Importing / Parsing a CSV into a collection

nicolaslair2 years ago

9

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  notchr2 years ago

  Hello

  @1029713634466734170

  - I've heard of people doing this, there may even be a code example in the discord archive

  
  
  

  However, you could create a script to loop over each entry in your CSV and hit the create endpoint for that collection

  
  
  

  You could also do it via a migration script in mongodb, but the API route feels easier to me

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  nicolaslair2 years ago

  Thanks

  @1049775120559898725

  - do you think it would be a good use case for a plugin?

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  notchr2 years ago

  @Ab

  
  
  @1029713634466734170

  It could be if enough people are importing a lot of data!

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  denolfe

  2 years ago

  @1029713634466734170

  Here's an example script doing an import from csv

  https://payloadcms.com/community-help/github/user-csv-import-for-a-collection
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  nicolaslair2 years ago

  Thanks a lot Elliot - I actually ended up writing a complete DB seed script using Payload in 'local' mode - really handy feature 👍

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  ssyberg2 years ago

  Just a word of warning for anyone who ends up here, there's some divergence between data operations between dashboard and local API and this can lead to some pretty difficult to diagnose bugs on programmatic data interactions - two discussions in GH:

  https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/discussions/2889

  and

  https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/discussions/2785
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  altered.coder2 years ago

  @1029713634466734170

  @967118574445547650

  I am using

  next-payload

  and want to give user the option to upload bulk data in a collection, how can I achieve that..?

  
  
  

  This option won't work for me, I need to do it using hooks or something, any help about that..?

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  ritsuki64last month

  Hello, am looking for this functionality in 2026 as non technical ppl is interested in using the dashboard to bulk load csv and export backups.

  
  

  I'd have to say, looping thru the csv and load items 1 by 1 via REST or payload local API is VERY slow.

  
  

  5000 rows can take you 1 to 2 hours.

  
  
  

  You can build your own functionality within the application code, like concurrently in batches of 1000 etc, but its a lot of hassle, when you need to deal with things like exhausting connection pools, load interruptions due to connection issues, etc.

  
  
  

  If you have access to the db connection strings, I'd recommend using an external db management tool like dbeaver instead to do these kinds of db things, like import and export csv, backups etc.

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  dan6erbondlast month

  FYI, instead of using Payload's local/REST API try using Drizzle. If your CSV shape is at least consistent and you don't need a full mapping UI then this will work. Building a custom UI is the other option with column mappings if the shape might be dynamic.