Replicate Multiple Scrapfly Accounts via the CData Sync CLI

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

Configure Scrapfly Connections

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

Windows

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

The Scrapfly API uses API Key authentication. The API key is passed as the key query parameter on every request.

Using API Key Authentication

Your Scrapfly API key is required to create a connection. To obtain your API key:

1. Log into your Scrapfly account at scrapfly.io.
2. Navigate to Dashboard and select API Keys.
3. Copy your API key (begins with scp-live- for production or scp-test- for the test environment).

After obtaining your API key, set the following connection properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your Scrapfly API key.

Example connection string:

Profile=C:\profiles\Scrapfly.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';

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

REPLICATE Account;

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 Scrapfly accounts into the same database:

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

REPLICATE PROD_Account SELECT * FROM Account 

Alternatively, you can use a different schema:

REPLICATE PROD.Account SELECT * FROM Account

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