Annotating Your Hyfi Data
The Hyfi dashboard allows you to track everything going on at your site by leaving annotations (also known as “comments”) on your dashboard. This tutorial will show you how to create two kinds of annotations: text annotations, and photo annotations.
Table of Contents
Overview
What can I use annotations for?
Annotating data has many uses. Different Hyfi customers use annotations for different purposes. Here are some examples:
Tracking control actions at a site
Dam operators mark when and by how much they open or close dam gates so they can correlate their control actions with the recorded water level at a sensor downstream.
Recording changes that happen in the monitor’s surrounding environment
During construction monitoring, annotations can mark major events during a project’s timeline, facilitating before vs. after data analysis.
Adding a picture to compare against later
Municipal managers take photos to document site conditions for then vs. now comparisons and retrospective site assessments.
Keeping team members informed
Teams use annotations to keep each other up to date with what is going on at a monitoring site. With well-annotated data, there’s no need to track anyone down, or circle back to find out what happened when. The full context stays with the data, all in one place.
Marking when site maintenance happens
Field technicians record when they adjust the position of a monitor or clear vegetation around a site, creating a maintenance record that can be used in case a data quality issue arises.
Communicating with Hyfi
Hyfi will also leave annotations on your data to let you know if a data quality problem has been identified, when device maintenance has occurred, or when the sensor has been recalibrated.
How to see annotations
Annotations show up on your dashboard in a few places.
On the graph, as purple triangles marked at the time the annotation applies to.
In the “Site Activity” table
In the downloadable spreadsheet, under the “Annotations” column.
Troubleshooting: Missing Annotations
Try changing the time range. You can only see annotations for the time range you are looking at.
How to create an annotation
Log in to your Hyfi dashboard at www.go.hyfi.io
Click on the site that you want to create an annotation for
On desktop:
To make a text annotation:
click the “Annotate” icon button on the top right side of the page.
Change the date and time either by clicking on the purple date/time box, or by clicking somewhere on the graph.
Type your annotation into the box.
Click the “Add Annotation” button.
To make a photo annotation:
Click the “Add Field Photo” icon button on the top right side of the page.
Change the date and time by clicking on the purple date/time box.
Upload your photo(s).
Add a caption (optional).
Press “Upload photo”.
On mobile:
In the bottom right corner, click on the lightning bolt icon button.
To make a text annotation:
Click on the speech bubble icon button.
Change the date and time either by clicking on the purple date/time box
Type your annotation into the box.
Click the “Add Annotation” button.
To make a photo annotation:
Click on the camera icon button.
Change the date and time by clicking on the purple date/time box.
Upload your photo(s).
Add a caption (optional).
Press “Upload photo”.
Once you have clicked the add or upload button, the annotation has been saved. After a moment, your dashboard graph will reload, and you will be able to see the annotation on the screen.
FAQ
Q: Who can see my annotations?
Text and photo annotations are visible to anyone who has Hyfi dashboard login access and can view the data at that Hyfi site. This includes your team members and Hyfi staff.
Annotations do not appear on public dashboards.
Q: Where are the annotations stored?
Text annotations are stored in the same secure database as water level measurements. Photo annotations are stored in secure cloud storage.
Just like with your water data, you have full ownership of the annotations made for your monitoring site. Hyfi will not share your annotations with third parties without your permission.
Q: How can I download annotations?
In the top right corner, click the download button.
Choose the “spreadsheet” option from the dropdown menu.
If your site has annotations within the time range you are viewing, these will appear in the “Annotations” column of the spreadsheet.
Need Help?
If you have trouble adding or viewing an annotation, contact us at support@hyfi.io.