PowerShell Scripting to Replicate Dynamics NAV Data to MySQL

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

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

Before you can connect, OData Services will need to be enabled on the server. Once OData Services are enabled, you will be able to query any Services that are published on the server.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Dynamics NAV user credentials. In addition, you will need to specify a URL to a valid Dynamics NAV server organization root and a ServerInstance. If there is not a Service Default Company for the server, you will need to set the Company as well.

Collecting Dynamics NAV Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module DynamicsNAVCmdlets

2. Connect to Dynamics NAV:

   $dynamicsnav = Connect-DynamicsNAV -http://myserver:7048 $http://myserver:7048 -User $User -Password $Password -ServerInstance $ServerInstance

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

   $data = Select-DynamicsNAV -Connection $dynamicsnav -Table "Customer"

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

   $data = Invoke-DynamicsNAV -Connection $dynamicsnav -Query 'SELECT * FROM Customer WHERE Name = @Name' -Params @{'@Name'='Bob'}

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

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

Inserting Dynamics NAV 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 Dynamics NAV 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 Dynamics NAV resource (Customer) and to exist in the database.

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

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

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

• If you wish to replicate the Dynamics NAV 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-DynamicsNAV 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')}