Mongoimport import json array as collection not as key in collection

Question

I am attempting to seed a database with a json array of data with mongoimport, however when the data reaches the mongo collection, it imports as a key in the collection object like this:

"items" is my json file, it always shows up as "items", I want the parent array to be the array I'm trying to import itself, does this make sense?

Update

Please see this example, the first image is how mongoimport is importing this array of objects:

{ "_id" : ObjectId("58dc01ecec116d4c9039e47c"), "items" : [ { "id" : 1, "_id" : "item1", "type" : "alert", "title" : "hello.world", "email" : "[email protected]", "message" : "", "createdDate" : "date", "price" : "$9.00", "active" : true }, { "id" : 2, "_id" : "item2", "type" : "welcome.lol", "title" : "Item 2", "email" : "[email protected]", "message" : "lol", "createdDate" : "date", "price" : "$12.00", "active" : true }, { "id" : 3, "_id" : "item3", "type" : "message", "title" : "various.domain", "email" : "[email protected]", "message" : "lol", "createdDate" : "date", "price" : "$3.00", "active" : false }, { "id" : 4, "_id" : "item4", "type" : "message", "title" : "something.else", "message" : "", "createdDate" : "date", "price" : "$12.00", "active" : false }, { "id" : 5, "_id" : "item5", "type" : "update", "title" : "wow.lol", "email" : "[email protected]", "message" : "", "createdDate" : "date", "price" : "$12.00", "active" : false }, { "id" : 6, "_id" : "item6", "type" : "update", "title" : "domainname.net", "email" : "[email protected]", "message" : "cars", "createdDate" : "date", "price" : "$12.00", "active" : false }, { "id" : 7, "_id" : "item7", "type" : "update", "title" : "something.lol", "email" : "[email protected]", "message" : "", "createdDate" : "date", "price" : "$12.00", "active" : false } ] }

Notice how its treats the entire array as an "item" object, with a key in the item "items" which is the array, I want the data to look like this:

{ "_id" : ObjectId("58dc027a2c74df002a957281"), "price" : "asdf", "message" : "asdf", "email" : "aasfd", "title" : "asdf", "dateCreated" : ISODate("2017-03-29T18:52:42.227Z"), "active" : true, "__v" : 0 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("58dc027b2c74df002a957282"), "price" : "asdf", "message" : "asdf", "email" : "aasfd", "title" : "asdf", "dateCreated" : ISODate("2017-03-29T18:52:43.574Z"), "active" : true, "__v" : 0 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("58dc027b2c74df002a957283"), "price" : "asdf", "message" : "asdf", "email" : "aasfd", "title" : "asdf", "dateCreated" : ISODate("2017-03-29T18:52:43.708Z"), "active" : true, "__v" : 0 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("58dc027b2c74df002a957284"), "price" : "asdf", "message" : "asdf", "email" : "aasfd", "title" : "asdf", "dateCreated" : ISODate("2017-03-29T18:52:43.855Z"), "active" : true, "__v" : 0 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("58dc027b2c74df002a957285"), "price" : "asdf", "message" : "asdf", "email" : "aasfd", "title" : "asdf", "dateCreated" : ISODate("2017-03-29T18:52:43.994Z"), "active" : true, "__v" : 0 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("58dc027c2c74df002a957286"), "price" : "asdf", "message" : "asdf", "email" : "aasfd", "title" : "asdf", "dateCreated" : ISODate("2017-03-29T18:52:44.128Z"), "active" : true, "__v" : 0 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("58dc027c2c74df002a957287"), "price" : "asdf", "message" : "asdf", "email" : "aasfd", "title" : "asdf", "dateCreated" : ISODate("2017-03-29T18:52:44.263Z"), "active" : true, "__v" : 0 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("58dc027c2c74df002a957288"), "price" : "asdf", "message" : "asdf", "email" : "aasfd", "title" : "asdf", "dateCreated" : ISODate("2017-03-29T18:52:44.391Z"), "active" : true, "__v" : 0 }

Where each item in the array is created as an "item" in mongo, each with its own ObjectID - otherwise it's useless for CRUD applications.

Docker MongoDB Log:

mongodb_1       | 2017-03-29T21:38:09.439+0000 I COMMAND  [conn1] command reach-engine.domains command: insert { insert: "domains", documents: [ { items: [ { id: 1, _id: "item1", type: "alert", title: "hello.world", email: "[email protected]", message: "", createdDate: "date", price: "$9.00", active: true }, { id: 2, _id: "item2", type: "welcome.lol", title: "Item 2", email: "[email protected]", message: "lol", createdDate: "date", price: "$12.00", active: true }, { id: 3, _id: "item3", type: "message", title: "various.domain", email: "[email protected]", message: "lol", createdDate: "date", price: "$3.00", active: false }, { id: 4, _id: "item4", type: "message", title: "something.else", message: "", createdDate: "date", price: "$12.00", active: false }, { id: 5, _id: "item5", type: "update", title: "wow.lol", email: "[email protected]", message: "", createdDate: "date", price: "$12.00", active: false }, { id: 6, _id: "item6", type: "update", title: "domainname.net", email: "[email protected]", message: "cars", createdDate: "date", price: "$12.00", active: false }, { id: 7, _id: "item7", type: "update", title: "something.lol", email: "[email protected]", message: "", createdDate: "date", price: "$12.00", active: false } ] } ], writeConcern: { getLastError: 1, w: 1 }, ordered: false } ninserted:1 keyUpdates:0 writeConflicts:0 numYields:0 reslen:40 locks:{ Global: { acquireCount: { r: 2, w: 2 } }, Database: { acquireCount: { w: 1, W: 1 } }, Collection: { acquireCount: { W: 1 } } } protocol:op_query 250ms

Solution

It would be useful to know what command you are using to import, but I just created a database an imported the following JSON with this command:

mongoimport --db test --collection example --type json --file example.json --jsonArray

Make sure you are using the --jsonArray flag

---

example.json

[
    {
        "color": "red",
        "value": "#f00"
    },
    {
        "color": "green",
        "value": "#0f0"
    },
    {
        "color": "blue",
        "value": "#00f"
    },
    {
        "color": "cyan",
        "value": "#0ff"
    },
    {
        "color": "magenta",
        "value": "#f0f"
    },
    {
        "color": "yellow",
        "value": "#ff0"
    },
    {
        "color": "black",
        "value": "#000"
    }
]

Comments

[Jeff Voss]

this will show up as an "item" in your mongo collection, complete with ObjectID, and that object will have a "items" : [ ] array in it which will be your collection

[daviscodesbugs]

So you have an array of parent objects, and each parent has a set of items. You want your collection to contain all the items?

[daviscodesbugs]

With the clarity of your question, the solution I provided still achieves that outcome. See the output: i.imgur.com/xS5Jmpm.png

[Jeff Voss]

ah yes I see this doing the same thing on my local, however my actual database is on a docker container - and is producing different results. so weird! upvoted.

[daviscodesbugs]

I'm actually running mongo in docker as well, though locally. Might be a JSON formatting issue?

[Jeff Voss]

the mongoimport message for my docker container is "imported 1 document", but if I run regular its "imported 7 documents" - so its obviously wrapping the json in an object, why I have no idea yet.

[rollerpigeon]

I was getting "Failed: error unmarshaling bytes on document #0: JSON decoder out of sync - data changing underfoot?" because I was forgetting the --jsonArray in my command. Adding it solved the problem and objects in the array were imported as individual documents.