Glossary

A .carto format is a compressed file that includes the basemap, connected map layers, custom styling, analysis, widgets, legends, attributions, metadata, and custom SQL queries that are all used to render maps in CARTO Builder and Editor.

Aggregation is using one map symbol to represent multiple features. To do that the attribute data from each feature must be combined. There are many ways this can be done, including COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, and MAX. CARTO Builder map layer styles offer aggregation options for point geometry. The attribute used in the aggregation is location, and you are able to choose the aggregation method and style. These aggregation styles contain their own CartoCSS property, which you can further customize based on the overall spatial pattern of your map.

Airship is a design library for building Location Intelligence applications.

Anonymous Maps allow you to instantiate a map with private data, by using SQL and CartoCSS map configurations. It also allows you to add interaction capabilities using UTF Grid.

CARTO’s API keys are codes to enable requests to CARTO’s APIs (Maps, SQL, etc.). API Keys identify your project and provide a powerful and flexible primitive for managing access to CARTO’s resources like APIs and Datasets.

The open source development tool that enables you to use a collection of several APIs to build advanced, dynamic geospatial datasets and scalable maps for your own applications.

Attributions represent the data sources used in your map, which may have copyright protections. You can define map attributions and dataset attributions (When you are using third-party data for your maps, you may need to provide attributions about the data sources. To add attributions to a dataset, use the “Edit metadata” option, which is accessible from the dataset name menu option.)

Auth API is the piece of the CARTO platform that enables a consistent, uniform way of accessing data, datasets, and APIs.

A Builder widget feature that enables viewers to automatically apply cartographic styles to a map via a toggle button. It’s purpose is to temporarily highlight your selected widget results using cartography. When the autostyle button is in the “on” state and you continue to filter your data by using widgets, the autostyle color scheme is maintained as the map recalculates and renders.

Basemaps are image tiles that are used to render the graphical representation of your map background. Builder includes a selection of basemap sources from CARTO, Stamen, and HERE. You can import an external basemap from Maxbox projects, WMS/WMTS, TileJSON, and NASA imagery. Additionally, you can apply a solid background color as the basemap, or even import a custom tileset using an XYZ URL (such as a .png, .jpg, or .gif image URL to display a repeating pattern as your basemap). Layers are rendered from bottom to top, with basemaps being the bottom layer. You cannot reorder where the basemap appears in the LAYERS pane of Builder. This is intentional by design, so that your visualization appears correctly.

A Batch Query enables you to request queries with long-running CPU processing times. Typically, these kind of requests raise timeout errors when using the SQL API. In order to avoid timeouts, you can use Batch Queries to create, read and cancel queries. You can also run a chained batch query to chain several SQL queries into one job. A Batch Query schedules the incoming jobs and allows you to request the job status for each query.

The billing information for your account is accessible through your account settings. You can change or upgrade your plan, view past invoices, and edit payment information.

Blend modes or composite operations style the way colors of overlapping geometries interact with each other. Similar to blend operations in Photoshop, these composite operations style the blend modes on your map. The main reason to use composite operations is to fine-tune how much some features in your map stand out compared to others. They are a great way to control your map’s legibility. In Builder, there is a shortcut for selecting the BLENDING composite operation value, directly from the STYLE options of a selected map layer. You can also enter CartoCSS syntax to apply the comp-op property with additional values.

Boolean values are either true or false. Dataset columns can contain boolean data types, and/or some API functions contain boolean values.

When styling a map layer by a number value, you can choose the way that data is divided into “buckets” to display groups of data. The higher the number of buckets, the more granular the data.Category widgets filter by selected string columns from your data. You can configure values by an aggregated data column, define the operation, and define the operation column

A buffer is the area covering all points within a given distance of a geometry.

CARTO Builder is our web-based drag and drop analysis tool, that has replaced CARTO Editor. Advanced functionality enables you to discover and predict key insights for your visualization, while still using all of the same map styling features that you already know. Builder as a user role: For Enterprise accounts, the organization administration can assign Builder (write access) to shared datasets and maps.

