# Importing data _Last updated October 15, 2026_ > Bring GeoJSON, CSV, KML, shapefiles and more into any map you can edit, from a file, a URL or pasted text. What you import becomes ordinary features. > **Beta:** squidmaps is in beta. Features, the map spec and these docs may change without notice, and things may occasionally break. Export a copy of any map that matters to you, and tell us when something isn't right: use Beta feedback, or email support@squidmaps.io. Bring in a GeoJSON file from another tool, a spreadsheet with coordinates, a GPS track, or a whole squidmaps map. Everything you import becomes ordinary features that you can style, rename, move and delete like the ones you draw. ## Ways to import ### Drag and drop Drag one or more files from your computer onto the editor. The map dims while you're dragging; let go to import them. Several files are imported one after another, each reviewed on its own. ### The map menu Open the menu under the squid in the top left of the editor and choose **Import**: - **Import file** opens your computer's file picker. You can also press ⌘ O (Ctrl O on Windows). - **Paste text** opens a box to paste data into, such as GeoJSON copied from another site, a column of coordinates, or rows of a CSV. Choose its format below the box. - **From URL** downloads a file from the web. The address has to be public, and the server has to allow downloads from other sites ([CORS](https://enable-cors.org/)). Files from a URL can be up to 5 MB. You can also paste features you've copied, from squidmaps or as GeoJSON, straight onto the map with ⌘ V. They're added right away, without a review. ## Reviewing an import Nothing is added to your map until you've looked at it. Each import opens a review that shows: - **What's coming in**: how many features, broken down into points, linestrings, polygons and text, on a preview map fitted to them. Hover a feature in the preview to see its properties. - **Names and descriptions**: which property becomes each feature's name (shown in the feature list, in labels and in tooltips) and which becomes its description (shown in its popup). squidmaps picks likely ones, like `name`, `title` or `label` for names and `description` or `notes` for descriptions, and you can change them. - **Other properties**: everything else in the data. squidmaps doesn't use other properties, so they're dropped to keep your map small. The review lists what's dropped. - **Where the features go**: into a **new folder**, named after the file (you can rename it), or at the **top level** of the feature list. Either way they're added after the features already on the map. Some things happen on every import: - Features without geometry are left out, and the review says how many. - Coordinates are rounded to six decimal places, about 11 cm. - squidmaps' own properties, like `@fill` or `@popup`, are kept, so features styled in squidmaps keep their look and their tooltips and popups. Ones that aren't valid are dropped. See the [map specification](https://squidmaps.io/docs/spec/features) for all of them. - Features that name a folder in `@folder` go into that folder, reusing a folder of the same name if the map has one. Files squidmaps can't read, like a regular image, say there's no spatial data in them, and nothing is added. ## Supported formats squidmaps tells most formats apart by their file extension. Text files without a telling extension, like `.txt`, are recognized by what's in them: GeoJSON, WKT, coordinates and encoded polylines. ### GeoJSON `.geojson` or `.json`. A FeatureCollection, a single Feature, or a bare geometry. Every geometry type works, including MultiPolygons and GeometryCollections. ```json { "type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [ { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "name": "Tompkins Square Park", "acres": 10.5 }, "geometry": { "type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [ [ [-73.98258, 40.72795], [-73.97964, 40.72676], [-73.97835, 40.72857], [-73.98131, 40.72977], [-73.98258, 40.72795] ] ] } }, { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "name": "Ninth Street Espresso" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [-73.98163, 40.72654] } } ] } ``` Here the park is named from `name`, and `acres` is dropped. GeoJSON can carry squidmaps styling, so features look the way you want as soon as they're imported: ```json { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "name": "Ninth Street Espresso", "description": "**Great** cortados.", "@point-type": "marker", "@marker-disc": "#D9664E", "@marker-icon": "solid/mug-hot", "@popup": "card", "@folder": "Coffee" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [-73.98163, 40.72654] } } ``` ### squidmaps maps A whole map, as downloaded from **Export → Map (.json)** in the map menu. It's a JSON document with the map's name, description, basemap, extent, legend and features (see the [map spec](https://squidmaps.io/docs/spec/map)). ```json { "name": "Coffee in the East Village", "description": "Where I drink coffee.", "basemap": { "type": "SQUIDMAPS", "style": "light", "opacity": 1, "labelVisibility": true }, "extent": { "zoom": { "mode": "range", "min": 0, "max": 22 }, "bounds": null, "initialBounds": null }, "view": null, "legend": null, "features": [ { "type": "Feature", "id": "f1", "properties": { "name": "Ninth Street Espresso", "@folder": "Coffee" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [-73.98163, 40.72654] } } ] } ``` When you import a map, the review asks what to do with it: - **Add its features** to the map you're editing, with their styles, labels and popups. The other map's basemap, details and legend aren't used. - **Replace this map** with it: its