Uploading data
Drop a file, get a layer. Uploads run in the background through a real ingest pipeline — reprojection, indexing, tiling and automatic overviews for large datasets.
Where to upload#
- The Upload button in the content browser (files land in your current folder).
- Upload data on the portal home page.
- The Upload button in the Data Editor’s library rail.
- The map viewer’s Add → Upload tab — the new layer drops straight into the open map.
All of them open the same dialog: drop files or browse, several at once — each file becomes its own background job, and you can keep working while they process. Uploading requires the Editor role or higher.
Supported formats#
| Kind | Formats | Becomes |
|---|---|---|
| Spatial vector | GeoPackage, Shapefile (zipped or .shp set), GeoJSON, KML/KMZ, File Geodatabase, GML, GPX, DXF, MapInfo TAB, FlatGeobuf, GeoParquet | A feature layer (Dataset item) |
| CSV | .csv — with a column-mapping step (see below) | A point layer or an attribute table |
| Spreadsheet | XLSX, ODS (re-save .xls as .xlsx) | An attribute table |
| Files | Images (PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG, TIFF…), PDF, other documents | Image / PDF / Document items |
Size limits: 5 GB per spatial file or spreadsheet, 200 MB for CSV, 100 MB for images and documents. Executables and active web content are rejected outright.
A GeoPackage or File Geodatabase containing several layers imports its first layer only — there is no layer picker in the web uploader yet. Export single-layer files (or upload via QGIS, one layer at a time).
Coordinate systems are read from the file#
You never pick a CRS at upload — OrbGIS reads it from the file and reprojects as needed. CSV coordinates are treated as WGS 84 latitude/longitude, with a sanity check that fails clearly if the numbers look like projected metres. More in Coordinate reference systems.
CSV uploads#
A single CSV gets a configuration step: choose Point layer and pick the latitude/longitude columns (auto-detected from common names like lat, lon, x, y — with a live “N points found” count), or choose Table (no geometry) to import attributes only, which you can later join to layers via relationships. Upload CSVs one at a time so you get this step.
What happens during processing#
Progress lives in the header’s upload panel. After Uploading… and a spell in the queue you’ll see the pipeline phases: Receiving file… → Reading layer… → Importing features… (with a live feature count) → Optimizing for fast access… → Finalizing layer… → Calculating extent… — and for large layers, an overview-building step. When the job says Done, the layer renders fast at every zoom level.
Large layers get automatic overviews#
Layers past roughly 100,000 features (or with very heavy geometry) get a level-of-detail pyramid built at ingest: zoomed far out you see a density rendering that traces the dataset’s true shape; mid zooms show every feature lightly; close up you get full geometry and attributes with your styling. Selection happens server-side per tile — nothing to configure, and it’s why national-scale datasets stay smooth. If an overview build ever fails, the layer still works from source and shows an “Overview unavailable” chip. Polygon class-grids (like land-cover cells) can additionally opt into mode aggregation from the dataset page — majority class per coarser cell.
Failed jobs can be retried from the upload panel; cancelling after import has begun discards the partial layer. Overwriting an existing layer’s data with a new file goes through the Data Editor.