naming convention. kepler.gl creates a point layer if your CSV has columns that are named <name>_lat and <name>_lng or <name>_latitude and <name>_longitude, or <name>_lat and <name>_lon.
layer
auto create layer from column names
Point
Point layer names have to be in pairs, and ends with <foo>lat, <foo>lng; <foo>latitude, <foo>longitude; <foo>lat, <foo>lon
Arc
If two points layers are detected, one arc layer will be created
Icon
A column named icon is present
H3
A column named h3_id or hexagon_id is present
Polygon
A column content contains geojson data types. Acceptable formats include Well-Known Text e.g. POLYGON ((-74.158 40.835, -74.148 40.830, -74.151 40.832, -74.158 40.835)) and GeoJSON Geometry. e.g. {"type":"LineString","coordinates":[[100.0, 0.0],[101.0, 1.0]]}

3. Embed Geometries in CSV

Geometries (Polygons, Points, LindStrings etc) can be embedded into CSV as a GeoJSON or WKT formatted string.
GeoJSON String
Use the geometry of a Feature, which includes type and coordinates. It should be a JSON formatted string, with the " corrected escaped. More info on String escape in csv​
Example data.csv with GeoJSON
id,geometry
1,"{""type"":""Polygon"",""coordinates"":[[[-74.158491,40.835947],[-74.157914,40.83902]]]}"
WKTString
​The Well-Known Text (WKT) representation of geometry values is designed for exchanging geometry data in ASCII form.
Example data.csv with WKT
id,geometry
1,"POLYGON((0 0,10 0,10 10,0 10,0 0),(5 5,7 5,7 7,5 7, 5 5))"

GeoJSON

1. Feature types

  • kepler.gl accepts GeoJSON formatted JSON that contains a single Feature object or a FeatureCollection object. kepler.gl creates one Polygon layer per GeoJSON file.
    • A single GeoJSON Feature:
    {
    "type": "Feature",
    "geometry": {
    "type": "Polygon",
    "coordinates": [
    [
    [-10.0, -10.0],
    [10.0, -10.0],
    [10.0, 10.0],
    [-10.0, -10.0]
    ]
    ]
    },
    "properties": {
    "name": "foo"
    }
    }
    • GeoJSON Feature Collection.
      {
      "type": "FeatureCollection",
      "features": [{
      "type": "Feature",
      "geometry": {
      "type": "Point",
      "coordinates": [102.0, 0.5]
      },
      "properties": {
      "prop0": "value0"
      }
      }, {
      "type": "Feature",
      "geometry": {
      "type": "LineString",
      "coordinates": [
      [102.0, 0.0],
      [103.0, 1.0],
      [104.0, 0.0],
      [105.0, 1.0]
      ]
      },
      "properties": {
      "prop0": "value0"
      }
      }]
      }
    kepler.gl will render all features in one Polygon layer even though they have different geometry types. Acceptable geometry types are
    Feature properties will be parsed as columns. You can apply color, filters based on them.

2. Auto styling

kepler.gl will read styles from GeoJSON files. If you are a GeoJSON expert, you can add style declarations to feature properties. kepler.gl will use the declarations to automatically style your feature. The acceptable style properties are:
"properties": {
"lineColor": [130, 154, 227],
"lineWidth": 0.5,
"fillColor": [255, 0, 0],
"radius": 1 // Point
}
  • See an example below:
    {
    "type": "FeatureCollection",
    "features": [{
    "type": "Feature",
    "geometry": {
    "type": "LineString",
    "coordinates": [
    [-105.1547889, 39.9862516],
    [-105.1547167, 39.9862691]
    ]
    },
    "properties": {
    "id": "a1398a11-d1ce-421c-bf66-a456ff525de9",
    "lineColor": [130, 154, 227],
    "lineWidth": 0.1
    }
    }]
    }

Load Map Using URL

You load data or map through custom URL. It currently supports URLs with file extension of csv, json and kepler.gl.json
In addition, this also by-passes 250mb file upload size limit which allows you to upload larger file to Kepler.
Load Map Using URL

Use Kepler.gl’s Sample Maps

The sample maps are a great option for new users to explore Kepler.gl and get a feel for how it works.
  1. 1.
    At the initial load prompt select “Try sample data” in the top right corner.
Try sample data pop up
  1. 1.
    Choose from the options to load the sample map and explore the configurations applied.
Choose sample data pop up

Add multiple datasets

To add additional datasets to your map:
  1. 1.
    Click Add More Data in the top right corner.
Add more data
  1. 1.
    Choose one of the options above: upload a JSON/CSV file, or use Kepler.gl’s sample data.
  2. 2.
    Repeat as needed. There is no limit on the number of datasets you can add. However, adding too many might cause its performance to suffer.
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Last modified 3yr ago