Your data

Your Data: Now and Forever

Your map data is yours. Wildlost stores it on your device first, syncs it only when you choose an account, and lets you take it out again in public interchange standards — the same families of files other mapping and GIS tools have opened for decades.

That is the deal: you can use Wildlost now, and you can still open your library later, even if this app is gone.

What we mean by public standards

This page lists formats we implement and support because they are published specifications (or published extensions of those specifications). We import and export them in the Library. We do not treat a private product dump as a standard.

If a file follows one of these specs, you can bring it in. If you export from Wildlost, you get a file that is valid against the spec — plus the documented extensions below when the core schema has no place for color, folders, or time.

Library interchange

These formats carry the objects you draw and record: waypoints, routes, tracks, and (where the spec allows) polygons. GPX, GeoJSON, KML, and KMZ import and export from the Library, for the whole atlas, a folder, or a selection. FIT imports the same way. We do not export FIT. You can also drop a file onto the map. Image export is KMZ.

Coordinates are geographic WGS 84. On import we reproject to WGS 84 when the file names another CRS. Exports are WGS 84.

How objects map

A GeoJSON LineString with no type (and no layer name that says otherwise) imports as a track. Name, notes, and symbol come from ordinary properties: name / title, description / notes, marker-symbol / sym. Elevation and timestamps travel as GPX <ele> / <time>, GeoJSON position altitude, and KML coordinate altitude. A FIT activity imports as a track. A course imports as a route, and course points as waypoints.

GPX does not have polygons. If a scope includes polygons, GPX export omits them and says so. Use GeoJSON or KML when you need areas.

Image export is KMZ. Choose KMZ to export a photo, a folder of photos, or an atlas that includes them. Each image is its own point placemark, stored next to doc.kml under files/, and the placemark description references that file. GPX, GeoJSON, and plain KML omit images and say so. If the original is not on this device, the placemark still exports, without the image file.

Import-only standards

Extensions

Public specs leave some trail-planning fields out. Where a published extension exists, we use that instead of inventing a private schema. We read and write each extension below, except gpxx:rpt, which is import only.

GPX Style 0.2

Topografix gpx_style is the official public GPX extension for line appearance. On tracks and routes we write and read gpx_style:line:

• color — RGB hex without #
• width
• pattern dash and dasharray mark/space, mapped to a dashed line

GPX Style has no waypoint color element. Pin color is not written to GPX.

GPX route points (gpxx:rpt)

GpxExtensions v3 defines RoutePointExtension / rpt: the bends between route waypoints. On import, each <rtept> is followed by its rpt points, and that sequence is the route line. A repeated copy of the next waypoint is dropped. Elevation on an rpt is kept when the file includes it.

We read this extension. We do not write it. GPX export still records route waypoints as <rtept>. Opening that file elsewhere shows those waypoints. Importing the same file back into Wildlost keeps the line.

simplestyle-spec 1.1

simplestyle-spec is a public GeoJSON styling convention (#RGB / #RRGGBB). We write these keys only on generic GeoJSON properties:

Import of GeoJSON prefers simplestyle keys, then other documented color fields on the same object. GPX and KML do not carry these keys. KML pin, line, and polygon color uses IconStyle, LineStyle, and PolyStyle (aabbggrr).

KML Track (gx:Track)

When every track point has a timestamp, KML export writes a gx:Track (when + coord pairs) — the published time-aware track extension for KML 2.2 (http://www.google.com/kml/ext/2.2). Import accepts both gx:Track and a plain LineString.

KML 2.2 itself already has pin, line, and polygon color. We use those elements; they are not extensions.

What these files do not carry

A few things you see in Wildlost are not in the public schemas above:

• Directional ticks, line halo, and some dash details have no standard GPX/KML/GeoJSON field. Line color and basic width/dash do, via gpx_style on GPX, simplestyle on GeoJSON, and KML style elements. GPX has no pin color.
• Images travel in KMZ, as noted. The other library formats omit them.
• GPX cannot hold polygons or a folder tree. Shaped-route bends are read from gpxx:rpt and are not written back into that extension.

Exporting and re-importing through a public format is the portable path. It is also the honest path: you keep what the standard can say.

How to import and export

1. Open the Library.
2. Choose Import and pick a file, or drop a .gpx, .geojson, .json, .kml, .kmz, .fit, or .tif / .tiff onto the map.
3. If the file has more than one object, pick what to keep.
4. To take data out, select the atlas, a folder, or objects, then Export and choose a format. Choose KMZ to include images. The app will warn when a format must drop polygons or photos.

Signed out, that is the whole story: Local mode keeps the library on the device until you export it. Signed in, cloud sync is a convenience, not a lock. You can still export the same files.

Now, and later

Public standards are how mapping data survives a change of tool, a dead account, or a decade. We implement the specs on this page so your waypoints, routes, tracks, and polygons remain ordinary files you can copy, archive, and open again.

That is what “your data” means here: yours now, in Wildlost, and still yours in a format that does not depend on us.