Replicate Linear Data from PowerShell

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Write a quick PowerShell script to query Linear data. Use connectivity to the live data to replicate Linear data to SQL Server.



The CData ODBC Driver for Linear enables out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft's built-in support for ODBC. The ODBC driver instantly integrates connectivity to the real Linear data with PowerShell.

You can use the .NET Framework Provider for ODBC built into PowerShell to quickly automate integration tasks like replicating Linear data to other databases. This article shows how to replicate Linear data to SQL Server in 5 lines of code.

You can also write PowerShell code to download Linear data. See the examples below.

Create an ODBC Data Source for Linear

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

You can authenticate to Linear with a personal API key or with OAuth 2.0. The API key is the simplest option for connecting with your own Linear account.

Authenticating with an API Key

Set the following connection properties:

  • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
  • APIKey: A Linear personal API key.

To create a personal API key, log in to Linear, open Settings > Security & access > Personal API keys, select New API key, and create it. Copy the key immediately, because Linear shows it only once.

Authenticating with OAuth

OAuth requires a custom OAuth application registered in Linear (Settings > API > OAuth applications), which provides the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret. Two flows are supported:

  • Authorization code: Set AuthScheme to OAuth, InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH, and provide OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and the CallbackURL defined in your application (e.g., http://localhost:33333). The driver opens Linear in your browser so you can grant access.
  • Client credentials: Set AuthScheme to OAuthClient and provide OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret. This authenticates the application itself, with no browser interaction, and suits machine-to-machine integrations.

By default, the driver requests the read,write scopes. The driver refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.

Connect to Linear

The code below shows how to use the DSN to initialize the connection to Linear data in PowerShell:


$conn = New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection
$conn.ConnectionString = "DSN=CData Linear Source x64"

Back Up Linear Data to SQL Server

After you enable caching, you can use the code below to replicate data to SQL Server.

Set the following connection properties to configure the caching database:

  • CacheProvider: The name of the ADO.NET provider. This can be found in the Machine.config for your version of .NET. For example, to configure SQL Server, enter System.Data.SqlClient.

  • CacheConnection: The connection string of properties required to connect to the database. Below is an example for SQL Server:

    Server=localhost;Database=RSB;User Id=sqltest;Password=sqltest;

The SQL query in the example can be used to refresh the entire cached table, including its schema. Any already existing cache is deleted.


$conn.Open()
# Create and execute the SQL Query
$SQL = "CACHE DROP EXISTING SELECT * FROM " + $Team
$cmd = New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcCommand($sql,$conn)
$count = $cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
$conn.Close()

The driver gives you complete control over the caching functionality. See the help documentation for more caching commands and usage examples. See the help documentation for steps to replicate to other databases.

Other Operations

To retrieve Linear data in PowerShell, call the Fill method of the OdbcDataAdapter method. To execute data manipulation commands, initialize the OdbcCommand object and then call ExecuteNonQuery. Below are some more examples commands to Linear through the .NET Framework Provider for ODBC:

Retrieve Linear Data


$sql="SELECT id, name from Team"
 
$da= New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter($sql, $conn)
$dt= New-Object System.Data.DataTable
$da.Fill($dt) 
 
$dt.Rows | foreach {
  $dt.Columns | foreach ($col in dt{
    Write-Host $1[$_]
  }
}

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Linear ODBC Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

Linear Icon Linear ODBC Driver

The Linear ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Linear, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Linear data like you would a database - read Linear AgentSession, Comment, Customer, Cycle, Initiative, Integration, Issue, ProjectStatus, Release, Team, User, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.