Getting Familiar with Field Records

Aptli's map is organised around layers and features — standardised definitions for the real-world assets you track. This page introduces those concepts and shows you how to load data onto the map using the import tools.

Note: If you've gone over the login-logout concepts and noted some of the interactions of Verify Access you'll see some simple, general basics for how we handle some importing functions. There are a few differences in field records with a map view that we'll cover at a glance here.

Navigate to the Field Records from the Navigation Menu.

Once the map is available, click on the Navigation Menu again and notice additional options for toolbars appear.

The first on the list is the layer manager.

What's a layer?

In Aptli, a layer is standard definition for a class of object. These clases of objects are often referred to as features which are representations of "things" on a map. An example might be a telephone pole.

There's no limit to the number of feature types, but every layer remains consistent and standardized. This means if it you see a skinny pole next to a wide pole, you can bet these two are on different layers and have different definitions. In this way, you might have two different poles, but all poles of the same type are represented the same way and defined the same way.

If you're looking at the default deployment you should see a handful of private layers marked with '__' that you can you can tailor yourself. There's typically 3:

• tasks — a collection of activities tied to resources (inventory and effort) in the field
• schematic — flexible diagrams used to represent objects in a conceptual diagram. Unlike point or polygon layers, a schematic layer has its own network-diagram symbol (⬡—⬡—⬡) that distinguishes it from regular map features. In telecom and construction you might use this for a long-haul network map or a splice diagram; in other fields it could be a subway map — any conceptual drawing that is not to scale.
• sites — special locations that store inventory

Now tasks and sites don't always show up on the map, but this will be covered in more advanced sections.

Controlling layer visibility by zoom level

Each layer has two optional threshold settings — Show Above Zoom and Show Below Zoom — that let you control at which zoom levels the layer is visible.

Zoom levels run from 0 (entire world visible) to 22 (building / street-furniture detail). The diagram below shows how the two thresholds create a visible window on that scale:

Zoomed OUT ◄─────────────────────────────────────► Zoomed IN
  0    1    2    3    4    5   ...   17   18   19   20   21   22
                │                              │
          Show Above Zoom              Show Below Zoom

  ✗    ✗    ✗  [══════════ VISIBLE ══════════]   ✗    ✗    ✗

Typical use-cases:

• A city-boundary polygon set to Show Below Zoom 10 — visible when panned out to see the whole city, hidden once you're at street level.
• A manhole-cover point layer set to Show Above Zoom 15 — only appears once you're close enough for individual assets to be meaningful.

The Overlays Tab

Beyond Point/Line/Polygon Layers, the Layer Manager has a fourth tab: Overlays. This is where you tune what your map looks like and run a couple of "is anyone stepping on my work?" checks:

• Basemap — switch between street, satellite, topographic, etc. The map's underlying tile source.
• Globe — toggle a 3-D globe projection vs. flat Mercator.
• Overlays — stack raster overlays (hillshade, satellite imagery) on top of the basemap. Each overlay has its own opacity slider and z-order arrows; the row at the top of the list renders on top of the map.
• Team Conflicts — query the server for features in your viewport that other teammates are editing in their own pending drafts. See Version Management for the full workflow.
• Import Duplicates — scan features you just imported (not yet committed) for spatial duplicates of features already on the map. Catches accidental re-imports of the same dataset. See Imports.

Imports

Aptli is designed to take imports from a variety of sources. In the case of field reports it'll take .xlsx, .csv, .geojson, .json, .gdb, .mdb, .shp

Select the Data Transfer Toolbar.

If you require some samples for training, you can download a handful of ready‑made geojsons from the public guide folder, or fetch your own from any municipal or regional open‑data portal (for example: Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, New York, London). Choose any of these and save them locally before importing:

• toronto-sample.csv
• toronto-sample.xlsx
• See Import Samples for a curated starter list and notes on where to find more open-data sources

Depending on the type of file you select, you'll see a few different options like this:

Note: You can adjust the options, but the import process is flexible and can take a mix of feature types, provided they're points, lines and polygons all in the same file.

~20 imported features are added automatically to the "Selected Features" menu at the top. You can view the details of these by clicking on the map.

Import workflow step‑by‑step

1. Choose or drop a file in the toolbar. The file selector accepts the formats listed above.
2. Fill in the options that appear beneath the selector. For GeoJSON/CSV/XLSX you'll be asked for a temporary layer name, allowed geometry types, and various cleaning/reprojection switches. For GDB/MDB/ZIP the form only has a "Queue import" button – these are processed on the server.
3. Process the file.
   • The file is parsed and the features are queued for import. A preview modal appears showing the count and geometry types; when you’re ready, click Confirm import to add them as drafts.
   • Imports are processed in the background; use the job selector on the toolbar to watch progress. When a job reaches complete, select it and click Load features (optionally limiting to features within the current viewport).
4. Review the imported drafts. If the import references a layer that doesn’t exist, the new features appear on the map with a purple outline (draft style); if the target layer exists, they go directly into that layer. Use the draw toolbar’s select tools to inspect them before committing.

💡 Tip: if you accidentally import the wrong file, use the clear button next to the job selector to remove the draft features from the map; if it’s already on the map you can also undo. You may need to undo a few times because it will undo extra layers created as well.