# Data Management System
🚧 Feature under development
The data management system is under development. Not all use cases are covered by the initial release. You can provide feedback about desired functionality on the Strapi feedback website (opens new window). The feature is available in v4.6.0 and later versions.
Occasionally you need to move data out of or into a Strapi instance. The data management system allows you to efficiently extract data from an existing instance or archive and import that data into a separate instance. Strapi provides CLI-based commands that allow you to export and import data. Common use cases include:
- creating a data backup,
- restoring data from a backup.
The following documentation details examples of how to use the strapi export
and strapi import
commands.
🤓 Using the Command Line Interface (CLI)
The strapi export
and strapi import
CLI commands with all of the available options are listed in the Command Line Interface documentation.
✋ CAUTION
Interactive CLI commands do not currently work with the npm
package manager. For strapi export
and strapi import
this means the encryption key prompt is not visible in the CLI. A fix is anticipated by early March 2023. In the meantime consider using the yarn
package manager.
# Export data using the CLI tool
The strapi export
command, by default, exports data as an encrypted and compressed .tar.gz.enc
file. The default export command exports:
- the project configuration,
- entities: all of your content,
- links: relations between your entities,
- assets: files stored in the uploads folder,
- schemas,
- the
metadata.json
file.
✋ CAUTION
Admin users and API tokens are not exported.
# Name the export file
Exported data are contained in a .tar
file that is automatically named using the format export_YYYYMMDDHHMMSS
. You can optionally name the exported file by passing the --file
or -f
option with the strapi export
command. Do not include a file extension.
# Example: Export data with a custom filename
# Configure data encryption
The default strapi export
command encrypts your project data using aes-128-ecb
encryption and adds the file extension .enc
. To use encryption you need to pass an encryption key using the -k
or --key
option or enter an encryption key when prompted. The encryption key is a string
with no minimum character count.
💡 Encryption keys
Strong encryption keys are encouraged to protect sensitive data in your project. OpenSSL (opens new window) is a resource for generating encryption keys.
To disable encryption, pass the --no-encrypt
option with the strapi export
command.
# Example: Export data without encryption
# Example: Export data with the encryption --key
option
# Disable data compression
The default strapi export
command compresses your project data using gzip
compression and adds the .gz
file extension.
To disable compression, pass the --no-compress
option with the strapi export
command.
# Example: Export data without compression
# Export only selected types of data
The default strapi export
command exports your content (entities and relations), files (assets), project configuration, and schemas. The --only
option allows you to export only the listed items by passing a comma-separated string with no spaces between the types. The available values are content
, files
, and config
. Schemas are always exported, as schema matching is used for strapi import
.
✏️ NOTE
Media such as images consist of the file (asset) and the entity in the database. If you use the --only
flag to export content
, the asset database records are still included, and could render as broken links.
# Example: Export only entities and relations
# Exclude items from export
The default strapi export
command exports your content (entities and relations), files (assets), project configuration, and schemas. The --exclude
option allows you to exclude content, files, and the project configuration by passing these items in a comma-separated string with no spaces between the types. You can't exclude the schemas, as schema matching is used for strapi import
.
✏️ NOTE
Media such as images consist of the file (asset) and the entity in the database. If you use the --exclude
flag to remove assets, the database records are still included, and could render as broken links.
# Example: Export data excluding assets, entities, and relations
✏️ NOTE
The --exclude
option and --only
option cannot be used together.
# Import data using the CLI tool
️❗️ WARNING
strapi import
deletes all existing data, including the database and uploads directory, before importing the backup file.- The source and target schemas must match to successfully use
strapi import
, meaning all content types must be identical. - Restored data does not include the
Admin users
table, which means thatcreatedBy
andupdatedBy
are empty in a restored instance.
# Specify the import file
To import data into a Strapi instance use the strapi import
command in the project root directory. Specify the file to be imported using the -f
or --file
option. The filename, extension, and path are required. If the file is encrypted, you are prompted for the encryption key before the import starts.
# Example: Minimum command to import data from a file in the Strapi project root
# Provide an encryption key
If you are importing data from an encrypted file the encryption key can be passed with the strapi import
command by using the -k
or --key
option.
# Example: Pass the encryption key with the strapi import
command
# Bypass all command line prompts
When using the strapi import
command, you are required to confirm that the import will delete the existing database contents. The --force
flag allows you to bypass this prompt. This option is particularly useful for implementing strapi import
programmatically. For programmatic use, you must also pass the --key
option for encrypted files.
# Example of the --force
option
# Exclude data types during import
The default strapi import
command imports your content (entities and relations), files (assets), project configuration, and schemas. The --exclude
option allows you to exclude content, files, and the project configuration by passing these items in a comma-separated string with no spaces between the types. You can't exclude the schemas, as schema matching is used for strapi import
.
️❗️ WARNING
Any types excluded from the import will be deleted in your target instance. For example, if you exclude config
the project configuration in your target instance will be deleted.
✏️ NOTE
Media such as images consist of the file (asset) and the entity in the database. If you use the --exclude
flag to remove assets, the database records are still included, and could render as broken links.
# Example: exclude assets from an import
# Include only specified data types during import
The default strapi import
command imports your content (entities and relations), files (assets), project configuration, and schemas. The --only
option allows you to export only the listed items by passing a comma-separated string with no spaces between the types. The available values are content
, files
, and config
. Schemas are always imported, as schema matching is used for strapi import
.
✏️ NOTE
Media such as images consist of the file (asset) and the entity in the database. If you use the --only
flag to import content
the asset database records are still included, and could render as broken links.