Beginner's Guide: Loading Data

What sort of data? 

 What sort of data belongs in Freebase?

 In general, Freebase is best suited to factual information which is of ongoing interest to an audience of more than just yourself.  See our contribution guidelines for more information.

Design a schema first 

Before loading data into Freebase, you'll probably need to design a schema.  If you're lucky, there's already one in place that will suit your needs (and you can find it using our Data page or by searching Freebase for likely terms), but if not, you should take a look at:

• Beginner's Guide to Creating Schemas
• Data Modeling Guide 

Use the sandbox

The Freebase sandbox, which can be found at sandbox.freebase.com, is a copy of the Freebase website.  It's overwritten with the latest version of the Freebase UI and the current live data every week, usually on Monday.  In between those overwrites, you can do whatever you want there.  It's a great way to experiment without causing damage.   You can use the sandbox through the web interface, or through our API.

Talk to us about large loads

The best way to notify us that you want to load a large data set is to comment on the article linked above. 

Use our import tools 

We have some import tools available and more in progress.  If you have a simple list of topics such as (for example) famous alumni of a given educational institution, you may simply be able to load it using the "Import List" feature in our UI.  In future, more complex import tools will be available, to help you import multi-dimensional data such as you might have in an Excel spreadsheet.  

Use our API

 To import complex data, you will need to use our API.  For more information, see:

• Developers' homepage
• Beginner's guide: Developing Freebase Applications

 You may also want to join our developers' mailing list, where you can ask any questions about using our API.