ArangoDB CRUD tutorial in 10 min

ArangoDB in 10 Minutes: CRUD

This is a short tutorial to get started with ArangoDB. In less than 10 minutes you can learn how to do a Document CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) with AQL and HTTP API in ArangoDB.

Note: This tutorial was written for ArangoDB 3.0 and may not work with older versions.
Note: Install ArangoDB for your environment.

Create a document

With the following command you can create a document: POST /_api/document/{collection}

Post Body data (required): A JSON representation of a single document or of an array of documents.

Note: The following examples lean on the assumption that a collection named “users” is already created.

Curl Example

Create a document in a collection named users. The revision identifier is auto-generated by the server and might or might not be different than displayed in the examples.

Note: In case the authentication in your system is enabled you need to specify
--user (username):(password) in the curl commands.

You should see something like this as a result:

AQL Example

For creating a document in a collection, AQL supports the following data-modification operation:

  • INSERT: insert new documents into a collection
Note: You can use the Queries tab in the ArangoDB web-interface to execute the query.

Here is an example that insert a document in an existing collection named “users”:

Read a document

The following command reads a single document: GET /_api/document/{document-handle}

Path Parameters – document-handle (required): The handle of the document.

Curl Example

Use a document handle:

The result should look approximately like this:

AQL Example

The result of an AQL query is an array of values. The individual values in the result array may or may not have a homogeneous structure, depending on what is actually queried.

The result should look like something like this:

Update a document

With the following command you can update a document: PATCH /_api/document/{document-handle}

Post Body document (required): A JSON representation of a document update as an object.

Path Parameters – document-handle (required): This URL parameter must be a document handle.

Curl Example

Patches an existing document with new content.

The result should look like something like this:

Read a document again to see the results:

The result is the following:

Or check out the ArangoDB web-interface to see that the update in a document took place:

Document CRUD

AQL Example

Update is quite simple. The following AQL statement will add or change the attributes status and location:

Read the document again to see the results:

The results:

Delete a document

This command removes a document: DELETE /_api/document/{document-handle}

Path Parameters – document-handle (required): Removes the document identified by document-handle.

Curl Example

Using document handle:

The results will look approximately like this:

AQL Example

Removing a document if you know its key is simple as well:

Learn more

By now you should have a sound understanding of how to run the basic operations in ArangoDB. But there is much more to know and so much more you can do: