Big data connection datasets have a geometry property that defines the geographic location and include the geometry type, field used to construct the geometry, and the spatial reference.
The following are some examples of when you should update your geometry information:
- To define the spatial reference of the data.
- To change the fields used in geometry. For example, switch from pickup_x, pickup_y to dropoff_x, dropoff_y.
- To change the field and geometry type. For example, switch from x- and y-locations to a field that uses well-known text.
- To enable geometry. For example, switch from a table to a polygon.
Field properties details
You can modify the geometry for delimited files, ORC, and parquet files. You cannot modify the geometry for a shapefile-sourced dataset.
There are three components of the geometry properties:
- Geometry type—A required property that denotes the geometry type. Options include points, lines, polygons, and none. If there is no geometry type, the dataset is a table.
- Spatial reference—A required property denoting the spatial reference of the dataset. If the dataset has geometry, either one or both well-known IDs (WKID) must be specified (WKID and latest WKID) or the well-known text (WKT).
- Fields—A required property for delimited datasets with a spatial representation. This denotes the names and formats of the geometry.
The default spatial reference is set to WGS84, WKID 4326.
The following geometry formats are supported:
- XYZ—Two or more fields will represent x, y, and optionally z. This is the most common geometry format type. This format is not supported for lines or polygons.
- WKT—The geometry will be represented by a single field in a well-known text field.
- WKB—The geometry will be represented by a single field in a well-known binary field. This format is only supported for parquet- and ORC-sourced datasets.
- GeoJSON—The geometry will be represented by a single field in GeoJSON format.
- EsriJSON—The geometry will be represented by a single field in Esri JSON format.
Changing the geometry properties for the big data connection dataset does not modify your source datasets.
To use multiple fields to represent geometry, for example, set the geometry with one field representing the degrees for longitude and a second field for the minutes of longitude, and modify the .bdc file manually.