CARTO is the platform to build powerful Location Intelligence apps with the best data streams available.

The CARTO Dashboard is an interface that enables you to manage your datasets and maps, access your account options, and view your public profile. When you login to CARTO, the CARTO toolbar displays options enabling you to navigate around the dashboard.

A CARTO local installation on an user server, or set of servers. CARTO’s On-Premises Enterprise edition is created regularly by freezing specific versions of our Open Source CARTO components, testing them thoroughly and wrapping them around an installer that simplifies the installation and upgrade processes for CentOS or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It also includes enterprise-level support from our Engineers.

A web-based application that brings together multiple data streams and applies spatial analyses to address a specific use case (e.g. network optimization) for an organization.

CARTO VL is a JavaScript library that interacts with different CARTO APIs to build custom apps leveraging vector rendering.

CARTO.js is a JavaScript library that interacts with different CARTO APIs. It is part of the CARTO Engine ecosystem.

Custom color schemes built on top of well-known standards for color use on maps, with next generation enhancements for the web and CARTO basemaps.

CartoCSS is the syntax language that enables you to customize the style of your map data. Similar to working with a Cascading Style Sheet for styling webpages, CartoCSS is specific to the design of map symbolizer properties (such as marker size, marker color, line pattern, line stroke, text display, and so on). You can apply CartoCSS code directly from the STYLE tab of a selected map layer. Optionally, you can apply CartoCSS with CARTO.js and the Maps API.

cartodb_id is the primary key of any CARTO dataset. It is used internally and externally for mapping, infowindows, and a few other things. You can use this column also as a numeric key for every row in your table. Each number, within a table, is a unique reference to a row.

CARTOframes is a Python package for integrating CARTO maps, analysis, and data services into data science workflows.

When styling a map layer with a string or boolean value, you can select a qualitative color scheme that demonstrate categorical differences in data; which use different hues, with consistent steps in lightness and saturation.

In CARTO Builder, category widgets filter by selected string columns from your data. You can configure values by an aggregated data column, define the operation, and define the operation column.

A centroid is the geometric center of one or a group of features.

A choropleth map is a thematic map where geographic regions are colored, shaded, or patterned in relation to a value. You can use statistical data of counties, provinces, countries, and populations. CARTO Builder offers advanced map styling with CartoCSS and TurboCARTO for choropleth maps.

Classification methods group data into ranges. CARTO supports classifying numeric fields for graduated symbology through the following methods; Quantiles, Jenks, Equal Interval, Heads/Tails, Category.

A cluster is a group of points that have similar attributes or coordinates.

Choosing the right colors for your data aids storytelling, engages the map reader, and visually guides the viewer to uncover interesting patterns, that may otherwise be missed.

Created by Cynthia Brewer, a collection of standard color schemes that can be used for mapping data. ColorBrewer schemes are included when styling color properties in Builder, and when using TurboCARTO.

When applying some Data Services functions (Analysis, Geocoding, etc.), one credit per function call will be consumed. The results are not cached. If the query is applied to a N rows dataset, then N credits are consumed. Avoid running dynamic queries to these functions in your maps. This can result in credit consumption per map view.

A comma-separated values (CSV) file is a delimited text file that uses a comma to separate values.

The CARTO Data Library, available from your datasets dashboard, provides a list of public data libraries. You can connect to these public datasets and create a map. Examples of data in the Data Library include World Borders, European Countries, Urban Areas, and Populated Places. You can also access the Data Library when adding a layer to your map with the Connect Dataset options. If a dataset is colored red, this indicates that you cannot connect to the dataset since you do not have enough allocated quota to store the data. When connecting to a dataset from the data library, you can select sync options for the data.

The Data Observatory, available for Enterprise accounts, provides access to a catalogue of curated datasets, and enables you to apply the results to your own datasets.

The CARTO Data Services API offers a set of location based services that can be used to programatically customize subsets of data for your visualizations.

The original source of the data from a layer. In Builder, the data source could be an analysis layer node or a dataset, in CARTO.js and CARTO VL data sources can be datasets or SQL queries, and in CARTOframes they could be dataframes and other Python objects.

