Home Intro Tutorials Articles Rest API Contact
Sign in Demo

What are data sets?

A data set is the resource that will contain your location data (.csv files). You create a new data set for each collection of .csv files with location records you have.

For example, one data set can contain .csv files with GPS records of cars. Another data set could contain people’s location during an indoor event.

How to create a new data set

Step 1: Navigate to the 'New data set' page

by first clicking on the Data sets button in the left navigation bar

screenshot of the data sets button in the navigation bar
Figure 1. The Data sets button in the navigation bar

and then on the Create new data set button in the top right corner of the Data sets page.

screenshot of the create data set button in the top right corner
Figure 2. The Create new data set button in the top right corner

Step 2: Create the data set

by specifying the Name, the Data type, the Asset or entity type and the Description.

  • The Name is used in the UI when we need to refer to that layer. This is a good location to add some more details about this data set.

  • The Data type of the data set indicates what kind of data set you want to create. This depends on the data you want to upload. The different types of data sets article explains the differences between the different types. You can choose between:

    • Movement Data (Locations, time stamps, and attributes in CSV files for things or people that move)

    • Points Data (Locations, time stamps, and attributes in CSV files for unrelated measurements/events)

    • Time Series Data (temporal data in CSV files for fixed shapes defined as points, lines, or polygons in GeoJSON files)

    • GeoJSON Data (GeoJSON files without time information)

  • You have to describe either What is moving or What your shapes represent. Examples are persons, vessels, airplanes for things that move, or devices, sensors, areas for shapes that remain in place. This name will be visible on the analytics pages.

  • The optional description is shown on the overview page with all the data sets.

screenshot of the form to create a new data set
Figure 3. The form to create a data set

Once you have filled in the form, press the Create data set button.

screenshot of the create data set button
Figure 4. The Create data set button
You can use HTML tags in the description

The description supports a subset of HTML tags. You can for example use it to

  • add links in the description using the <a> tag

  • make parts of the description stand out by typesetting them in bold (<b>) or italics (<i>)

Step 2 alternative: copy from a template

When you have data that you want to split over multiple data sets (for example one data set containing the data of January, another the data of February, …​), you can create a new data set by copying the settings and properties of an existing data set.

The new data set will have all the same settings and properties as the existing data set, but will not yet contain any data.

This allows you to immediately start uploading data to your data set, without having to define the properties first.

You can do this by activating the INITIALIZE_FROM_EXISTING tab at the top of the Create data set page.

screenshot of the initialize from existing button
Figure 5. The Initialize from existing tab

The page allows you to create a new data set, with all settings initialized from an existing data set. The name and description of the new data set need to be configured as well.

screenshot of the initialize from existing form
Figure 6. The Initialize from existing form

Step 3: Upload your CSV, Parquet and GeoJSON files to the data set

At this point, the data set is created, but it doesn’t contain any location data yet.

You need to upload your .csv, .parquet and .geojson files to the data set before you can do anything useful with it.

How to delete a data set

Following these steps will delete the data set from the platform

This article describes how to delete a data set from the platform.

Consult the Manage data in a project article if you only want to remove a data set from a project.

Step 1: Navigate to the 'Data sets overview' page

by clicking on the Data sets button in the left navigation bar

screenshot of the data sets button in the navigation bar

Step 2: Find the data set you want to delete

The data sets overview page lists all the data sets to which you have access.

screenshot of the data sets overview page
Figure 7. The Data sets overview page

There are 3 tabs to select data sets from:

screenshot of the data sets three tabs
Figure 8. The Data sets three tabs

  • PROJECT DATA SETS: shows the data sets that are currently included in the active project, if any

  • YOUR DATA SETS: lists all the data sets in your account created by any member of your team. This includes both the data sets included in the current active project, and ones which aren’t included.

  • SAMPLE DATA SETS: these are example data sets that you can use in your own projects.

Find the card of the data set you want to delete.

Use the search box at the top of the page

To make it easier to find the data set you are looking for, you can:

  • Use the search box at the top of the page to filter the list.

  • And/or use the sort button next to the search box to sort the data sets alphabetically on their name

Step 3: Press the 'Delete' button on the data set card

Press the delete button in the right bottom corner of the data set card.

screenshot of the data set card detach button
Figure 9. The Data set card

A confirmation dialog will be shown as deleting a data set cannot be undone.

screenshot of the confirmation dialog
Figure 10. The confirmation dialog