How to import CSV files in Adalo

How to Import CSV Files into Adalo Using CSVBox

Adding CSV import functionality to your Adalo app can greatly improve scalability and user experience—especially for apps that rely on structured data like CRMs, inventory trackers, or job boards. Adalo’s native platform doesn’t include direct CSV uploads, but integrating a service like CSVBox makes it possible with minimal engineering effort.

This guide is for engineers and technical product teams who want a reliable CSV import flow (file → map → validate → submit) in Adalo. The instructions include a WebView-based widget integration, a webhook consumer pattern, and tips for pushing cleaned rows into Adalo’s REST API. Where helpful, this guide notes best practices in 2026 for validation, security, and observability.

Why add CSV upload to your Adalo app?

Common product questions:

• “Can I import my data from a spreadsheet instead of typing it manually into the app?”
• “How do I let users map columns and surface import errors?”

Short answer: not natively. Adalo doesn’t provide a built-in CSV importer, so without an integration users must add records one-by-one. A CSV import flow reduces friction for onboarding, bulk updates, and migrations—important for B2B SaaS and internal tools.

Key problems a proper CSV import solves:

• Reduce manual data entry and onboarding time
• Provide column mapping and previews before writing to the DB
• Validate and clean data server-side before committing
• Give users clear import error messages and retry paths

Why use CSVBox with Adalo?

CSVBox is a purpose-built CSV importer widget and webhook processor that simplifies common import tasks:

• Branded popup widget to upload spreadsheets inside your app
• Guided column mapping that previews and validates fields
• Server-side webhooks that deliver cleaned, structured rows ready for ingestion
• Built for no-code/low-code embedding patterns like WebView

For Adalo you get the UI and mapping experience without building a parser or upload UI. The common pattern is: embed CSVBox in a WebView, receive CSVBox webhook events on your backend, then forward validated rows to Adalo’s API.

High-level flow (file → map → validate → submit)

1. User opens the CSVBox widget inside an Adalo WebView and uploads a file.
2. User maps spreadsheet columns to your app schema and fixes validation errors in the widget.
3. CSVBox posts cleaned rows to a webhook you control.
4. Your webhook handler transforms and forwards rows into Adalo via its REST API.
5. Track import status and surface errors back to the user.

Step-by-step: integrate CSV uploads into Adalo

1. Create an importer in CSVBox

• Sign up or log in to CSVBox.
• Create a new importer in the dashboard.
• Define your target schema (for example: name, email, phone, productId).
• Configure validation rules (required fields, email format, numeric checks).
• Optionally set UI hints so end users see the expected column names.

2. Configure the webhook to forward cleaned rows to your backend

CSVBox will POST parsed, validated rows to a webhook URL you specify.

• In the importer settings set the Webhook URL to your backend endpoint, for example: https://yourserver.com/csv-upload-handler
• Implement a webhook consumer that:
  • Authenticates and verifies the request (recommended)
  • Accepts batched rows or a per-row payload
  • Normalizes column names to match your Adalo collection keys
  • Records results and any row-level errors for reporting

You can run the webhook consumer on a small Express server, a serverless function, or use no-code backends like Xano or Make (Integromat) to receive the webhook.

3. Embed CSVBox in Adalo with a WebView component

Adalo doesn’t support arbitrary HTML/JS embeds, but you can use a WebView to host the CSVBox widget.

• Add a WebView component to the screen where users upload CSVs.
• Point the WebView to the CSVBox widget URL: https://widget.csvbox.io/[IMPORTER_ID]?apikey=[YOUR_API_KEY]
• Optional: pass user metadata (email, user_id) via query params to pre-fill mapping or tag uploads.

Open the widget URL directly in a browser during development to confirm the importer ID and API key are correct before embedding.

4. Forward webhook data to Adalo’s REST API

Your webhook consumer should iterate through cleaned rows and POST them to Adalo’s collections endpoint.

