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API Admin Glossary

Datasource: Datasources are the individual pieces of data that can be used to create layers, tables, and documents. Some examples of Datasources include: a particular sheet of an excel workboox, a shapefile or a specific WFS layer. Datasources are discovered when a source is scanned. Sources provide lists of available datasources.

Document: A Document is a downloadable file created from a single data source, for example an Excel Workbook or PDF.

Layer: A Layer is similar to a table, but has a geospatial component and its datasources must have the same geometry type (point, line or polygon). Layers have a table of data, as well cartographic tiles and spatial query capabilities.

Scan: Sources are scanned to find Datasources that can be used to create layers, tables and documents. See the Sources API for more information.

Set: A Set is a collection of Tables, Layers and Documents that are provided in a single record.

Source: A container for data for creating layers, tables and documents. A Source could be an ArcGIS or WFS Server endpoint, an uploaded archive or a publicly accessible URL. 

Table: A Table is made up of tabular data with column headers and records. It does not have an explicit related geometry, and is also called an ‘aspatial’ format. A table can be created from one or more table Datasources with the same data schema.