Metadata Data

This is the only file required for a Microreact project.

Required columns

Only an identifier for your data rows is required. The ID column must be unique (i.e. each row has a unique ID value). Note that the column does not need to be named "ID" as a header, although it can be renamed as such.

Proper visualisation in Microreact requires a single ID column that uniquely identifies each row of data in each of the related files.

  • the ID values should be shared across files. IDs are the linking values that allow panels to interact with one another.

Optional columns

In addition, your data file can contain the following columns:

column name (default)other panelscolumn contents

latitude

Decimal latitude (WGS84).

longitude

Decimal longitude (WGS84).

date

Parsed as date (ensure that formatting is not getting misinterpreted if using a program like Excel)

year

Parsed as number (i.e., 2016 and 16 are not the same year).

month

Parsed as number (i.e, 03 and 3 are both parsed as March).

day

Parsed as number.

ColumnName__colour

Assign a specific colour to a data attribute.

ColumnName__shape

Assign a specific shape to a data attribute.

Formats

Defining colour

Microreact can colour by any column, and when that column is selected for colouring, colours from the selected palette will be automatically (randomly) assigned to column values. Sometimes, however, you may want to predefine which colours are used for which values.

When specific colours are desired, you can use a separate column to define the colours and set specific colours for specific values.

If you want to colour by a column named Country you would add a new column called Country__colour (or Country__color) containing colour values. Colours are defined using standard HEX codes or valid HTML5 colour names. A colour wheel allowing you to pick colours can be found here: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=color+picker.

Defining shape

You may want to change the shapes on your Microreact panels, e.g. making the leaf nodes on a tree more meaningful via specific shapes. To predefine the shapes for a column named Country you would add a new column called Country__shape containing shape values.

Shapes are defined using the following values:

  • circle

  • diamond

  • dot

  • heptagon

  • heptagon-inverted

  • heptagram

  • heptagram-inverted

  • hexagon

  • hexagram

  • octagon

  • octagram

  • pentagon

  • pentagon-inverted

  • pentagram

  • pentagram-inverted

  • plus

  • cross

  • square

  • star

  • tetragram

  • triangle

  • triangle-inverted

  • triangle-right

  • triangle-left

  • chevron

  • double-chevron

  • chevron-inverted

  • double-chevron-inverted

  • chevron-right

  • double-chevron-right

  • chevron-left

  • double-chevron-left

  • wye

  • wye-inverted

See https://www.phylocanvas.gl/docs/constants.html#shapes for shape examples.

Renaming columns

Column names can be changed in the Data even after being imported to Microreact. Note, however, that these changes may not persist if the data are refreshed and updated via API.

Changing the name of a column after importing to Microreact

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