Demo of importing a CSV file into a Contentful space

data.csv

index.js

#!/usr/bin/env babel-node --stage=0

import fs from 'fs';
import contentful from 'contentful-management';
import Parser from 'csv-parse';
import prat from 'prat';

const client = contentful.createClient({
  /**
   * Your Management API token. Get one quickly at
   * contentful.com/developers/documentation/content-management-api
   * then set it as an environment variable like
   *
   *     export CONTENTFUL_CMA_TOKEN="abcdef123457890"
   */
  accessToken: process.env.CONTENTFUL_CMA_TOKEN,
});

/**
 * The Content Type ID that matches the rows from the CSV you want to import
 */
const contentTypeId = '5aL1iEoPWE44KAcwUOw8M6';

async function main () {
  const space = await client.getSpace('n65xuot4ik7f');
  const parser = new Parser({columns: true});
  const rows = fs.createReadStream('./data.csv').pipe(parser);
  const entries = await prat.ify(rows)
    .map((row) => rowToEntry(space, row))
    .reduce([], (entries, entry) => entries.concat(entry));
  console.log('entries', entries)
}

/**
 * Finds an entry and updates it, or creates a new entry if no existing entry is found.
 * 
 * The update logic simply overwrites the existing fields, a deep merge would
 * be a better strategy if the entries also have fields that are edited by humans.
 */
async function rowToEntry (space, row) {
  const id = `${row['first name']}.${row['last name']}`;
  const sys = { id };
  const fields = rowToFields(row);
  try {
    const entry = await space.getEntry(id)
    entry.fields = fields;
    console.log('Update', id);
    return await space.updateEntry(entry);
  } catch (_) {
    console.log('Create', id);
    return await space.createEntry(contentTypeId, { sys, fields });
  }
}

/**
 * This helper maps a CSV row to the contentful fields structure.
 * Currently it's hard-coded to use en-US, but expanding this script to support
 * multiple locales (maybe by importing different files) would be trivial.
 */
function rowToFields (row) {
  return {
    firstName: { 'en-US': row['first name'] },
    lastName: { 'en-US': row['last name'] },
    age: { 'en-US': parseInt(row['age'], 10) }
  };
}

main().catch((err) => {
  console.error(err.stack);
  process.exit(1);
});

package.json

{
  "name": "example-contentful-csv-import",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Tests? maybe next time ;)\" && exit 1",
    "import": "babel-node --stage=0 index.js"
  },
  "author": "Stephen Sugden",
  "license": "MIT",
  "dependencies": {
    "babel": "^5.5.8",
    "contentful-management": "^0.1.1",
    "csv": "^0.4.5",
    "prat": "^1.1.0"
  }
}

In case anyone is a late comer to this like myself, the value of the contentTypeId should be the human readable form. For example, instead of something like '5aL1iEoPWE44KAcwUOw8M6', it should be 'person' or the corresponding value.

Other note, you need to use babel-cli to compile the code so that it can be run with node 6.x.x. Otherwise, run it with babel-node

how does one properly format an Array or RichText for this csv import?

@rtuttlecoder Did you end up finding a solution/answer to your question? Did you end up using a diff script?