You'll need to trigger a Cypher command, somehow. That could be an API method you add to Neo4j via a plugin. Though that's much trickier than you might think (I'm almost ready to publish an open plugin like this). Before you go too deep, check the import guide:
Your options:
- Plugin to tweak the api, and handle the upload.
- Driver on the server-side. Running Node.js as a middleman to provide the resource (server-side to handle the POST request) to receive and save the csv, then trigger the Cypher import command.
- Use the Bolt driver in the client, to trigger the Cypher import command.
- You'd have to build a way to make the CSV file accessible to Neo4j. That can be a url to the file (with some Neo configuration tweaks), or the file can be put in the
$NEO_HOME/importdirectory. - Alternatively, you could parse the CSV in the client, and convert it into a set of native Cypher commands that would not require uploading the file.
- You'd have to build a way to make the CSV file accessible to Neo4j. That can be a url to the file (with some Neo configuration tweaks), or the file can be put in the
Cypher IMPORT
The neo4j-javascript driver (docs) (github) can be used server-side, or client-side. There are two Cypher utilities that can import CSV:
- LOAD CSV - Native Cypher. Best for files < 2MB in size.
- apoc.load.csv, or apoc.load.json - Part of the Apoc plugin. Can handle just about anything when combined with apoc.periodic.
However, both of these utilities require the file to already exist somewhere Neo can access.
Client Affect
If you're only building a javascript client, and you want the user to be able to create and upload the csv, then you're going to have to work some magic, and you have a few options:
- Use a intermediary storage location, have the client send the CSV there, resulting in a URL that Neo4j can access, then run the Cypher import command through the neo4j-javascript driver.
- Parse the csv in the client, and built the Cypher commands to MERGE/CREATE Nodes.