Import into Postgres — CSV, Excel & PDF

• Overview
• From
• Into

Importing for your users — or for yourself?

Building a product on Postgres? Your product’s store is Postgres and your users bring files — this page is your integration guide: mapping, validation and review up front, and your handler writes rows that already fit the schema. Read on.

Just trying to load your own file into Postgres? You have the file and the database; the file is the problem — renamed headers, merged columns, a PDF where a spreadsheet should be. See the wizard handle genuinely messy files in the playground (free, no signup). And a run-it-yourself importer is in the works: your own connection string, runs on your machine, every row staged for review — and revertible after it lands. Join the waitlist.

Goal: your users bring the file they have — CSV, Excel, even a PDF or a scan — and clean records land in PostgreSQL without leaving your product, and without you writing a mapping/validation UI. The pattern is the same every time: embed → validate → deliver. Mildport handles the first two; your webhook handler owns the PostgreSQL API call.

1. Embed the importer

<mildport-import
  api-base-url="https://imports.your-infra.example"
  license-key="SIGNED_TENANT_KEY"
  catalog-key="contacts"
></mildport-import>

2. Publish a catalog that mirrors PostgreSQL

The schema lives in a target catalog, not in host code. Create it in the catalog editor (/admin/catalogs on your engine, or embed <mildport-catalog-editor>), match the table you will insert into, and publish. The widget loads that published catalog by catalog-key.

Align field keys with column names (first_name, last_name, email, created_at). Mark every NOT NULL column required so the review step guarantees insertability before your INSERT or COPY runs.

Users then upload anything — renamed headers, six languages, XLSX/ODS, even PDF tables — and Mildport’s deterministic matcher plus the review step produce typed, validated rows.

Need the schema computed per user at runtime, or versioned with your app? That’s the schema-as-code path — pass targets from host code instead of catalog-key.

3. Deliver from your webhook

Clean rows arrive on your signed apply webhook; your handler feeds PostgreSQL:

INSERT … ON CONFLICT (email) DO UPDATE, or COPY FROM STDIN for large clean batches

PostgreSQL-specific gotchas

• let the importer own typing (dates, numerics, encodings) so COPY never dies mid-file on row 40,213.
• wrap a batch in one transaction; use ON CONFLICT for idempotent re-delivery (webhook retries!).
• keep NOT NULL columns aligned with required fields in the catalog — the review step then guarantees insertability.

Why not PostgreSQL’s own CSV import?

psql \copy is great for YOU — not for your customers. An embedded importer gives end users mapping, validation and review, and your webhook handler receives rows that are guaranteed to satisfy the schema.

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Try the flow first: the playground (no signup), then the Quickstart and target catalogs. Prices are published — hosted and flat-annual self-host — at mildport.com/#pricing.