PowerShell Scripting to Replicate Twitter Ads Data to MySQL

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

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

All tables require authentication. You must use OAuth to authenticate with Twitter. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Twitter using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the Help documentation.

Collecting Twitter Ads Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module TwitterAdsCmdlets

2. Connect to Twitter Ads:

   $twitterads = Connect-TwitterAds

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

   $data = Select-TwitterAds -Connection $twitterads -Table "AdStats"

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

   $data = Invoke-TwitterAds -Connection $twitterads -Query 'SELECT * FROM AdStats WHERE Entity = @Entity' -Params @{'@Entity'='ORGANIC_TWEET'}

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

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

Inserting Twitter Ads 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 Twitter Ads 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 Twitter Ads resource (AdStats) and to exist in the database.

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

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

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

• If you wish to replicate the Twitter Ads 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-TwitterAds 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')}