When you upload your data to CARTO, it automatically assigns a data type to your column, such as string, number, date, or boolean. Certain map options are rendered based on the defined data type. It is good practice to confirm that the correct data type is assigned to the column, when viewing your dataset as a table in the Data View.

Behind the scenes, the CARTO geospatial database is built on the PostgreSQL platform and supports advanced PostGIS capabilities. When you import data with CARTO Builder, you are connecting a dataset to a standard database.

You can use the Import API to connect to an external database. Your data from the external database is cached into a CARTO table by using the connector parameters. There are several types of database connectors that you can connect to your CARTO account.

A sigle database table containing geographic and thematic information. When you open a dataset in the Data View, the dataset name menu contains options to manage your data (Duplicate dataset, Rename dataset, Edit metadata, Lock dataset, Delete dataset). Note that some of these menu options do not appear if your dataset is synced.

In CARTO.js, dataviews are a way to extract data from our source in predefined ways depending on the type of the column (eg: a list of categories, the result of a formula operation, etc…).

Decimal degrees express latitude and longitude geographic coordinates as decimal fractions and are used in many GIS, web mapping applications, and GPS devices.

CARTO Editor is the old web-based visualization interface.

A CARTO map that can be embedded into a HTML element such as a website or blog post. In Editor, the embed maps links end in embed_map, while Builder embeds end in embed.

An Open Source tool that enables you to use several APIs to build advanced, dynamic geospatial datasets and scalable maps for your own applications.

When styling a map layer by a numeric value, the Equal Interval classification method divides the range of attribute values into equal-sized subranges. The class breaks specified by the number of buckets selected. Usually used for percentage values, it is best applied to familiar data columns such as temperature, ratios, and other relative attribute values.

Events are “things” that happen to HTML elements. An event can be something the browser does, or something a user does.

CARTO VL expressions are the building blocks for CARTO VL styling and dataview-like functionality (i.e. access to data and metadata of the sources).

A single element on a map like a polygon, a line or a point that represent a single row of a dataset.

A data field is a place where you can store data. Commonly used to refer to a column in a database or a field in a data entry form or web form. The field may contain data to be entered as well as data to be displayed.

Filtering data in a dataset or map layer means to set conditions so that only certain data is displayed. In CARTO Editor, filters is available from the CARTO Sidebar and enables you to view specific data, or specify a range of data to include or exclude on your map visualization. In CARTO Builder, filters are applied to your visualizations through embedded widgets. Widgets are embedded with your visualization and do not modify your original data, they simply allow you to explore your map by selecting targeted filters of interest.”

In CARTO Builder, formula widgets calculate aggregated values from numeric columns in AVG, MAX, MIN, SUM, and COUNT. These are useful for viewing analysis results.

Geocoding allows CARTO users to match your data with geometries on a map. This geocoding service can be used programatically to geocode datasets via the CARTO SQL API. It is fed from Open Data and other third party providers like Mapbox, TomTom and HERE. It serves geometries for countries, provinces, states, cities, postal codes, IP addresses and street addresses.

GeoJSON is an open standard format designed for representing simple geographical features, along with their non-spatial attributes. It is based on the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

A geometry is shape (point, line, polygon) that represents the geographical coordinates of your data. Datasets are formatted based on the geometry of your data, and the appearance of map layers is driven by the aggregation style of your data.

A GeoPackage (GPKG) is an open, non-proprietary, platform-independent and standards-based data format for geographic information system implemented as a SQLite database container.

A geographic information system (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographic data.

When styling a map layer by a numeric value, the Heads/Tails classification method is best for data with heavy-tailed distributions, such as exponential decay or lognormal curves. This classification is done through dividing values into large (head) and small (tail) around the arithmetic mean. The division procedure repeats continuously until the specified number of bins is met, or there is only one remaining value left. This method, more than others, helps to reveal the underlying scaling pattern of far more small values than large ones.

In Builder, a variation of a Torque map, that creates a map of point data by a slowly changing dimension of time. Temporal data can be visualized as a static or an animated heatmap through the STYLE tab in Builder. Areas of greater color intensity indicate a larger density of data.

