PowerShell Scripting to Replicate Airtable Data to MySQL

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

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

APIKey, BaseId and TableNames parameters are required to connect to Airtable. ViewNames is an optional parameter where views of the tables may be specified.

• APIKey : API Key of your account. To obtain this value, after logging in go to Account. In API section click Generate API key.
• BaseId : Id of your base. To obtain this value, it is in the same section as the APIKey. Click on Airtable API, or navigate to https://airtable.com/api and select a base. In the introduction section you can find "The ID of this base is appxxN2ftedc0nEG7."
• TableNames : A comma separated list of table names for the selected base. These are the same names of tables as found in the UI.
• ViewNames : A comma separated list of views in the format of (table.view) names. These are the same names of the views as found in the UI.

Collecting Airtable Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module AirtableCmdlets

2. Connect to Airtable:

   $airtable = Connect-Airtable -APIKey $APIKey -BaseId $BaseId -TableNames $TableNames -ViewNames $ViewNames

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

   $data = Select-Airtable -Connection $airtable -Table "SampleTable_1"

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

   $data = Invoke-Airtable -Connection $airtable -Query 'SELECT * FROM SampleTable_1 WHERE Column2 = @Column2' -Params @{'@Column2'='SomeValue'}

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

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

Inserting Airtable 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 Airtable 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 Airtable resource (SampleTable_1) and to exist in the database.

   $data | % { $row = $_ $values = @() $columns | % { $col = $_ $values += $row.$($col) } Add-MySQL -Connection $mysql -Table "SampleTable_1" -Columns $columns -Values $values }

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

  Select-Airtable -Connection $airtable -Table "SampleTable_1" | % { $row = $_ $values = @() $columns | % { $col = $_ $values += $row.$($col) } Add-MySQL -Connection $mysql -Table "SampleTable_1" -Columns $columns -Values $values }

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