PowerShell Scripting to Replicate Act CRM Data to MySQL

The CData Cmdlets for Act CRM offer live access to Act CRM data from within PowerShell. Using PowerShell scripts, you can easily automate regular tasks like data replication. This article will walk through using the CData Cmdlets for Act CRM and the CData Cmdlets for MySQL in PowerShell to replicate Act CRM data to a MySQL database.

After obtaining the needed connection properties, accessing Act CRM data in PowerShell and preparing for replication consists of four basic steps.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:

• Connecting to Act! Premium

  In addition to the authentication values, the URL to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.

  Additionally, you must specify the ActDatabase you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.

• Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud

  To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the ActCloudName property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.

Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the CacheMetadata property to store the metadata locally.

Collecting Act CRM Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module ActCRMCmdlets

2. Connect to Act CRM:

   $actcrm = Connect-ActCRM -URL $URL -User $User -Password $Password -ActDatabase $ActDatabase

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

   $data = Select-ActCRM -Connection $actcrm -Table "Activities"

   You can also use the Invoke-ActCRM cmdlet to execute pure SQL-92 statements:

   $data = Invoke-ActCRM -Connection $actcrm -Query 'SELECT * FROM Activities WHERE Subject = @Subject' -Params @{'@Subject'='Sample subject'}

4. Save a list of the column names from the returned data.

   $columns = ($data | Get-Member -MemberType NoteProperty | Select-Object -Property Name).Name

Inserting Act CRM Data into the MySQL Database

With the data and column names collected, you are ready to replicate the data into a MySQL database.

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module MySQLCmdlets

2. Connect to MySQL, using the server address and port of the MySQL server, valid user credentials, and a specific database with the table in which the data will be replicated:

   $mysql = Connect-MySQL -User $User -Password $Password -Database $Database -Server $Server -Port $Port

3. Loop through the Act CRM data, store the values, and use the Add-MySQL cmdlet to insert the data into the MySQL database, one row at a time. In this example, the table will need to have the same name as the Act CRM resource (Activities) and to exist in the database.

   $data | % { $row = $_ $values = @() $columns | % { $col = $_ $values += $row.$($col) } Add-MySQL -Connection $mysql -Table "Activities" -Columns $columns -Values $values }

You have now replicated your Act CRM data to a MySQL database. This gives you freedom to work with Act CRM data in the same way that you work with other MySQL tables, whether that is performing analytics, building reports, or other business functions.

Notes

• Once you have connected to Act CRM and MySQL in PowerShell, you can pipe command results to perform the replication in a single line:

  Select-ActCRM -Connection $actcrm -Table "Activities" | % { $row = $_ $values = @() $columns | % { $col = $_ $values += $row.$($col) } Add-MySQL -Connection $mysql -Table "Activities" -Columns $columns -Values $values }

• If you wish to replicate the Act CRM data to another database using another PowerShell module, you will want to exclude the Columns, Connection, and Table columns from the data returned by the Select-ActCRM cmdlet since those columns are used to help pipe data from one CData cmdlet to another:

  $columns = ($data | Get-Member -MemberType NoteProperty | Select-Object -Property Name).Name | ? {$_ -NotIn @('Columns','Connection','Table')}