1
0
Fork 0
arangodb/Documentation/ToolsManual/ImpManual.md

179 lines
8.1 KiB
Markdown

Importing Data into an ArangoDB Database {#ImpManual}
=====================================================
@NAVIGATE_ImpManual
@EMBEDTOC{ImpManualTOC}
This manual describes the ArangoDB importer _arangoimp_, which can be used for
bulk imports.
The most convenient method to import a lot of data into ArangoDB is to use the
`arangoimp` command-line tool. It allows you to import data records from a file
into an existing database collection.
It is possible to import document keys with the documents using the `_key`
attribute. When importing into an edge collection, it is mandatory that all
imported documents have the `_from` and `_to` attributes, and that they contain
valid references.
Let's assume for the following examples you want to import user records into an
existing collection named "users" on the server.
Importing JSON-encoded Data {#ImpManualJson}
============================================
Let's further assume the import at hand is encoded in JSON. We'll be using these
example user records to import:
@verbinclude arangoimp-data-json
To import these records, all you need to do is to put them into a file (with one
line for each record to import) and run the following command:
unix> arangoimp --file "data.json" --type json --collection "users"
This will transfer the data to the server, import the records, and print a
status summary. To show the intermediate progress during the import process, the
option `--progress` can be added. This option will show the percentage of the
input file that has been sent to the server. This will only be useful for big
import files.
unix> arangoimp --file "data.json" --type json --collection "users" --progress true
By default, the endpoint `tcp://127.0.0.1:8529` will be used. If you want to
specify a different endpoint, you can use the `--server.endpoint` option. You
probably want to specify a database user and password as well. You can do so by
using the options `--server.username` and `--server.password`. If you do not
specify a password, you will be prompted for one.
unix> arangoimp --server.endpoint tcp://127.0.0.1:8529 --server.username root --file "data.json" --type json --collection "users"
Note that the collection (`users` in this case) must already exist or the import
will fail. If you want to create a new collection with the import data, you need
to specify the `--create-collection` option. Note that it is only possible to
create a document collection using the `--create-collection` flag, and no edge
collections.
unix> arangoimp --file "data.json" --type json --collection "users" --create-collection true
As the import file already contains the data in JSON format, attribute names and
data types are fully preserved. As can be seen in the example data, there is no
need for all data records to have the same attribute names or types. Records can
be inhomogenous.
Please note that by default, _arangoimp_ will import data into the specified
collection in the default database (`_system`). To specify a different database,
use the `--server.database` option when invoking _arangoimp_.
An _arangoimp_ import will print out the final results on the command line.
By default, it shows the number of documents created, the number of errors that
occurred on the server side, and the total number of input file lines/documents
that it processed. Additionally, _arangoimp_ will print out details about errors
that happended on the server-side (if any).
Example:
created: 2
errors: 0
total: 2
Importing CSV Data {#ImpManualCsv}
==================================
_arangoimp_ also offers the possibility to import data from CSV files. This
comes handy when the data at hand is in CSV format already and you don't want to
spend time converting them to JSON for the import.
To import data from a CSV file, make sure your file contains the attribute names
in the first row. All the following lines in the file will be interpreted as
data records and will be imported.
The CSV import requires the data to have a homogenuous structure. All records
must have exactly the same amount of columns as there are headers.
The cell values can have different data types though. If a cell does not have
any value, it can be left empty in the file. These values will not be imported
so the attributes will not "be there" in document created. Values enclosed in
quotes will be imported as strings, so to import numeric values, boolean values
or the null value, don't enclose the value into the quotes in your file.
We'll be using the following import for the CSV import:
@verbinclude arangoimp-data-csv
The command line to execute the import then is:
unix> arangoimp --file "data.csv" --type csv --collection "users"
Note that the quote and separator characters can be adjusted via the
`--quote` and `--separator` arguments when invoking _arangoimp_. The importer
supports Windows (CRLF) and Unix (LF) line breaks.
Importing TSV Data {#ImpManualTsv}
==================================
You may also import tab-separated values (TSV) from a file. This format is very
simple: every line in the file represents a data record. There is no quoting or
escaping. That also means that the separator character (which defaults to the
tabstop symbol) must not be used anywhere in the actual data.
As with CSV, the first line in the TSV file must contain the attribute names,
and all lines must have an identical number of values.
If a different separator character or string should be used, it can be specified
with the `--separator` argument.
An example command line to execute the TSV import is:
unix> arangoimp --file "data.tsv" --type tsv --collection "users"
Importing into an Edge Collection {#ImpManualEdges}
===================================================
arangoimp can also be used to import data into an existing edge collection.
The import data must, for each edge to import, contain at least the `_from` and
`_to` attributes. These indicate which other two documents the edge should connect.
It is necessary that these attributes are set for all records, and point to
valid document ids in existing collections.
Example:
{ "_from" : "users/1234", "_to" : "users/4321", "desc" : "1234 is connected to 4321" }
Note that the edge collection must already exist when the import is started. Using
the `--create-collection` flag will not work because arangoimp will always try to
create a regular document collection if the target collection does not exist.
Attribute Naming and Special Attributes {#ImpManualAttributes}
==============================================================
Attributes whose names start with an underscore are treated in a special way by
ArangoDB:
- the optional `_key` attribute contains the document's key. If specified, the value
must be formally valid (e.g. must be a string and conform to the naming conventions
for @ref DocumentKeys). Additionally, the key value must be unique within the
collection the import is run for.
- `_from`: when importing into an edge collection, this attribute contains the id
of one of the documents connected by the edge. The value of `_from` must be a
syntactially valid document id and the referred collection must exist.
- `_to`: when importing into an edge collection, this attribute contains the id
of the other document connected by the edge. The value of `_to` must be a
syntactially valid document id and the referred collection must exist.
- `_rev`: this attribute contains the revision number of a document. However, the
revision numbers are managed by ArangoDB and cannot be specified on import. Thus
any value in this attribute is ignored on import.
- all other attributes starting with an underscore are discarded on import without
any warnings.
If you import values into `_key`, you should make sure they are valid and unique.
When importing data into an edge collection, you should make sure that all import
documents can `_from` and `_to` and that their values point to existing documents.
Finally you should make sure that all other attributes in the import file do not
start with an underscore - otherwise they might be discarded.
@BNAVIGATE_ImpManual