PowerShell Scripting to Replicate Zenefits Data to MySQL

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

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

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Zenefits Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Zenefits.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Zenefits (see below).

Zenefits API Profile Settings

In order to authenticate to Zenefits, you'll need to provide your API Key. To create an API Key, from your account head over to Company Overview > Custom Integrations, then besides Rest API Access select Add Token. Set the API Key in the ProfileSettings property to connect.

Collecting Zenefits Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module APICmdlets

2. Connect to Zenefits:

   $api = Connect-API -Profile $Profile -ProfileSettings $ProfileSettings

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

   $data = Select-API -Connection $api -Table "People"

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

   $data = Invoke-API -Connection $api -Query 'SELECT * FROM People WHERE Status = @Status' -Params @{'@Status'='active'}

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

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

Inserting Zenefits 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 Zenefits 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 Zenefits resource (People) and to exist in the database.

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

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

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

• If you wish to replicate the Zenefits 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-API 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')}