silverstripe-framework/docs/en/02_Developer_Guides/11_Integration/How_Tos/custom_csvbulkloader.md

title: A custom CSVBulkLoader instance

How to: A custom CSVBulkLoader instance

A an implementation of a custom CSVBulkLoader loader. In this example. we're provided with a unique CSV file containing a list of football players and the team they play for. The file we have is in the format like below.

"SpielerNummer", "Name", "Geburtsdatum", "Gruppe"
11, "John Doe", 1982-05-12,"FC Bayern"
12, "Jane Johnson", 1982-05-12,"FC Bayern"
13, "Jimmy Dole",,"Schalke 04"

This data needs to be imported into our application. For this, we have two DataObjects setup. Player contains information about the individual player and a relation set up for managing the Team.

app/code/Player.php.

use SilverStripe\ORM\DataObject;

class Player extends DataObject 
{

   private static $db = [
      'PlayerNumber' => 'Int',
      'FirstName' => 'Text',
      'LastName' => 'Text',
      'Birthday' => 'Date'
   ];
 
   private static $has_one = [
      'Team' => 'FootballTeam'
   ];
}

app/code/FootballTeam.php

use SilverStripe\ORM\DataObject;

class FootballTeam extends DataObject 
{  
   private static $db = [
      'Title' => 'Text'
   ];

   private static $has_many = [
      'Players' => 'Player'
   ];
}

Now going back to look at the CSV, we can see that what we're provided with does not match what our data model looks like, so we have to create a sub class of CsvBulkLoader to handle the unique file. Things we need to consider with the custom importer are:

• Convert property names (e.g Number to PlayerNumber) through providing a $columnMap.
• Split a combined "Name" field into FirstName and LastName by calling importFirstAndLastName on the Name column
• Prevent duplicate imports by a custom $duplicateChecks definition.
• Create a Team automatically based on the Gruppe column and a entry for $relationCallbacks

Our final import looks like this.

app/code/PlayerCsvBulkLoader.php

use SilverStripe\Dev\CsvBulkLoader;

class PlayerCsvBulkLoader extends CsvBulkLoader 
{

   public $columnMap = [
      'Number' => 'PlayerNumber',
      'Name' => '->importFirstAndLastName',
      'Geburtsdatum' => 'Birthday',
      'Gruppe' => 'Team.Title',
   ];

   public $duplicateChecks = [
      'SpielerNummer' => 'PlayerNumber'
   ];

   public $relationCallbacks = [
      'Team.Title' => [
         'relationname' => 'Team',
         'callback' => 'getTeamByTitle'
      ]
   ];

   public static function importFirstAndLastName(&$obj, $val, $record) 
   {
      $parts = explode(' ', $val);
      if(count($parts) != 2) return false;
      $obj->FirstName = $parts[0];
      $obj->LastName = $parts[1];
   }

   public static function getTeamByTitle(&$obj, $val, $record) 
   {
      return FootballTeam::get()->filter('Title', $val)->First();
   }
}

Related

• CsvParser
• ModelAdmin