In Builder, when styling a map layer with point geometries, displays your data aggregated in hexbins, based on the defined operation in the options below. You can configure the size of the hexbin, and apply the operation for how the data is aggregated (COUNT, SUM, AVG, MAX, MIX). The agg_value CartoCSS property is added and contains a unique color scheme to differentiate the binned structure applied to your map. Hexbins are useful if you are visualizing large datasets.

Histogram widgets examine numerical values within a given range, distributed across your data map. You can configure values by a data column and define the number of buckets.

The CARTO Import API allows you to upload files to a CARTO account, check on their current upload status, as well as delete and list importing processes on a given account.

Interactivity refers to the possible interactions between the user and the features on the map (i.e. what happens when you click on a feature, when you hover over it…).

An intersect is an analytical operation that can be used to select any part of a feature that intersects with one or more other features.

An isoline is a line on a map along which there is a constant value, for example temperature (isotherm), precipitation, travel time (isochrone), or distance (isodistance).

When styling a map layer by a numeric value, the Jenks classification method breaks the data into classes based on natural groupings inherent in the data. The groups are formed by decreasing the variance within classes and increasing the variance between different classes – a 1D k-means. Since Jenks are data-specific classifications, they are not useful for comparing multiple maps built from different underlying data.

A spatial join is a GIS operation that affixes data from one feature layer’s attribute table to another from a spatial perspective.

KML (Keyhole Markup Language) is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser such as Google Earth.

Text that identifies a map feature. Typographic properties like style, size and weight are used to indicate a feature’s importance in the map’s information hierarchy.

Latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the Earth’s surface.

A layer is the visual representation of the geograhic and thematic information contained on a dataset.

In Builder, if you have an analysis workflow applied to your map layer (A, B, C, D), the analyzed data is included as a node (A1, A2, B1, B2, etc.) within your data. You can chain several different analysis nodes to a single map layer.

In Builder, available from the Map Options, LAYER SELECTOR enables you to display the visible layers on your map visualization. You can also show or hide map layers on your published map with the Show/Hide eyeball icon, located on each map layer.

CARTO.js includes Leaflet integration libraries if you are mapping with CARTO Engine, which enables you to create overlays with images. Additionally, basemaps can be added to any map layer that is created with CARTO.js and Leaflet by including the tile layer basemap url. When using Torque.js with CARTO Engine, you must have a Leaflet map prepared in an HTML page, which automatically generates the Torque.js library that you can use to create animated maps.

A legend is a panel overlaying a map that defines what the map’s symbols represent. It does that by displaying the symbol along with explanatory text. In CARTO this can be combined with a Layer Selector.

Limits are numerical values set in different CARTO platform components per user and/or organization to assure reliability and performance. The most important ones are: database timeout, rate and quota limits.

Data describing the location and thematic information of things. It could be collected from Location Data Streams or other classic data sources like Open Data portals.

A source of regularly updated location data available from a data provider (such as Vodafone or Mastercard), that can be connected to a solution.

Location Intelligence (LI) is a discipline for turning location data into business outcomes through enrichment, visualization, and interative analysis.

Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth’s surface.

A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes.

Each pricing plan includes a number of map loads per month. A map load occurs whenever a map is instantiated using the Maps API, whether it is from Builder, CARTOframes, or embedded in a custom web page or application.

A map projection is a systematic transformation of the latitudes and longitudes of locations from the surface of a sphere or an ellipsoid into locations on a plane.

The CARTO Maps API allows you to generate maps based on data hosted in your CARTO account and apply custom SQL and CartoCSS to the data.

Metadata is used to describe your data or map. You can edit the metadata for any map or dataset in Builder. Map metadata is displayed on your published map. When you are viewing a selected dataset from Your datasets dashboard, click to the slider button to switch between viewing your data by metadata (table) or SQL (SQL view).

Mobile SDK is a cross-platform SDK to create custom maps for mobile applications.

Named Maps are essentially the same as Anonymous Maps except the MapConfig is stored on the server, and the map is given a unique name.