features, folders, basemap, name, description, extent and legend all replace this map's. squidmaps warns you first and asks you to confirm. Your published map doesn't change until you publish again. ### TopoJSON `.topojson`, or `.json` with `"type": "Topology"`. Each object in the topology becomes features. ```json { "type": "Topology", "objects": { "places": { "type": "GeometryCollection", "geometries": [ { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [-73.98163, 40.72654], "properties": { "name": "Ninth Street Espresso" } } ] } }, "arcs": [] } ``` ### GeoJSONL `.geojsonl`, `.geojsons` or `.ld`: newline-delimited GeoJSON, one feature per line. ```text {"type":"Feature","properties":{"name":"Ninth Street Espresso"},"geometry":{"type":"Point","coordinates":[-73.98163,40.72654]}} {"type":"Feature","properties":{"name":"Abraço"},"geometry":{"type":"Point","coordinates":[-73.98793,40.72636]}} ``` ### CSV and TSV `.csv` or `.tsv`. Each row with a location becomes a feature. The review has a **Locations** section to choose: - the **delimiter**: comma, semicolon or tab - how rows have their **locations**, and which columns hold them squidmaps looks at the column names to guess these, and the preview updates as you change them. Rows without a location are left out. **Longitude and latitude columns** become points. Columns named like `lon`, `lng`, `longitude`, `lat` and `latitude` are found automatically. ```csv name,latitude,longitude Ninth Street Espresso,40.72654,-73.98163 Abraço,40.72636,-73.98793 Tompkins Square Park,40.72637,-73.98172 ``` **A WKT column** holds each row's geometry as [Well-Known Text](#wkt): ```csv name,wkt Ninth Street Espresso,"POINT (-73.98163 40.72654)" Avenue B,"LINESTRING (-73.98306 40.72165, -73.97741 40.72944)" ``` **A GeoJSON column** holds each row's geometry as GeoJSON: ```csv name,geojson Ninth Street Espresso,"{""type"":""Point"",""coordinates"":[-73.98163,40.72654]}" ``` **An encoded polyline column** holds each row's line as an [encoded polyline](#encoded-polylines): ```csv name,polyline Route,"evnjG~skwJr`x\yhga@dhvTpoxe@|feU_po`@" ``` **ZIP codes** place each row at the center of its US ZIP code: ```csv name,zip Main office,10009 Warehouse,11211 ``` **H3 cells** become each [H3](https://h3geo.org/) cell's hexagon: ```csv name,h3 Block,892a100d2c3ffff ``` ### Excel spreadsheets `.xls` or `.xlsx`. They're read like [CSV](#csv-and-tsv), with a choice of **sheet** instead of a delimiter. The first row is the column names. | name | latitude | longitude | | --- | --- | --- | | Ninth Street Espresso | 40.72654 | -73.98163 | | Abraço | 40.72636 | -73.98793 | ### KML and KMZ `.kml`, from Google Earth, Google My Maps and many other tools, or `.kmz`, a zipped KML. Placemarks become features, named from their `` and described from their ``. ```xml Ninth Street Espresso Great cortados. -73.98163,40.72654 ``` ### GPX `.gpx`, from GPS devices and apps like Strava. Waypoints become points, and tracks and routes become lines. ```xml Coffee stop Morning walk ``` ### TCX `.tcx`, the Training Center format from Garmin devices. Activities and courses become lines. ```xml Loop 40.72165-73.98306 40.72944-73.97741 ``` ### Shapefiles A shapefile is several files with the same name. Import them together, either as a `.zip` or by selecting or dropping all of them at once: ```text parcels.shp the shapes (required) parcels.shx an index of the shapes parcels.dbf each shape's attributes parcels.prj the coordinate system ``` Without a `.dbf`, features come without attributes, so there's nothing to name them from. Without a `.prj`, coordinates are read as longitude and latitude. The review notes either. ### FlatGeobuf `.fgb`, a fast binary format that tools like QGIS and GDAL write. It's read like GeoJSON. Being binary, there's no text sample to show. ### WKT [Well-Known Text](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-known_text_representation_of_geometry), one geometry per line, from databases like PostGIS. Paste it as text, or ```text POINT (-73.98163 40.72654) LINESTRING (-73.98306 40.72165, -73.98172 40.72637, -73.97741 40.72944) POLYGON ((-73.98258 40.72795, -73.97964 40.72676, -73.97835 40.72857, -73.98131 40.72977, -73.98258 40.72795)) ``` ### Encoded polylines Google's [encoded polyline](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/utilities/polylinealgorithm) format, as directions and routing services return lines, one per line. Paste it as text, or import a `.txt` file. ```text evnjG~skwJr`x\yhga@dhvTpoxe@|feU_po`@ ``` ### Coordinates Decimal coordinates, one point per line. Paste them as text and choose whether longitude or latitude comes first. ```text -73.98163, 40.72654 -73.98793, 40.72636 ``` ### Bounding boxes A box as four numbers, `west, south, east, north`, as many tools and APIs give extents. Paste it as text and choose **BBOX** as its format. It becomes a rectangle. ```text -74.0259, 40.6829, -73.9067, 40.8794 ``` ### OpenStreetMap XML `.osm` or `.xml`, as exported from [openstreetmap.org](https://www.openstreetmap.org) or Overpass. Nodes with tags become points, and ways become lines or polygons. ```xml ``` ### GTFS shapes A transit feed's `shapes.txt`, from a [GTFS](https://gtfs.org/schedule/reference/#shapestxt) feed. Each shape becomes a line. ```csv shape_id,shape_pt_lat,shape_pt_lon,shape_pt_sequence M15,40.72165,-73.98306,1 M15,40.72637,-73.98172,2 M15,40.72944,-73.97741,3 ``` ### GeoTIFF `.tif` or `.tiff`. squidmaps doesn't show imagery, so a GeoTIFF becomes a polygon outlining the area the image covers. ### Photos `.jpg` or `.jpeg` photos with a location in their EXIF data, as most phones record. Each photo becomes a point where it was taken. Photos without a location have no spatial data to import.