Importing Excel spreadsheet of Addresses or Lat/Longs

[JasonSmith6]

I was curious if on the roadmap you will offer the ability to import an Excel spreadsheet with multiple Addresses or Latitude/Longitude rows.  I believe Google Earth offered this ability (I know AGOL currently offers it), and it would be awesome when you offer the Geocoder that this be an option for Import.  Obviously, if there are other columns like Facility Name, ID, State, Zip etc those could be configured in the pop-up or during the import process.  Thanks! 

[DanPatterson_Retired]

It will be interesting to see if the lines of functionality will blur between ArcMap, ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Earth.

In the interim, you can convert to kml etcand use it in Earth... probably a step people probably want to avoid.

[JasonSmith6]

Well that's true Dan but I'm talking this is for novice users who come to me with a list of facilities they want to map and want to do it quick and dirty. Without any pre-import conversions. They were spoiled on Google Earth. 😛

[DanPatterson_Retired]

well short of shapefiles and kml/kmz you can also geocode

Guided tour—ArcGIS Earth | ArcGIS

If they are using gps, you can use DNRGPS to download the data into either of the supported formats I mentioned... but that is a whole new lesson DNRGPS Application: Minnesota DNR

[JasonSmith6]

Thanks Dan. No they usually get this information sent to them and they have to scan in from documents, or they copy and paste address/Lat-Longs into a spreadsheet. I tried to show them how to do it in AGOL, but it was just too cumbersome. I think what we're needing is the ability for them to batch geocode off an import.

[Anonymous User]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the thoughts on this and apologies for the delay in response.

In fact, we are planning to allow CSV/TXT import including batch address geocoding.  That feature will first appear as an on premises capability and will then appear in Online if a user is logged in to an organization.  If not, they they can still import Lat/Lon CSV and TXT data, but just not do address geocoding.

Do you have specific coordinate systems you would like to see us handle?

Thanks,
Chris

[DanPatterson_Retired]

GCS WGS84 ... since that would be the gps standard

... whatever google uses (web mercator? cant remember) since people may have stuff in that

I would recommend that it be made absolutely clear what you will support unless you intend to port a complete projection engine over as well. The lines blur with the wish list

[JasonSmith6]

Chris,

I've never understood why most products from ESRI, aside from ArcMap, can't import directly from native XLS or XLSX format? Why force users to perform an extra step of Exporting if it's not necessary? Is it a licensing issue with Microsoft?

As far as coordinate systems, would it be possible to request UTMs and State Plane? Aside from Geographic WGS84 and NAD83, those projected systems are the ones I come across most often.

[Anonymous User]

Hi Jason,

There may be many reasons for inconsistencies such as the XLS/XLSX support including resourcing, licensing, royalty requirements, and sometimes simply lack of knowledge by diverse teams about what is available.  The Earth team is focusing on CSV/TXT because we're on a tight timeline and because it allows us to have an easier validation workflow.  We may consider direct XLS access in the future.

The Runtime, upon which Earth is built, actually does have a full projection engine.  As we take a look at better coordinate system and unit handling after the 1.1 release, we can look at how best we could support more varied coordinate system lookups.

Chris