Exporting Data from an ArangoDB database

To export data from an ArangoDB server instance, you will need to invoke arangoexport. arangoexport can be invoked by executing the following command:

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

This exports the collections test into the directory dump as one big json array. Every entry in this array is 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.

arangoexport will by default connect to the _system database using the default endpoint. If you want to connect to a different database or a different endpoint, or use authentication, you can use the following command-line options:

--server.database : name of the database to connect to
--server.endpoint : endpoint to connect to
--server.username : username
--server.password : password to use (omit this and you'll be prompted for the password)
--server.authentication : whether or not to use authentication

Here's an example of exporting data from a non-standard endpoint, using a dedicated database name:

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

When finished, arangoexport will print out a summary line with some aggregate statistics about what it did, e.g.:

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

Export JSON

unix> arangoexport --type json --collection test

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

Export JSONL

unix> arangoexport --type jsonl --collection test

This exports the collection test into the output directory export as jsonl. Every line in the export is one document from the collection test as json.

Export CSV

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

This exports the collection test into the output directory export 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.

Export XML

unix> arangoexport --type xml --collection test

This exports the collection test into the output directory export 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 export in a generic att element, which has a type attribute indicating the attribute value, 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.

important note

If you export all attributes (--xgmml-label-only false) keep in mind that a atrribute names type have to be the same type for all documents. It wont work if you have a attribute named rank that is in one document a string and in another document a integer.

Bad

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

Good

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

XGMML specific options

--xgmml-label-attribute specify the name of the attribute that will become the label in the xgmml file.

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

export based on collections

unix> arangoexport --type xgmml --graph-name mygraph --collection vertex --collection edge

This exports the a unnamed graph with vertex collection vertex and edge collection edge into the xgmml file mygraph.xgmml.

export based on a named graph

unix> arangoexport --type xgmml --graph-name mygraph

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

export XGMML without attributes

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

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

export XGMML with a specific label

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

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