Use the instructions below to use the Bulk Upload Tool for uploading POINT locations.



Note that the Bulk Upload tool is only available to Jurisdiction Admins. If you have a dataset that needs to be bulk uploaded and you are not a Jurisdiction Admin, contact your Jurisdiction Admin for assistance.



Using the Bulk Upload Tool


Step 1: Prepare your dataset for uploading

  • Your data must be in .csv format
  • Make sure your dataset contains the required fields (download a sample .csv with the required fields here).
    • Source Unique ID: a unique ID field in the dataset you are uploading. If this field is not present in your dataset, you must create a column for this field. All values should be unique within the dataset. Auto-numbering is fine if there was no ID provided.
    • Date: Date of the Observation (should be in a date format)
    • Observer: Name of the person who observed the species. Make sure that the person exists in iMapInvasives. If not, you MUST create a new Person record for this individual prior to uploading.
    • Latitude (decimal degrees/WGS84): The coordinates must fall within the Jurisdiction you are uploading records for or the upload will fail. If you have data for more than one state, you need to do separate uploads.
    • Longitude (decimal degrees/WGS84): The coordinates must fall within the Jurisdiction you are uploading records for or the upload will fail. If you have data for more than one state, you need to do separate uploads.
    • Species: The species that was observed. This can be in scientific or common name format. Alternatively, you can enter the Jurisdiction Species ID instead of the name, but you can't mix names/ID's. You need to either use names OR ID's, not a mixture of both.
  • Complete additional fields in your dataset. The following may be of particular interest:
    • Project: Currently the only way to view your dataset in iMapInvasives after uploading is to add it to a project. You should create a Project in iMapInvasives prior to uploading your dataset. You can either add a column for Project in the .csv or map it directly to the project within the Bulk Upload Tool.
    • Organization: Make sure your Organization exists within iMapInvasives prior to uploading the dataset.
  • All fields currently in the Presence Record and Area of Interest are available to upload. A complete bulk upload template .csv with all of the available fields along with domain values for all domain tables (except species, persons, project, and organizations), along with the related bulk upload template settings file can be downloaded by clicking on the provided links and also attached at the end of this article.
  • Make sure to name your .csv with a unique name that will allow you to identify your dataset. This is currently stored as the dataset name. 

Step 2: Upload your dataset into the Bulk Upload Tool

  • Use the menu in the top-left corner of iMapInvasives and select "Bulk Upload" to open up the tool.
  • If you don't see "Bulk Upload" you may not have the correct permissions to use this tool (you must be a Jurisdictional Admin to use the Bulk Upload tool).
  • Once the tool opens, select your Jurisdiction from the "Jurisdiction" box in the upper right-hand corner. Only the Jurisdictions that you are a Jurisdiction Admin in will appear in this box. If you are only a Jurisdiction Admin for one Jurisdiction, it should default to that Jurisdiction. 
  • Click on the "Upload .csv File" button and browse to your dataset.
  • If you have saved settings that you would like to use, click on "Upload Settings" to upload the settings. Any matching fields should be automatically mapped.


As you map the fields in your dataset to the fields in the Bulk Upload Tool, these choices are remembered and can be saved as Settings.


  • Saving these settings can save a tremendous amount of time in processing datasets. 
  • By providing standard templates for providers to use to submit their data, you can then apply saved settings and have most of the fields automatically mapped for you.
  • You can build upon previously saved settings, so each time you import a new dataset with new values, your settings become more comprehensive.


Step 3: Map the fields in the .csv to the fields in the Bulk Upload Tool

  • Move through the Bulk Upload tool and using the dropdown menus next to each field, select the field in your .csv that matches the field in the Bulk Upload Tool.
  • All fields marked with a * are required.
  • If your dataset does not have a mapped field, but you want ALL the records to contain the same value, you can set a default value by using the "Default" option next to each field.
  • If you map a field in your .csv to a field in the Bulk Upload tool and there are blanks, you can also choose a Default value for those blank values. The bulk upload tool will first select the values in the .csv file, and if there is no value, will look to see if there is a default value to use in the application. If not, the value will be null.
  • For all fields that contain "Domain" values (choices from a dropdown, or fields that must match a value in iMapInvasives exactly (Species, Project, Organization, Person, Yes/No, and other domain tables) you MUST map the appropriate "Translation" for each of the values that are present in your dataset.
    • You will see the "View Translations" appear in the Bulk Upload Tool.
    • For each value in the Translation, select the value in iMapInvasives that it should correctly map to.
    • You can use type-ahead to quickly find the values you are looking for. This is very useful for species, tagged projects, organizations, persons.
    • You can also select a default value to use in lieu of translations if you want all values to be the same.
  • For species, if you have entered the Jurisdiction Species Id, in the Translation section, move the toggle to "Use exact ID listed in Data". Then you don't have to map the species, it will automatically match the Jurisdiction Species ID to the correct species when uploading.
  • Once you have all of your fields and translations mapped, click "Save Settings" to save the translations and mapped fields for future use.


Step 4: Validate your dataset

  • Once you have all of the fields in your dataset mapped correctly, click on the "Validate" button. 
  • If there are fields in your dataset that were not mapped to a field in the bulk upload tool, you will receive a message telling you what fields were not mapped. If you would like to map those fields, you can go back and map them and then validate again.
  • If there are missing required fields, you will get an error message letting you know what fields need to be fixed. If it requires you to edit your .csv, you can make the changes and re-upload the .csv overtop the old one. It will remember your current settings as long as you don't leave the bulk upload tool, so you will not have to remap anything. 
  • There may be other messages such as invalid coordinates, non-date values, etc. that need to be corrected before proceeding. Fix these issues and re-validate.
  • Save your settings once again if you made any changes you would like to save before proceeding.
  • There may be records you need to remove prior to processing.
  • Once you have a clean dataset, and all of your records pass validation, click "Yes" to proceed with the Upload.


Step 5: Upload your dataset

  • Once you hit "Yes" in the validation process, your dataset will be uploaded into iMapInvasives.
  • The dataset will go through a second validation process and if your data fails validation on the back-end, you will receive a message on which records have failed, and the reason why.
    • Records may fail for the following reasons
      • Invalid latitude/longitude for the selected Jurisdiction
      • A record already exists in the database for that location, species, and date
    • If you would like to address the issues in the dataset, you can use the "Copy" function and copy the records and paste them into  Word, Excel, Google Docs, or Google Sheets (Google apps actually works better for this). 
      • Once you have fixed the issues, you will need to re-validate the dataset.
    • If you are okay with the errors and you want to ignore them and only upload the valid records, you can select "Ignore and Continue". This will only upload Valid records.
      • This can be very helpful if someone sends you an entire dataset and there are already existing records and you only want to upload the new ones.
  • Once the records have uploaded successfully, you will receive a message saying "Upload Successful" with a list of the records that uploaded, the new presence ID, and links to the uploaded records.
  • Use the "Copy" button to copy the uploaded dataset and paste this into either Word, Excel, Google Sheets, or Google Docs. If you use Word or Excel, the links do not work directly (you need to copy and paste them into a browser to open them). If you use Google Sheets or Google Docs, the links will work. We suggest you save a copy of the results to refer to if needed.


Step 6: Review your records

  • If you saved your uploaded dataset to a project, go to the ap and use the Filter tool to filter for that project and make sure your dataset uploaded successfully and the records are in the correct location.
  • Using either the links from the "Upload Successful" box or from your filtered project on the map, open a few records to make sure the data uploaded is complete.