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

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.
From URL	Directly load data or map json by pasting a remote URL. You can link it to CSV
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

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

• GeoJSON

• GeoArrow

• kepler.gl Json

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, . 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

  • Point

  • MultiPoint

  • LineString

  • MultiLineString

  • Polygon

  • MultiPolygon.

  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
      }
  }]
}

GeoArrow

GeoArrow file, a binary data format which can be visualized with the PolygonLayer.

kepler.gl JSON

JSON file exported from kepler.gl. See "Export Map as JSON".

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. At the initial load prompt select “Try sample data” in the top right corner.

Try sample data pop up

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. Click Add More Data in the top right corner.

Add more data

1. Choose one of the options above: upload a JSON/CSV file, or use Kepler.gl’s sample data.

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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