How to bulk import places into your Mapotic map
Mapotic’s import tool allows you to batch import thousands of places into your map at once.
Whether you’re trying to migrate your map from a different platform (e.g. Google My Maps), or trying to visualise your existing data, Mapotic’s import tool allows you to import your data within minutes.
Set up your map
In order to import your data to Mapotic, you will need a well structured map to begin with.
Setting up categories (e.g. Bars, Restaurants, Parks etc..) and attributes (e.g. Description, contact details, address, opening hours etc.) that correspond to your data is an important first step. These categories and attributes are different for all maps and should align well with your project.
Prepare your data
Required data format is XLS, CSV, KML or KML. We recommend preparing the data in Excel or Google Sheets. Before uploading your data to the import tool, you should make sure your data table is prepared correctly. You can see our import data samples:
Pro tip 💡
You can obtain an XLS template that aligns perfectly to your map’s structure by performing a data export from the current places on your map. Use this template to structure your new data.
In case your map does not have any existing places, simply create a test place that has all your desired attributes and perform the action mentioned above.
Importing places into Mapotic
The import feature can be found in the sidebar on the left hand side of your screen. Simply create a new import, upload your data and assign data formats for each of the data columns – as described in the video.
Data columns
Once you have uploaded the file, you will be taken to the import progress page where you will see several rows in your file. Here, you need to assign the individual data columns to the map data. Clicking the ‘Select’ button will bring up a pop up menu with the option of assigning data types. Data types are divided into several groups, ‘Mandatory Data’, ‘Geolocation Data’, ‘Special Data’, and ‘Custom Data’.
Mandatory Data
- Name – Place Name
- Categories – Category to which a place belongs. Categories must already be pre-established on the map. If you haven’t heard about Mapotic categories before, we highly recommend reading this help article we have on that topic.
Pro tip 💡
If you do not have a given category or attribute on the map during the data pairing process, you can add them at any time and then return to your import in the “Import Menu”.
Geolocation Data
The location of a place can be determined in two ways, either by GPS coordinates (exact), or by address (less accurate, danger of misspellings and not finding the correct address). For a successful import, at least one type of location determination must be completed.
Option 1: GPS coordinates
Lattitude + longitude. Mapotic uses WGS84 EPSG:4326 system and DD (Decimal degrees) format:
Example:
- Latitude – eg 50.120740
- Longitude – eg. 14.469517
Option 2: address
Address in the correct format – Road/Town/Postal Code
Special Data
- ID – A unique ID of a place. This can be used to bulk update existing places in the future. Places can be imported without an ID, however we strongly recommend assigning one if you plan to update multiple of your places frequently.
- Rating – Rating of places in format 1-5.
Custom Data
Here, you will see all the attributes that are based on attributes settings of your map.
- If you want to import multiple options for “Select” or “Multiple Choice” attributes, you need to separate the options with an exclamation mark. (see sample file below)
- To import values into your “Date & Time” type attribute, use following format: “2025-30-12” (30th December 2025) or “2025-30-12T15:00 (30th December 2025 3PM)
Images
You can import images for individual places. It has to be a link to an image that is accessible for the public. For example:
http://obrazky.superia.cz/1280/hamburger.png
In order to import multiple images to individual places, separate the individual image links with a $ sign, like so:
http://obrazky.superia.cz/image1.png$http://obrazky.superia.cz/image2.png
- The first image will always be set as the main image.
- Do not insert the $ sign before the first image or after the last image.
- Do not insert the $ sign if you’re adding only one image to a place.
Updating existing locations via ID
If you own a set of data that you regularly update in the source file and want to keep up to date on the map, you can update selected places instead of deleting them and importing again. In order to do so, you need to assign a column with a unique ID when you first import a place. For each place, you must fill in the ID (values 1 – “n”). Every time you import the updated data, you need to keep this ID in place. Locations with the same IDs will be updated, not created again.
If existing places do not have an ID assigned (they were added to the map manually, or the ID was not defined during the import), they can be identified by their Mapotic ID (you can find Mapotic ID either in the URL of the specific place www.mapotic.com/map-name/mapoticID-place_name, or in the data export table of your map).
Example: For a place with Mapotic ID “00001”, insert Record ID in the record sheet as follows: “mapotic:00001”.
Importing routes
Mapotic also allows importing routes from other tools such as Google My Maps as shown in our other help article.
Table of Contents
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