arangoexport Examples

Export a collection

To export a collection of the _system database, run arangoexport with the name of the collection and an output directory:

arangoexport --collection test --output-directory "dump"

Without further startup options, arangoexport connects to the ArangoDB server at the default endpoint http://127.0.0.1:8529 as the root user and prompts you for the password. It exports the test collection into the dump directory. Every line of the output is a JSON object that corresponds to one document from the collection, without a specific order.

To export more than one collection at a time, specify multiple --collection options. The default output directory is export.

You can also specify the output directory as a positional argument without --output-directory:

arangoexport --collection test dump

When arangoexport has finished, it prints out a summary line with some aggregate statistics about what it did, for example:

Processed 2 collection(s), wrote 9031763 Byte(s), 78 HTTP request(s)

Connect and authenticate

To connect to a different server, database, or as a different user, use the following startup options:

• --server.endpoint <string>: The endpoint to connect to. In a cluster, specify a Coordinator.
• --server.database <string>: The name of the database to export from.
• --server.username <string>: The username.
• --server.password <string>: The password or access token. If you omit it, you are prompted for the password.
• --server.authentication <bool>: Whether to authenticate. Set it to false if authentication is disabled on the server.

For example, to export a collection from a database of a server at a non-standard endpoint as the backup user:

arangoexport \
  --server.endpoint http://192.168.173.13:8531 \
  --server.username backup \
  --server.database mydb \
  --collection test \
  --output-directory "my-export"

The user needs Read only / ro access to the collections you want to export.

From v3.12.13 onward, arangoexport exchanges the username and password for a JWT when it starts and renews the token automatically before it expires, so that long-running exports don’t fail with an HTTP 401 Unauthorized error. For details about the authentication, how to avoid exposing credentials in the process list, and how the token renewal works, see Connect to an ArangoDB server.

Export JSONL

arangoexport --type jsonl --collection test

This exports the test collection into the export output directory as JSONL . Every line in the export is one document from the test collection as a JSON object.

Export JSON

arangoexport --type json --collection test

This exports the test collection into the export output directory as one JSON array. Every array entry is one document from the test collection as a JSON object.

Export CSV

arangoexport --type csv --collection test --fields _key,_id,_rev

This exports the test collection into the export output directory as CSV. The first line contains the header with all field names. Each line is one document represented as CSV and separated with a comma. Objects and arrays are represented as a JSON string.

Starting with ArangoDB version 3.8.5, string values in the CSV output are enclosed in double quotes. If any string value starts with one of the following characters: +, =, @, -, it is treated as a potential formula and is prefixed by an extra single quote. This is done to prevent formula injection attacks in spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel or LibreOffice Calc. If you don’t want to use this functionality, you can turn it off via the --escape-csv-formulae option.

Export XML

arangoexport --type xml --collection test

This exports the test collection into the export output directory as generic XML. The root element of the generated XML file is named collection. Each document in the collection is exported in a doc XML attribute. Each document attribute is exported as a generic att element, which has a name attribute with the attribute name, a type attribute indicating the attribute value type, and a value attribute containing the attribute’s value.

Export XGMML

XGMML  is an XML application based on GML . To view the XGMML file you can use for example Cytoscape .

{ "rank": 1 }   // doc1
{ "rank": "2" } // doc2

{ "rank": 1 } // doc1
{ "rank": 2 } // doc2

XGMML-specific options

• --xgmml-label-attribute: specifies the name of the attribute that becomes the label in the XGMML file.

• --xgmml-label-only: set to true, only export the label without any attributes in edges or nodes.

Export based on collections

arangoexport \
  --type xgmml \
  --graph-name mygraph \
  --collection node \
  --collection edge

This exports an unnamed graph with the node collection named node and the edge collection named edge into the mygraph.xgmml XGMML file.

Export based on a named graph

arangoexport --type xgmml --graph-name mygraph

This exports the named graph mygraph into the mygraph.xgmml XGMML file.

Export XGMML without attributes

arangoexport --type xgmml --graph-name mygraph --xgmml-label-only true

This exports the named graph mygraph into the mygraph.xgmml XGMML file without the <att> tag in nodes and edges.

Export XGMML with a specific label

arangoexport --type xgmml --graph-name mygraph --xgmml-label-attribute name

This exports the named graph mygraph into the mygraph.xgmml XGMML file with a label from documents attribute name instead of the default attribute label.

Export via AQL query

Exporting via an AQL query allows you to export the returned data as the type specified with --type.

The example exports all books as JSONL that are sold more than 100 times:

arangoexport \
    --type jsonl \
    --custom-query "FOR book IN books FILTER book.sold > 100 RETURN book"

For CSV exports, a --fields list is required. You can use an AQL query to produce these fields. For example, you can de-normalize document structures like arrays and nested objects to a tabular form as demonstrated below:

arangoexport \
  --type csv \
  --fields title,category1,category2 \
  --custom-query "FOR book IN books RETURN { title: book.title, category1: book.categories[0], category2: book.categories[1] }"

The --custom-query-bindvars option lets you set bind variables that you can use in the --custom-query option:

arangoexport \
  --type jsonl \
  --custom-query 'FOR book IN @@@@collectionName FILTER book.sold > @@sold RETURN book' \
  --custom-query-bindvars '{"@@collectionName": "books", "sold": 100}'

Note that you need to escape at signs in command-lines by doubling them (see Environment variables as parameters).

You can save a query to a file and use it as a custom query with the --custom-query-file option. It is mutually exclusive with the --custom-query option:

// example.aql
FOR book IN @@collectionName
  FILTER book.sold > @sold
  RETURN book

arangoexport --custom-query-file example.aql

You can optionally limit the query runtime via the --custom-query-max-runtime option. Specify the maximum query runtime in seconds. Set it to 0 for no limit, to override the default --query.max-runtime of the server (if set).

arangoexport \
  --type jsonl \
  --custom-query-max-runtime 10 \
  --custom-query "FOR book IN books FILTER book.sold > 100 RETURN book"