It is data represented on a standard scale such as population density (population data divided by area).

The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) is a computer software library for reading and writing raster and vector geospatial data formats. The related OGR library (OGR Simple Features Library), which is part of the GDAL source tree, provides a similar ability for simple features vector graphics data.

A common CartoCSS property that specifies the transparency of the color, or image, for a marker property. Opacity values are float values, which are numbers specified in pixels (a value between 0-1).

Open in CARTO allows to import and create a map from open data web portals.

Open-source software (OSS) is a type of computer software whose source code is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. CARTO API’s are open source tools that developers can use for map applications. You can access the open-source repository for our product on GitHub.

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. “OpenStreetMap data contains features that make up our cities, including neighborhoods, streets, roads, and even lampposts. OpenStreetMap data is contributed by a diverse community, is rich with local knowledge, and frequently updated. You can import and use OSM data in CARTO as long as you include the copyright attributions in the map. Note that OSM data can be quite large, ensure you are zoomed in enough to limit the size of the dataset that you are downloading before importing an OSM file to CARTO.”

Large datasets, that contain over 500,000 points in a table, often need some optimizations to improve rendering performance. To solve this, CARTO creates “overviews”, which are simplified representations of the data. These data overviews are applied to a range of zoom levels for your visualizations, depending on the number of points per tile.

A popup is an infowindow with thematic data from one or several features on a map generated by some user action like clicking or hovering.

PostGIS provides spatial objects for the PostgreSQL database, allowing storage and query of information about location and mapping. Behind the scenes, the CARTO geospatial database is built on the PostgreSQL platform and supports advanced PostGIS capabilities, enabling you to use basic PostgreSQL expressions and PostGIS functions when creating maps with CARTO.

PostgreSQL is an open source relational database management system (DBMS) developed by a worldwide team of volunteers. Behind the scenes, the CARTO geospatial database is built on the PostgreSQL platform and supports advanced PostGIS capabilities, enabling you to use basic PostgreSQL expressions and PostGIS functions when creating maps with CARTO.

CARTO VL property expressions are used to reference properties on a given source, when using Maps API sources, properties are the same as database columns.

Map symbols whose size indicates how much of an attribute is at a location. The more of an attribute the location has, the larger it’s symbol will be; the less of an attribute the location has, the smaller it’s symbol will be. In unclassed proportional symbol maps the symbol’s scale is directly proportional to the location’s attribute value. In classed graduated symbol maps the range of attribute values is divided into bins, and one symbol size is assigned to each bin.

Python SDK is a full, backwards incompatible rewrite of the deprecated cartodb-python SDK.

Amount of queries/requests that can be done per second.

When styling a map layer by a numeric value, the Quantiles classification method is well suited to linearly distributed data. Each quantile class contains an equal number of features. There are no empty classes or classes with too few or too many values. This can be misleading sometimes, since similar features can be placed in adjacent classes or widely different values can be in the same class, due to equal number grouping.

SQL (Structured Query Language) is how applications request data from a database. CARTO geospatial database is built on the PostgreSQL platform and supports advanced PostGIS capabilities. PostGIS allows you to perform geospatial queries, such as finding data points within a given radius, the area of polygons in your dataset, and so on. You can run a SQL query from a selected dataset, or directly through the SQL view in Builder.

Based on your account plan, some of the Data Services API functions are subject to quota limitations and extra fees may apply.Quota consumption is calculated based on the number of request made for each geocoding, isoline or routing function.

A ramp is a TurboCARTO expression to generate data-driven gradients (i.e. color, opacity, size ramps).

In Builder and CARTO.js, basemaps are image or raster tiles that are used to render the graphical representation of your map background. External basemaps are rendered based on tile services. By selecting a basemap source, you are requesting existing, pre-generated, image tiles from a remote server. CARTO uses a proxy to translate URLs from the Internet. Any external basemap source that you want to apply must be available via a public URL, in order to be rendered correctly.

Routing is the navigation from a defined start location to a defined end location. The calculated results are displayed as turn-by-turn directions on your map, based on the transportation mode that you specified. Routing services through CARTO are available by using the available functions in the Data Services API.

