Pipe Dropbox Data to CSV in PowerShell

The CData Cmdlets Module for Dropbox is a standard PowerShell module offering straightforward integration with Dropbox. Below, you will find examples of using our Dropbox Cmdlets with native PowerShell cmdlets.

Creating a Connection to Your Dropbox Data

Dropbox uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you can use the embedded credentials or register an app with Dropbox.

See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

$conn = Connect-Dropbox 

Selecting Data

Follow the steps below to retrieve data from the Files table and pipe the result into to a CSV file:

Select-Dropbox -Connection $conn -Table Files | Select -Property * -ExcludeProperty Connection,Table,Columns | Export-Csv -Path c:\myFilesData.csv -NoTypeInformation

You will notice that we piped the results from Select-Dropbox into a Select-Object cmdlet and excluded some properties before piping them into an Export-Csv cmdlet. We do this because the CData Cmdlets append Connection, Table, and Columns information onto each "row" in the result set, and we do not necessarily want that information in our CSV file.

Deleting Data

The following line deletes any records that match the criteria:

Select-Dropbox -Connection $conn -Table Files -Where "Id = 1" | Remove-Dropbox

Inserting and Updating Data

The cmdlets make data transformation easy as well as data cleansing. The following example loads data from a CSV file into Dropbox, checking first whether a record already exists and needs to be updated instead of inserted.

Import-Csv -Path C:\MyFilesUpdates.csv | %{
  $record = Select-Dropbox -Connection $Dropbox -Table Files -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
  if($record){
    Update-Dropbox -Connection $dropbox -Table Files -Columns ("Id","Name") -Values ($_.Id, $_.Name) -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
  }else{
    Add-Dropbox -Connection $dropbox -Table Files -Columns ("Id","Name") -Values ($_.Id, $_.Name)
  }
}

As always, our goal is to simplify the way you connect to data. With cmdlets users can install a data module, set the connection properties, and start building. Download Cmdlets and start working with your data in PowerShell today!