PowerShell Scripting to Replicate Exact Online Data to MySQL

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

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

Exact Online uses the OAuth authentication standard. The InitiateOAuth connection property facilitates the OAuth flow -- by default, this is set to GETANDREFRESH. You can also use the embedded OAuth credentials or you can register an OAuth app with Exact to obtain your own. In addition to the OAuth values, provide the Region. If Division is not set, the default Division is determined.

See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for more information.

Collecting Exact Online Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module ExactOnlineCmdlets

2. Connect to Exact Online:

   $exactonline = Connect-ExactOnline -Region $Region -Division $Division

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

   $data = Select-ExactOnline -Connection $exactonline -Table "Accounts"

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

   $data = Invoke-ExactOnline -Connection $exactonline -Query 'SELECT * FROM Accounts WHERE IsCompetitor = @IsCompetitor' -Params @{'@IsCompetitor'='False'}

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

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

Inserting Exact Online 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 Exact Online 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 Exact Online resource (Accounts) and to exist in the database.

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

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

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

• If you wish to replicate the Exact Online 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-ExactOnline 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')}