Shapefiles, a widespread format for transferring spatial data (created by ESRI), can be imported into CARTO. Shapefiles are collections of three or more associated files. To import them into CARTO, make sure all files (SHP, DBF, SHX, and possibly PRJ) have the same name, and are compressed as a ZIP file.

Spatial analysis includes any of the formal techniques which study entities using their topological, geometric, or geographic properties.

SQL (Structured Query Language) is how applications request data from a database. CARTO geospatial database is built on the PostgreSQL platform and supports advanced PostGIS capabilities. PostGIS allows you to perform geospatial queries, such as finding data points within a given radius, the area of polygons in your dataset, and so on. You can run a SQL query from a selected dataset, or directly through the SQL view in Builder.

CARTO’s SQL API allows you to interact with your tables and data inside CARTO, as if you were running SQL statements against a normal database.

In Builder, when a map layer contains point geometries, the SQUARES aggregation method displays your data aggregated in squares, based on the defined operation in the options below. You can configure the size of the square, and apply the data operation for how the data is aggregated (COUNT, SUM, AVG, MAX, MIX). Additionally, the agg_value CartoCSS property is added and contains a unique color scheme to differentiate the styled pattern applied to your map. Squares are often useful if you are visualizing large datasets.

Static views of CARTO maps can be generated using the Static Maps API within CARTO.js.

When styling a map layer, the stroke contains the width, color, and opacity for the sides of the geometry.

A symbol is a graphic that represents a map feature. Symbology is system of map symbols that uses size, color, visual weight and placement to indicate the meaning and hierarchy of features.

Sync Tables store data from a remote file and refresh their contents during periodic intervals specified by the user. The base files from which the sync tables retrieve their contents may come from Google Drive, Dropbox, Box or a public URL.

By default, CARTO stores geospatial data using the_geom column from your dataset. This column displays the latitude and longitude in a single projection, using the WGS84 cartographic method.

A hidden column in your dataset, the_geom_webmercator, is used to store data using the Web Mercator projection; which is mostly used for online maps since it produces simple, loadable, map tiles for efficient rendering on web browsers. This column is used internally to build your map tiles quickly and is automatically updated as the geometry changes. This column is not visible in the Data View of your map layer, unless explicitly queried through SQL

A Time Series widget enables you to set a temporal parameter upon your data, to display across time. Buckets could represent hours, days, weeks, months, years or decades. It can also be animated.

When you log into CARTO, CARTO toolbar enables you to navigate around your maps and your datasets dashboard. In Builder, the blue Builder toolbar displays options for editing your map, and selecting map options.

Torque.js is an efficient and stylish rendering method to animate your data.

TurboCARTO is a CartoCSS preprocessor for styling data-driven maps. It enables adding functions to CartoCSS that can be evaluated asynchronously.

A CARTO VL variable is a named CARTO VL expression. Variables can be referenced by other expressions to facilitate styling and they can also be used to access dataset data with JavaScript.

Vector tiles, tiled vectors or vectiles are packets of geographic data, packaged into pre-defined roughly-square shaped “tiles” for transfer over the web.

CARTO VL visualization concept unifies styling and dataview-like functionality in the same object. A CARTO VL Viz object defines how data should be rendered and how data can be accessed by the JavaScript API.

A web map, slippy map or tile map (raster or vector) is a map displayed in a browser by seamlessly joining dozens of individually requested image files over the internet.

A dynamic filter in CARTO Builder. Widgets are embedded with your visualization and do not modify your original data, they simply allow you to explore your map by selecting targeted filters of interest. Widgets not only filter data but they also update the styling of your visualization, and initiate analysis.

A Web Map Service (WMS) is a standard protocol developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium in 1999 for serving georeferenced map images over the Internet. These images are typically produced by a map server from data provided by a GIS database.

A Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) is a standard protocol for serving pre-rendered or run-time computed georeferenced map tiles over the Internet.

Numeric values usually ranging from 1 (global scale) to 18-20 (local scale) that represents the scale in webmapping.