Example Adalo POST (HTTP format):

POST https://api.adalo.com/v0/apps/{APP_ID}/collections/{COLLECTION_ID}
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ADALO_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "email": "john@example.com"
}

Example Express.js webhook handler (trimmed for clarity):

const express = require('express');
const axios = require('axios');
const app = express();

app.use(express.json());

app.post('/csv-upload-handler', async (req, res) => {
  // payload shape may vary — inspect req.body in your CSVBox dashboard or logs
  const uploadedRows = req.body.data || req.body.rows || [];
  const adaloUrl = 'https://api.adalo.com/v0/apps/YOUR_APP_ID/collections/YOUR_COLLECTION_ID';
  const headers = {
    Authorization: 'Bearer YOUR_ADALO_API_KEY',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  };

  try {
    for (const row of uploadedRows) {
      // transform row field names as needed to match Adalo collection keys
      await axios.post(adaloUrl, row, { headers });
    }
    res.status(200).send('Import processed');
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Import error:', err.response?.data || err.message);
    res.status(500).send('Import failed.');
  }
});

app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Server running on port 3000'));

If you prefer a no-code approach, receive CSVBox webhooks in Make (Integromat) or Zapier and use an HTTP POST module to call Adalo’s API.

Common issues and how to fix them

WebView not loading the widget

• Confirm the URL uses https:// and the importer ID + API key are correct.
• Open the widget URL in a browser to diagnose widget-side errors.
• Check the WebView component’s allowed domains or CSP settings in Adalo.

Webhook not receiving events

• Ensure your webhook endpoint is publicly reachable (no local-only addresses).
• Use https and valid TLS certs.
• Test delivery with webhook.site or by logging incoming requests.
• Verify any firewall or cloud function IAM rules are allowing requests.

Data not saving to Adalo

• Confirm the Adalo API key has appropriate write permissions.
• Ensure your payload keys match the collection field keys in Adalo.
• Check for rate limits or validation errors from Adalo—log full API responses to debug.
• Handle duplicate detection or unique-key constraints in your transform logic.

Authentication and security

• Validate webhook origins (IP allowlist, HMAC signatures, or shared secrets) before processing.
• Rate-limit and queue writes to Adalo to avoid hitting API limits.
• Record an import audit trail so users and admins can review what changed.

Developer best practices (2026 perspective)

• Prefer idempotent writes: include a client-side or server-side dedupe key to avoid duplicate rows on retries.
• Surface row-level errors back to users through an import history UI rather than only logging to the server.
• Verify CSVBox webhook payload structure in your dashboard and log sample payloads during development.
• Use background workers or job queues to batch and retry failed writes to Adalo for resiliency.

Why CSVBox fits the Adalo use case

CSVBox handles the UI-heavy parts of CSV import: upload, column mapping, previewing, and validation. Combined with a small webhook consumer and Adalo’s REST API, you get a robust import flow without building a CSV parsing UI or complex mapping UX in Adalo itself.

This pattern helps teams ship a production-ready import feature quickly and maintain control over validation, error handling, and observability.

Quick summary — integrate CSV uploads into Adalo in 4 steps

1. Create and configure a CSVBox importer.
2. Embed the CSVBox widget in Adalo via a WebView.
3. Implement a webhook handler to receive cleaned rows from CSVBox.
4. Forward validated rows to Adalo’s API and surface import status to users.

Next steps and power features

• Brand and customize the CSVBox UI to match your app.
• Add webhook signature verification for stronger security.
• Build an import history page in Adalo to show successful rows and row-level errors.
• Test with representative CSV files for edge cases (missing columns, different delimiters, quoted fields).

For full documentation and developer references, see the CSVBox Help Center and your CSVBox dashboard for exporter/webhook payload examples and widget configuration options.

By integrating CSVBox with Adalo you give users a familiar, reliable way to bulk-import structured data—reducing friction for onboarding and everyday bulk operations while keeping developer control over validation and persistence.