PowerShell Scripting to Replicate ConstantContact Data to MySQL

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

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

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

ConstantContact API Profile Settings

ConstantContact uses OAuth-based authentication.

First, register an OAuth application with ConstantContact. You can do so from the ConstantContact API Guide (https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_guide/index.html), under "MyApplications" > "New Application". Your Oauth application will be assigned a client id (API Key) and you can generate a client secret (Secret).

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the client_id that is specified in you app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client_secret that is specified in you app settings.
• CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.

Collecting ConstantContact Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module APICmdlets

2. Connect to ConstantContact:

    $api = Connect-API -Profile $Profile -Authscheme $Authscheme -OAuthClientId $OAuthClientId -OAuthClientSecret $OAuthClientSecret -CallbackUrl $CallbackUrl
    

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

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

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

    $data = Invoke-API -Connection $api -Query 'SELECT * FROM Contacts WHERE CompanyName = @CompanyName' -Params @{'@CompanyName'='Acme, Inc.'}
    

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

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

Inserting ConstantContact 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 ConstantContact 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 ConstantContact resource (Contacts) and to exist in the database.

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

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

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

• If you wish to replicate the ConstantContact 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')}