HTTP interface for imports
The Import HTTP API allows you to load JSON data in bulk into ArangoDB
Import JSON data as documents
POST
/_db/{database-name}/_api/import
Load JSON data and store it as documents into the specified collection.
The request body can have different JSON formats:
- One JSON object per line (JSONL)
- A JSON array of objects
- One JSON array per line (CSV-like)
If you import documents into edge collections, all documents require a _from
and a _to attribute.
Path Parameters
database-name*
string
The name of the database.
Query Parameters
collection*
string
The name of the target collection. The collection needs to exist already.
type
string
Determines how the body of the request is interpreted.
documents: JSON Lines (JSONL) format. Each line is expected to be one
JSON object.
Example:
{"_key":"john","name":"John Smith","age":35}
{"_key":"katie","name":"Katie Foster","age":28}
array (or list): JSON format. The request body is expected to be a
JSON array of objects. This format requires ArangoDB to parse the complete
array and keep it in memory for the duration of the import. This is more
resource-intensive than the line-wise JSONL processing.
Any whitespace outside of strings is ignored, which means the JSON data can be
a single line or be formatted as multiple lines.
Example:
[
{"_key":"john","name":"John Smith","age":35},
{"_key":"katie","name":"Katie Foster","age":28}
]
auto: automatically determines the type (either documents or array).
Omit the type parameter entirely to import JSON arrays of tabular data,
similar to CSV.
The first line is an array of strings that defines the attribute keys. The
subsequent lines are arrays with the attribute values. The keys and values
are matched by the order of the array elements.
Example:
["_key","name","age"]
["john","John Smith",35]
["katie","Katie Foster",28]
fromPrefix
string
An optional prefix for the values in _from attributes. If specified, the
value is automatically prepended to each _from input value. This allows
specifying just the keys for _from.
toPrefix
string
An optional prefix for the values in _to attributes. If specified, the
value is automatically prepended to each _to input value. This allows
specifying just the keys for _to.
overwrite
boolean
If this parameter has a value of true or yes, then all data in the
collection will be removed prior to the import. Note that any existing
index definitions will be preserved.
waitForSync
boolean
Wait until documents have been synced to disk before returning.
onDuplicate
string
Controls what action is carried out in case of a unique key constraint
violation. Possible values are:
error: this will not import the current document because of the unique
key constraint violation. This is the default setting.update: this will update an existing document in the database with the
data specified in the request. Attributes of the existing document that
are not present in the request will be preserved.replace: this will replace an existing document in the database with the
data specified in the request.ignore: this will not update an existing document and simply ignore the
error caused by a unique key constraint violation.
Note that update, replace and ignore will only work when the
import document in the request contains the _key attribute. update and
replace may also fail because of secondary unique key constraint violations.
complete
boolean
If set to true, the whole import fails if any error occurs. Otherwise, the
import continues even if some documents are invalid and cannot be imported,
skipping the problematic documents.
details
boolean
If set to true, the result includes a details attribute with information
about documents that could not be imported.
Request Body application/json object
documents*
string
The body must either be a JSON-encoded array of objects or a string with
multiple JSON objects separated by newlines.
Responses
201
Created
is returned if all documents could be imported successfully.
The response is a JSON object with the following attributes:
400
Bad Request
is returned if type contains an invalid value, no collection is
specified, the documents are incorrectly encoded, or the request
is malformed.
404
Not Found
is returned if collection or the _from or _to attributes of an
imported edge refer to an unknown collection.
409
Conflict
is returned if the import would trigger a unique key violation and
complete is set to true.
500
Internal Server Error
is returned if the server cannot auto-generate a document key (out of keys
error) for a document with no user-defined key.
