Importing a client's tree inventory

When a client hands you their tree list — a spreadsheet from a city, a GIS layer from a campus — you can import it straight into an inventory and start assessing from it.

Set up the client and inventory

1. Go to Clients and click New Client, or add one from any client picker as you go.
2. Go to Inventories, click New inventory, give it a name and choose the client. Click Save inventory.

Imported trees belong to the inventory’s client, so the inventory needs one.

Import the file

On the inventory’s page, find Import / Export and choose your file under Import trees into this inventory. RootFlare reads:

• CSV
• Excel (.xlsx), the first sheet
• GeoJSON

Files can be up to 10 MB and 5,000 trees. From ArcGIS or QGIS, save the layer as CSV or GeoJSON first.

Click Upload and match columns.

Match the columns

RootFlare shows each of Their column with Sample values, and guesses where each one Goes into: their ID, tag, species, DBH, height, address, latitude, longitude and so on. Check its guesses and choose:

• Keep as extra info for anything else worth keeping; it shows on the tree’s page under From the client’s inventory.
• Ignore for columns you don’t need.

Say whether DBH is in inches or centimetres and Height is in feet or metres, then click Preview the import.

Preview and import

The preview counts new trees, trees that match ones you already have, and rows that will be skipped, with any problems listed by row. When it looks right, click Import.

A row matches an existing tree of that client by its ID, or failing that by its tag. A matched tree only gets the details it doesn’t have yet — nothing you’ve recorded is overwritten. Rows that can’t be told apart are skipped, and Download problem rows gives you a spreadsheet of them to fix.

Tip: Import before you go out: the trees are then in field mode’s tree list, ready to assess offline.

Export your trees

The same Import / Export section downloads the inventory’s trees as a GIS file (GeoJSON) for ArcGIS or QGIS, or a Spreadsheet (CSV), each with the latest preliminary or final assessment’s rating and summary. To export every tree in the account, use Settings → Data.