Uploading Geospatial Data#
In order to upload Geospatial data in the version of a Data Source in the Polio Outbreaks Platform, you must use a GeoPackage file (GPKG) formatted using IASO convention as described in the following sections. In order to create or convert existing geospatial data into a GPKG, we recommend using QGIS or ArcGIS.
IASO GeoPackage#
GeoPackage (or GPKG) is a file format which can contain multiple layers of geographical information as well as accompanying non-geographical data. It is possible to export data from the Polio Outbreaks Platform as GPKG, modify it and then reimport it or to import entirely fresh data. It is also possible to export data from one instance and re import it into another.
Import Format#
The Polio Outbreaks Platform allows importing OrgUnit, Group and Type from a GeoPackage file (GPKG), as long as it's formatted according to the specification below.
The general structure is that you will have:
1. One or multiple layers containing the OrgUnits where each layer contains only one type of OrgUnit
2. One Group table
At import, the file will be linked either to an existing Data Source and version or will create a new Data Source.
When updating an existing source, the GPKG doesn't need to contain the whole source, a subset of the OrgUnit and Group to update or create is sufficient.
It must be a valid GeoPackage, conformant with the OGC specification. Other tables and columns may be present and will be ignored (as long as they don't start with level-).
Layer Tables#
The OrgUnits are organized inside the GPKG layer(s). Each layer represents an unique OrgUnit type.
These layers must be named in the following ways: level-{depth}-{type_name}. Where depth is an integer and type_name a string that should match the OrgUnit Type name in the targeted Polio Outbreaks Platform instance. If an OrgUnitType with such a name does not already exist, it will be created. OrgUnitType are case-sensitive, be sure when updating an existing one that the casing and accents match the targeted OrgUnitType.
Note that OrgUnit and Group are linked to a particular data source but OrgUnitType are not and are shared between all projects of a Polio Outbreaks Platform account.
Each layer table must have the following columns and data:
| Column Name | Description |
|---|---|
| name | The name of the OrgUnit |
| ref | Reference to be used for updating and linking the parent (will be in the External Reference field). Must be unique. |
| parent_ref | The reference of the parent OrgUnit may be blank or null or the ref of the parent (not the name). [1] |
| group_refs | A list of groups reference to which the OrgUnit should belong. Represented as a string of ref separated by the ',' character. This column is optional, delete it if you don't want to touch group affiliation. If you keep it empty all groups will be removed from the OrgUnit when updating. See Group table below. |
| geometry | a geometry (can be any name as long as it's referenced as per the GeoPackage spec) [2] |
Group Table#
An additional table groups must be present. It represents the (OrgUnit linked) Groups to create and/or update. This is an Attribute table in GPKG terminology as it doesn't contain a geometry.
| Column Name (mandatory) | Description |
|---|---|
| ref | Reference to the group, will be in source_ref (used in the layer tables as group_ref) |
| name | Name of the Group |
- Known problematic input: “,” (comma character) in groups ref value.
[1] When updating an element from an already existing source, you may want to reference a parent OrgUnit existing in the Polio Outbreaks Platform DataSource. However, this parent OrgUnit may not have a source_ref attribute. Instead, you can use the format iaso#{db_id} to point to it where db_idis the id of the parent OrgUnit in the Polio Outbreaks Platform database.
[2] It is possible to have OrgUnit without an attached Geometry.