PowerShell Scripting to Replicate Google Search Results to MySQL

The CData Cmdlets for Google Search offer live access to Google Search results 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 Google Search and the CData Cmdlets for MySQL in PowerShell to replicate Google Search results to a MySQL database.

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

To search with a Google custom search engine, you need to set the CustomSearchId and ApiKey connection properties.

To obtain the CustomSearchId property, sign into Google Custom Search Engine and create a new search engine.

To obtain the ApiKey property, you must enable the Custom Search API in the Google API Console.

Collecting Google Search Results

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module GoogleSearchCmdlets

2. Connect to Google Search:

   $googlesearch = Connect-GoogleSearch -CustomSearchId $CustomSearchId -ApiKey $ApiKey

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

   $data = Select-GoogleSearch -Connection $googlesearch -Table "VideoSearch"

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

   $data = Invoke-GoogleSearch -Connection $googlesearch -Query 'SELECT * FROM VideoSearch WHERE SearchTerms = @SearchTerms' -Params @{'@SearchTerms'='WayneTech'}

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

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

Inserting Google Search Results 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 Google Search results, 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 Google Search resource (VideoSearch) and to exist in the database.

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

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

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

• If you wish to replicate the Google Search results 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-GoogleSearch 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')}