Migrate from original django-import-export package

If you're already using django-import-export and want to take advantage of django-import-export-extensions for background import/export, the transition is simple. First, install the package by following the the installation guide Installation and configuration. Then, all you need to do is update the base classes for your resource and admin models.

Migrate resources

To enable import/export via Celery, simply replace the base resource classes from the original package with CeleryResource or CeleryModelResource from django-import-export-extensions:

- from import_export import resources
+ from import_export_extensions import resources

class SimpleResource(
-     resources.Resource,
+     resources.CeleryResource,
):
    """Simple resource."""


class BookResource(
-    resources.ModelResource,
+    resources.CeleryModelResource,
):
    """Resource class for `Book` model."""

    class Meta:
        model = Book

Migrate admin models

Then you also need to change admin mixins to use celery import/export via Django Admin:

- from import_export.admin import ImportExportModelAdmin
+ from import_export_extensions.admin import CeleryImportExportMixin

from . import resources

class BookAdmin(
-    ImportExportModelAdmin,
+    CeleryImportExportMixin,
+    admin.ModelAdmin,
):
    """Resource class for `Book` model."""

    resource_classes = (
        resources.BookResource,
    )

If you only need import (or export) functionality, you can use the CeleryImportAdminMixin (or CeleryExportAdminMixin) instead of the CeleryImportExportMixin.

Migrate custom import/export

Background import/export is implemented using the ImportJob and ExportJob models. As a result, calling the simple resource.export() will not trigger a Celery task --- it behaves exactly like the original Resource.export() method. To initiate background import/export, you need to create instances of the import/export job:

>>> from .resources import BandResource
>>> from import_export.formats import base_formats
>>> from import_export_extensions.models import ExportJob
>>> file_format = base_formats.CSV
>>> file_format_path = f"{file_format.__module__}.{file_format.__name__}"
>>> export_job = ExportJob.objects.create(
        resource_path=BandResource.class_path,
        file_format_path=file_format_path
    )
>>> export_job.export_status
'CREATED'

You can check the current status of the job using the export_status (or import_status) property of the model. Additionally, the progress property provides information about the total number of rows and the number of rows that have been completed.

>>> export_job.refresh_from_db()
>>> export_job.export_status
'EXPORTING'
>>> export_job.progress
{'state': 'EXPORTING', 'info': {'current': 53, 'total': 100}}
>>> export_job.refresh_from_db()
>>> export_job.export_status
'EXPORTED'
>>> export_job.data_file.path
'../media/import_export_extensions/export/3dfb7510-5593-4dc6-9d7d-bbd907cd3eb6/Artists-2020-02-22.csv'

Other configuration

You may need to configure MEDIA_URL in your project settings, otherwise you may see a 404 error when attempting to download exported files.