Your data: add a file of points, score it per hex

Can I put my own points on the map?

Yes. Add your file - a CSV with lat and lon columns, or an h3 column - and each row is placed on its hex, one hexagon about 350 m across. What lands in each hex becomes a measure of its own under Your data: how many of your points are there, or the sum or average of a number in your file. Tick it, and it scores like any other factor.

Your file stays in this browser. Only the hexes and their numbers travel with each map request, and the server keeps nothing. GIS calls this step a spatial join: points matched to the hexes they fall in, then counted or added up per hex.

Your datathe field's term: Spatial join: points counted per hex

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The shops on this page are an example file: 25 made-up shop points spread across London, with made-up weekly sales. They show how the steps work; they are not real shops and say nothing about London.

The idea, in one sentence

Every row of your file is put on its hex, and each hex holds one number made from the rows inside it. You choose which number:

Where to click

On the Score, press Add measures in Selected settings. The measure cards end with Your data - “Measures from files you add. They stay in this browser.” - and its Add your file button.

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The dialog asks four things:

• The file - a CSV whose first row names the columns. What your file needs opens the details: commas, semicolons or tabs between columns, decimal points or commas, up to 5 000 rows and 15 MB.
• Where each point is - Latitude and longitude columns (in decimal degrees), or An h3 column holding a hex's index.
• What each hex holds - How many points in each hex, or Sum of … and Average of … for each number column. The example file has a weekly_sales column, so it offers Sum of weekly_sales and Average of weekly_sales too.
• Name - what the measure is called on your map. It starts as the file's name.

A line under them counts what was read - 25 rows · 25 placed · 25 hexes - and says how many rows could not be read or were repeated, when any were. Press Add and the measure joins the card:

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The row says what it counts - your points, or sum of … and average of … - and how many of the open city's hexes hold any. Tick it and it becomes a factor of the Score, with its own importance, like any measure from the lists. It can also be a part of Your formula: your shops per 1 000 residents, say, or your shops as a share of your shops and cafés.

Reading the map

The map at the top is that Score: Total population and Example shops, equally important. With 25 shops in a city of tens of thousands of hexes, nearly every hex gets no points from the shops - on the hex card, your measure's row reads 0 of 50 and Rare here: nearly every hex has none. - so residents decide the colors almost everywhere. A real file with hundreds or thousands of points draws a very different map.

That is worth knowing before you add a small file: a count of a few points marks a few hexes, and the rest of London reads 0. A sum or an average is different - a hex with none of your points has no data rather than 0, so it is drawn in the no-data color, not counted as a low value.

What stays in your browser

The dialog says it in one line: “Only the hexes and their numbers travel with each map request, and the server keeps nothing.” The file itself, its rows and the name you gave it are kept in this browser. A map request carries hex and number pairs, only when that map needs them, and nothing is stored once the map is drawn.

Be clear about what those pairs still say: which hexes your points are in, to the nearest hex. If where your points are is itself secret, keep that in mind.

A shared link never carries the file either. It names the file it needs - its name and how many points - so someone opening it without the file sees “This map needs your file: Example shops (25 points).” with an Add your file button. The rest of the map draws without that factor until the same file is added; a different file, even with the same name, does not stand in for it.

The limits, and why

• Up to 4 of your measures at once, from files of up to 5 000 rows and 15 MB.
• No addresses. Positions are read from the file as they are - latitude and longitude, or a hex index. Nothing is looked up.
• Just this hex, never within a 10-minute walk. “Your data is read in each hex; within a 10-minute walk isn't offered for it yet.”
• No share of a category. “Your data belongs to no wider category, so it can't be shown as a share of one.”
• No Clusters - “Clusters aren't offered on your data yet” - and no comparison with the country's cities, which hold no copy of your data.

Ask Scout Bee to read a file you added and it says it can't: your file stays in your browser, so Scout Bee never sees it.

Open London and add your file

The whole idea, in six lines

• Add your file: a CSV with lat and lon columns, or an h3 column - never addresses.
• Each hex holds how many of your points are there, or the sum or average of a number column.
• Tick the row under Your data and it scores like any factor; it can be a part of Your formula too.
• The file stays in this browser; only hexes and their numbers travel with a map request, and nothing is kept.
• A shared link names the file it needs, and the map asks for it: This map needs your file.
• Up to 4 measures, 5 000 rows and 15 MB; read in each hex, with no walk, share of a category or Clusters.