Replicate Multiple Factorial Accounts via the CData Sync CLI

CData Sync for Factorial is a stand-alone application that provides solutions for a variety of replication scenarios such as replicating sandbox and production instances into your database. Both Sync for Windows and Sync for Java include a command-line interface (CLI) that makes it easy to manage multiple Factorial connections. In this article we show how to use the CLI to replicate multiple Factorial accounts.

Configure Factorial Connections

You can save connection and email notification settings in an XML configuration file. To replicate multiple Factorial accounts, use multiple configuration files. Below is an example configuration to replicate Factorial to SQLite:

Windows

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<CDataSync>
  <DatabaseType>SQLite</DatabaseType>
  <DatabaseProvider>System.Data.SQLite</DatabaseProvider>
  <ConnectionString>Profile=C:\profiles\Factorial.apip;AuthScheme=OAuth;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackUrl=your_callback_url;</ConnectionString>
  <ReplicateAll>False</ReplicateAll>
  <NotificationUserName></NotificationUserName>
  <DatabaseConnectionString>Data Source=C:\my.db</DatabaseConnectionString>
  <TaskSchedulerStartTime>09:51</TaskSchedulerStartTime>
  <TaskSchedulerInterval>Never</TaskSchedulerInterval>
</CDataSync>

Java

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<CDataSync>
<DatabaseType>SQLite</DatabaseType>
  <DatabaseProvider>org.sqlite.JDBC</DatabaseProvider>
  <ConnectionString>Profile=C:\profiles\Factorial.apip;AuthScheme=OAuth;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackUrl=your_callback_url;</ConnectionString>
  <ReplicateAll>False</ReplicateAll>
  <NotificationUserName></NotificationUserName>
  <DatabaseConnectionString>Data Source=C:\my.db</DatabaseConnectionString>
</CDataSync>

Authentication

Factorial uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication to connect to your HR data or to allow other users to connect to their data.

Using OAuth Authentication

To connect using OAuth, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your Factorial admin panel and create a new OAuth application.
2. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret from your application configuration.
3. Configure the following connection properties:

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to your OAuth Client ID.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to your OAuth Client Secret.
• Scope: Set this to specify the data access permissions (default: "read write").

Configure Queries for Each Factorial Instance

Sync enables you to control replication with standard SQL. The REPLICATE statement is a high-level command that caches and maintains a table in your database. You can define any SELECT query supported by the Factorial API. The statement below caches and incrementally updates a table of Factorial data:

REPLICATE Agreements;

You can specify a file containing the replication queries you want to use to update a particular database. Separate replication statements with semicolons. The following options are useful if you are replicating multiple Factorial accounts into the same database:

You can use a different table prefix in the REPLICATE SELECT statement:

REPLICATE PROD_Agreements SELECT * FROM Agreements 

Alternatively, you can use a different schema:

REPLICATE PROD.Agreements SELECT * FROM Agreements

Run Sync

After you have configured the connection strings and replication queries, you can run Sync with the following command-line options:

Windows

APISync.exe -g MyProductionAPIConfig.xml -f MyProductionAPISync.sql

Java

java -Xbootclasspath/p:c:\sqlitejdbc.jar -jar APISync.jar -g MyProductionAPIConfig.xml -f MyProductionAPISync.sql