If you're acquainted with a GIS system like ArcGIS or QGIS, you know that shapefiles can contain a multitude of information, referred to as 'attributes'. In these systems, attributes can be customized, and are used to store numeric or text information specific to each object. For example, land trusts will often store the easement number, expiration date, and landowner information with each easement polygon.
In Landscape, however, geographies (/shapefiles) only contain 5 fixed attributes. This is because Landscape itself is the database which stores all of the other information normally associated with those extra attributes. These attributes are: Name; Description; Map Label; Activity Type; and Species
Name is a required field, and is the name of the geography ("Smith building envelope"; "Yard waste pile"; "Smith Property"; etc.).
Description can be used to describe the particular geography ("Building envelope within the Smith lot")
Map Label is the label that will be shown on the map. Map label is a text field, so if attempting to order this geography attribute in a table by number, use "01", "02", "03", rather than "1", "2", "3", etc.
Activity Type can be used to categorize various activities within a geography. You can then 'Style by Type' to show different types using different symbology.
Species can be used to track individual species when doing biological inventories.
To edit these attributes, open a map containing the geography attributes you'd like to edit and click on the item. You should not click 'edit Layer' in the layer menu. After you click the item, a panel will open beside the map which shows these attributes. You can then type into the attribute fields as you would any normal Landscape field. Press the 'x' to save your changes and close the panel.
Importing attributes
The "Name", "Description", and "Map Label" attributes can be imported while uploading individual shapefiles by renaming the columns/fields in your file "NAME", "DESC" or "DESCRIPT", and "MAPLABEL", respectively. You can then follow normal uploading procedures.
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