Importing data

Use Foxglove Data Platform's web console to import and interact with your robotics data.

After signing in to your Foxglove account, you can start importing your robots' data for your whole organization to collaborate on.

Add a device

Go to the Devices page, and click "Add device":

add device

Create a uniquely named device for every robot you want to track. This will allow your team members to add data recorded on these devices.

You can also create and list devices via the CLI.

$ foxglove devices add --name "my device"
$ foxglove devices list

Import data

NOTE: All imported data must be tied to a device, so be sure to create all relevant devices before starting an import.

Click the "Import data" button on the Recordings or Timeline page.

Select the recorded data file you want to import, as well as the device you want to associate with this import (i.e. the robot that recorded this data):

import

Alternatively, you can select a device on the Devices page, then click "Import data" on that device's dedicated landing page.

ROS 1

Select the ROS 1 .bag file you want to upload, and start your "Upload".

ROS 2

Use the mcap CLI tool to convert your ROS 2 .db3 files into MCAP files:

$ mcap convert ros2_input.db3 ros2_output.mcap

mcap will search the path stored in your $AMENT_PREFIX_PATH environment variable to locate the ROS message definitions on your hard drive.

Alternatively, you can specify a colon-separated list of directories for the CLI tool to search using the ament-prefix-path flag:

$ mcap convert ros1_input.bag ros1_output.mcap --ament-prefix-path=/your/first/directory;/your/second/directory

Back in the web console, select your newly output .mcap file, and start your "Upload".

Custom data

Whether you're recording your data in Protobuf, JSON, MessagePack, or another format, you can convert this data into the standardized MCAP format to import into Data Platform.

Read and write your own MCAP files in C++, Python, Go, Swift, or TypeScript.

Back in the web console, select your output .mcap files, and start your "Upload".

MCAP

Select the .mcap file you want to upload.

CLI

$ foxglove data imports add ~/data/bags/gps.bag --device-id dev_drpLqjBZYUzus3gv

$ foxglove data import ~/data/bags/gps.bag --device-id dev_drpLqjBZYUzus3gv

View imports

Go to the Recordings page to see all imported data as discrete files.

You can also go to the Timeline page to view all imported data as ranges on a timeline.

$ foxglove data imports list

View imports for a device

Click any device on the Devices page to see its associated imports.

Additional resources