Pipe LinkedIn Data to CSV in PowerShell

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

Creating a Connection to Your LinkedIn Data

LinkedIn uses the OAuth 2 authentication standard. You will need to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret by registering an app with LinkedIn. For more information refer to our authentication guide.

$conn = Connect-LinkedIn  -OAuthClientId "$OAuthClientId" -OAuthClientSecret "$OAuthClientSecret" -CallbackURL "$CallbackURL" -CompanyId "$CompanyId"

Selecting Data

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

Select-LinkedIn -Connection $conn -Table CompanyStatusUpdates | Select -Property * -ExcludeProperty Connection,Table,Columns | Export-Csv -Path c:\myCompanyStatusUpdatesData.csv -NoTypeInformation

You will notice that we piped the results from Select-LinkedIn 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-LinkedIn -Connection $conn -Table CompanyStatusUpdates -Where "EntityId = 238" | Remove-LinkedIn

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 LinkedIn, checking first whether a record already exists and needs to be updated instead of inserted.

Import-Csv -Path C:\MyCompanyStatusUpdatesUpdates.csv | %{
  $record = Select-LinkedIn -Connection $LinkedIn -Table CompanyStatusUpdates -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
  if($record){
    Update-LinkedIn -Connection $linkedin -Table CompanyStatusUpdates -Columns ("VisibilityCode","Comment") -Values ($_.VisibilityCode, $_.Comment) -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
  }else{
    Add-LinkedIn -Connection $linkedin -Table CompanyStatusUpdates -Columns ("VisibilityCode","Comment") -Values ($_.VisibilityCode, $_.Comment)
  }
}

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!