Modeling and Importing Data into Neo4j Workshop ›Building Your Graph
Importing Your Data

Modeling and Importing Data into Neo4j Workshop

Introduction

Building Your Graph

Modeling Relationships

Many-to-Many Relationships

Building Recommendations and Review

Importing Your Data

Importing Your Data

Now that you know how the Import tool works, let’s load all the CSV files for this workshop upfront, then model and import nodes step by step.

Download and load all files

Download the complete data package:

Download all files as a zip file

The zip file contains 5 CSV files:

File Rows Description

products.csv

77

Product catalog (names, prices, categories)

customers.csv

91

Customer companies (names, contacts, locations)

orders.csv

830

Purchase orders (dates, shipping details)

categories.csv

8

Product categories (names, descriptions)

order-details.csv

2,155

Order line items (links orders to products with quantities)

Understanding products.csv

The products.csv file contains your product catalog:

Column Type Description

productID

Integer

Unique identifier for each product

productName

String

Name of the product (e.g., "Chai", "Chang")

categoryID

Integer

Reference to product category

unitPrice

Float

Price per unit

unitsInStock

Integer

Current inventory level

discontinued

Boolean

Whether product is discontinued

77 products - These are what we’ll recommend to customers.

Understanding customers.csv

The customers.csv file contains customer information:

Column Type Description

customerID

String

Unique identifier (e.g., "ALFKI")

companyName

String

Name of the customer company

contactName

String

Primary contact person

city

String

City name

country

String

Country name

91 customers - These are the "people like me" in our recommendation query.

Understanding orders.csv

The orders.csv file contains order information:

Column Type Description

orderID

Integer

Unique identifier for each order

customerID

String

Reference to customer who placed the order

orderDate

DateTime

Date the order was placed

shipCountry

String

Shipping country

830 orders - These connect customers to what they bought.

Understanding order-details.csv

The order-details.csv file links orders to products:

Column Type Description

orderID

Integer

Reference to the order

productID

Integer

Reference to the product

unitPrice

Float

Price at time of order

quantity

Integer

Number of units ordered

discount

Float

Discount applied

2,155 line items - This is the many-to-many link between orders and products.

Understanding categories.csv

The categories.csv file contains product categories:

Column Type Description

categoryID

Integer

Unique identifier

categoryName

String

Name (e.g., "Beverages", "Seafood")

description

String

Category description

8 categories - Used for organizing products and filtering recommendations.

Open the Import Tool

Click the button below to open the Import Tool:

Open Import Tool →

If prompted, enter these credentials:

Connection URL

bolt+s://{instance-host}:{instance-boltPort}

Username

{instance-username}

Password

{instance-password}

Loading the data files

In the Aura console:

  1. Click Import from the main navigation

  2. Click New data source

  3. Select CSV/TSV (local)

  4. Navigate to your unzipped files and select all 5 CSV files

  5. You’ll see all files listed in the Data Sources panel

Map the Product node

Once you have loaded the data files, you will be taken to the Data Modeling tab.

  1. Select the Define manually option. This will open the data modeling canvas with a new node.

  2. Set the label: With the new node selected, under Definition, set the label to Product

  3. Select the table: Under Table, select products.csv

Mapping columns to properties

Use the Map from table button to select the following columns to map to the node properties:

  • productID

  • productName

  • quantityPerUnit

  • unitPrice

Property Types

The Import tool auto-detects types:

  • String - Text values (productName, productId)

  • Integer - Whole numbers (unitsInStock)

  • Float - Decimal numbers (unitPrice)

  • Boolean - true/false (discontinued)

If a type is wrong, you can change it in the property list.

Rename the columns

Use the pencil icon to rename the columns to remove the product prefix and convert the name to camelCase.

  • productID becomes id

  • productName becomes name

This will make the properties more concise and easier to understand.

Property names matter for queries

Once you rename properties, all Cypher queries must use the new names. For example, after renaming productName to name, use p.name in your queries, not p.productName.

Setting the ID property

The Import tool will attempt to automatically select the ID property. Verify the ID property is set to id and update if necessary.

Set ID property

Verify the mapping

If you have followed the steps correctly, a green tick will appear next to the node.

You are now ready to preview and import the data.

Correctly mapped node with a green tick

Preview the import

Click the Run preview button to review the import.

A modal window will open with a preview of the data in a forced graph layout.

Running the import

Click the Run Import button to import the data.

You will see a progress indicator while the import is running.

Once complete, a summary shows the import results, including the Cypher statements that were executed.

Troubleshooting import issues

Connection errors: If you see "cannot establish a connection" or similar errors, check that:

  • You’re using the correct credentials (sandbox credentials are shown in the GraphAcademy lesson, not your personal Aura credentials)

  • The connection URL uses the correct protocol (neo4j+s:// or bolt+s://)

Nodes with empty labels: If something went wrong during import, you can find problematic nodes with:

cypher
MATCH (n) WHERE size(labels(n)) = 0 RETURN n

Property name mismatches: If queries don’t return expected results, check that property names in your queries match the names you defined during import.

Validate Import

Once you have imported the Product nodes, click the Check Database button to verify that the task is complete.

Hint

Follow the steps in this lesson to import Product nodes.

Make sure to:

  • Set the label to Product

  • Map from products.csv

  • Set id as the ID property (renamed from productID)

  • Click Preview to review

  • Click Run Import

Solution

The Product node should be configured with:

  • Label: Product

  • File: products.csv

  • ID property: id

  • Key properties: name, unitPrice, quantityPerUnit, unitsInStock

After running the import, you should have 77 Product nodes in your graph.

Download Solution

If you are having trouble, you can download the solution model and open it using the Open model (with data) option.

  1. Download 4-import-products.zip

  2. In the Import tool, click the 3-dot menu (…​) and select Open model (with data)

  3. Select the downloaded zip file

Summary

In this lesson, you:

  • Loaded all 5 CSV files into the Import tool

  • Learned what each file contains and how they relate

  • Imported 77 Product nodes from products.csv

  • Renamed properties for consistency (productID → id, productName → name)

In the next lessons, you’ll import Customer and Order nodes using the same workflow.

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