PowerShell Scripting to Replicate Avalara AvaTax Data to MySQL

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

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

The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

• User: Set this to your username.
• Password: Set this to your password.

Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

• UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

• AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
• LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.

Collecting Avalara AvaTax Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module AvalaraAvataxCmdlets

2. Connect to Avalara AvaTax:

    $avalaraavatax = Connect-AvalaraAvatax -User $User -Password $Password
    

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

    $data = Select-AvalaraAvatax -Connection $avalaraavatax -Table "Transactions"
    

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

    $data = Invoke-AvalaraAvatax -Connection $avalaraavatax -Query 'SELECT * FROM Transactions WHERE Code = @Code' -Params @{'@Code'='051349'}
    

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

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

Inserting Avalara AvaTax 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 Avalara AvaTax 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 Avalara AvaTax resource (Transactions) and to exist in the database.

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

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

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

• If you wish to replicate the Avalara AvaTax 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-AvalaraAvatax 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')}