PowerShell Scripting to Replicate SharePoint Data to MySQL

The CData Cmdlets for SharePoint offer live access to SharePoint data 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 SharePoint and the CData Cmdlets for MySQL in PowerShell to replicate SharePoint data to a MySQL database.

Getting Started

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

Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.

If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation

Collecting SharePoint Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module SharePointCmdlets

2. Connect to SharePoint:

   $sharepoint = Connect-SharePoint -User $User -Password $Password -Auth Scheme $Auth Scheme -URL $URL -SharePointEdition $SharePointEdition

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

   $data = Select-SharePoint -Connection $sharepoint -Table "MyCustomList"

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

   $data = Invoke-SharePoint -Connection $sharepoint -Query 'SELECT * FROM MyCustomList WHERE Location = @Location' -Params @{'@Location'='Chapel Hill'}

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

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

Inserting SharePoint Data 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 SharePoint data, 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 SharePoint resource (MyCustomList) and to exist in the database.

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

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

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

• If you wish to replicate the SharePoint data 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-SharePoint 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')}