Migrating data into Firebase from MySQL

Question

I have an existing PHP/MySQL app which I am trying to migrate to AngularJS/Firebase, just as a way to learn these newer technologies.

The app has its own schema of tables in MySQL. One such table looks something like:

CREATE TABLE `dictionary` (
  `id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `word` varchar(50) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
  `wordmeaning` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
  `wordlength` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci;

My question is: how do I migrate this table structure, and the data in it, from MySQL to Firebase?

I have tried exporting the data into a JSON string via a query such as:

SELECT      CONCAT("[",
          GROUP_CONCAT(
               CONCAT("{id:'",id,"',"),
               CONCAT("word:'",word,"',"),
               CONCAT("wordmeaning:'",wordmeaning,"',"),
               CONCAT("wordlength:'",wordlength,"'}")
          )
     ,"]") 
AS json FROM dictionary;

This gives a valid JSON string such as:

[{id:'1',word:'cat',wordmeaning:'a mammal species',wordlength:'3'},
{id:'2',word:'catapult',wordmeaning:'throwing device',wordlength:'8'},
{id:'3',word:'cart',wordmeaning:'something to carry things in',wordlength:'4'}]

I saved this in a file and tried to import the file from Firebase, using the Import JSON button, to which I got:Error parsing JSON data. Please validate your input. (The JSON string is valid. I checked it at http://jsonviewer.stack.hu/)

Any ideas about what I could be doing wrong? I am assuming that Firebase can handle such structures and the data in them.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Just in case anyone else comes across this question in the future there is a much easier way of doing this.

You can export your MySQL tables to a CSV file using a tool like SQLYog.

Once you have your CSV file you can then convert that to a JSON format using a free online tool like this one: http://www.convertcsv.com/csv-to-json.htm

I just imported 40 tables from MySQL to Firebase in about 15 minutes. Hope that helps someone!