Examples
Importing documents with heterogenous attributes from an array of JSON objects:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=products&type=list' <<'EOF'
[
{
"_key": "abc",
"value1": 25,
"value2": "test",
"allowed": true
},
{
"_key": "foo",
"name": "baz"
},
{
"name": {
"detailed": "detailed name",
"short": "short name"
}
}
]
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 72
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"error" : false,
"created" : 3,
"errors" : 0,
"empty" : 0,
"updated" : 0,
"ignored" : 0
}
Importing documents using JSON objects separated by new lines (JSONL):
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=products&type=documents' <<'EOF'
{ "_key": "abc", "value1": 25, "value2": "test","allowed": true }
{ "_key": "foo", "name": "baz" }
{ "name": { "detailed": "detailed name", "short": "short name" } }
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 72
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"error" : false,
"created" : 3,
"errors" : 0,
"empty" : 1,
"updated" : 0,
"ignored" : 0
}
Using the auto type detection:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=products&type=auto' <<'EOF'
[
{
"_key": "abc",
"value1": 25,
"value2": "test",
"allowed": true
},
{
"_key": "foo",
"name": "baz"
},
{
"name": {
"detailed": "detailed name",
"short": "short name"
}
}
]
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 72
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"error" : false,
"created" : 3,
"errors" : 0,
"empty" : 0,
"updated" : 0,
"ignored" : 0
}
Importing JSONL into an edge collection, with _from, _to and name
attributes:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=links&type=documents' <<'EOF'
{ "_from": "products/123", "_to": "products/234" }
{"_from": "products/332", "_to": "products/abc", "name": "other name" }
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 72
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"error" : false,
"created" : 2,
"errors" : 0,
"empty" : 0,
"updated" : 0,
"ignored" : 0
}
Importing an array of JSON objects into an edge collection,
omitting _from or _to:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=links&type=list&details=true' <<'EOF'
[
{
"name": "some name"
}
]
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 182
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"error" : false,
"created" : 0,
"errors" : 1,
"empty" : 0,
"updated" : 0,
"ignored" : 0,
"details" : [
"at position 1: missing '_from' or '_to' attribute, offending document: {\"name\":\"some name\"}"
]
}
Violating a unique constraint, but allowing partial imports:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=products&type=documents&details=true' <<'EOF'
{ "_key": "abc", "value1": 25, "value2": "test" }
{ "_key": "abc", "value1": "bar", "value2": "baz" }
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 244
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"error" : false,
"created" : 1,
"errors" : 1,
"empty" : 0,
"updated" : 0,
"ignored" : 0,
"details" : [
"at position 1: creating document failed with error 'unique constraint violated', offending document: {\"_key\":\"abc\",\"value1\":\"bar\",\"value2\":\"baz\"}"
]
}
Violating a unique constraint, not allowing partial imports:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=products&type=documents&complete=true' <<'EOF'
{ "_key": "abc", "value1": 25, "value2": "test" }
{ "_key": "abc", "value1": "bar", "value2": "baz" }
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 409 Conflict
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 85
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"code" : 409,
"error" : true,
"errorMessage" : "unique constraint violated",
"errorNum" : 1210
}
Using a non-existing collection:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=products&type=documents' <<'EOF'
{ "name": "test" }
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 97
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"code" : 404,
"error" : true,
"errorMessage" : "collection or view not found: products",
"errorNum" : 1203
}
Using a malformed body with an array of JSON objects being expected:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=products&type=list' <<'EOF'
{ }
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 95
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"code" : 400,
"error" : true,
"errorMessage" : "expecting a JSON array in the request",
"errorNum" : 400
}
Importing two documents using the JSON arrays format. The documents have a
_key, value1, and value2 attribute each. One line in the import data is
empty and skipped:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=products' <<'EOF'
[ "_key", "value1", "value2" ]
[ "abc", 25, "test" ]
[ "foo", "bar", "baz" ]
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 72
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"error" : false,
"created" : 2,
"errors" : 0,
"empty" : 1,
"updated" : 0,
"ignored" : 0
}
Importing JSON arrays into an edge collection, with _from, _to, and name
attributes:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=links' <<'EOF'
[ "_from", "_to", "name" ]
[ "products/123","products/234", "some name" ]
[ "products/332", "products/abc", "other name" ]
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 72
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"error" : false,
"created" : 2,
"errors" : 0,
"empty" : 0,
"updated" : 0,
"ignored" : 0
}
Importing JSON arrays into an edge collection, omitting _from or _to:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=links&details=true' <<'EOF'
[ "name" ]
[ "some name" ]
[ "other name" ]
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 281
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"error" : false,
"created" : 0,
"errors" : 2,
"empty" : 0,
"updated" : 0,
"ignored" : 0,
"details" : [
"at position 1: missing '_from' or '_to' attribute, offending document: {\"name\":\"some name\"}",
"at position 2: missing '_from' or '_to' attribute, offending document: {\"name\":\"other name\"}"
]
}
Using a malformed body with JSON arrays being expected:
curl -X POST --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - 'http://localhost:8529/_api/import?collection=products' <<'EOF'
{ "_key": "foo", "value1": "bar" }
EOF
Show outputHTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
content-type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 92
content-security-policy: frame-ancestors 'self'; form-action 'self';
expires: 0
pragma: no-cache
server: ArangoDB
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
{
"code" : 400,
"error" : true,
"errorMessage" : "no JSON array found in second line",
"errorNum" : 400
}
