PowerShell Scripting to Replicate FreshBooks Data to MySQL

The CData Cmdlets for FreshBooks offer live access to FreshBooks 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 FreshBooks and the CData Cmdlets for MySQL in PowerShell to replicate FreshBooks data to a MySQL database.

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

To connect to FreshBooks, you can set the CompanyName and Token connection properties. Alternatively, you can use the OAuth authentication standard.

OAuth can be used to enable other users to access their own company data. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret by registering an app. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

Collecting FreshBooks Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module FreshBooksCmdlets

2. Connect to FreshBooks:

   $freshbooks = Connect-FreshBooks -CompanyName $CompanyName -Token $Token

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

   $data = Select-FreshBooks -Connection $freshbooks -Table "Clients"

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

   $data = Invoke-FreshBooks -Connection $freshbooks -Query 'SELECT * FROM Clients WHERE Email = @Email' -Params @{'@Email'='Captain Hook'}

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

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

Inserting FreshBooks 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 FreshBooks 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 FreshBooks resource (Clients) and to exist in the database.

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

You have now replicated your FreshBooks data to a MySQL database. This gives you freedom to work with FreshBooks 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 FreshBooks and MySQL in PowerShell, you can pipe command results to perform the replication in a single line:

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

• If you wish to replicate the FreshBooks 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-FreshBooks 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')}