Replicate Multiple GitLab Accounts via the CData Sync CLI

CData Sync for GitLab 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 GitLab connections. In this article we show how to use the CLI to replicate multiple GitLab accounts.

Configure GitLab Connections

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

Windows

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<CDataSync>
  <DatabaseType>SQLite</DatabaseType>
  <DatabaseProvider>System.Data.SQLite</DatabaseProvider>
  <ConnectionString>Profile=C:\profiles\GitLab.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_personal_access_token';</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\GitLab.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_personal_access_token';</ConnectionString>
  <ReplicateAll>False</ReplicateAll>
  <NotificationUserName></NotificationUserName>
  <DatabaseConnectionString>Data Source=C:\my.db</DatabaseConnectionString>
</CDataSync>

Set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for GitLab (see below).

GitLab API Profile Settings

Create a Personal Access Token in GitLab under User Settings > Access Tokens, selecting the required scopes (e.g.,

read_api

api

Configure Queries for Each GitLab 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 GitLab API. The statement below caches and incrementally updates a table of GitLab data:

REPLICATE AccessRequests;

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 GitLab accounts into the same database:

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

REPLICATE PROD_AccessRequests SELECT * FROM AccessRequests 

Alternatively, you can use a different schema:

REPLICATE PROD.AccessRequests SELECT * FROM AccessRequests

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