Replicate Multiple FreshBooks Accounts via the CData Sync CLI

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

Configure FreshBooks Connections

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

Windows

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<CDataSync>
 <DatabaseType>SQLite</DatabaseType>
 <DatabaseProvider>System.Data.SQLite</DatabaseProvider>
 <ConnectionString>Profile=C:\profiles\FreshBooks.apip;Authscheme=OAuth;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackUrl=your_callback_url;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;</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\FreshBooks.apip;Authscheme=OAuth;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackUrl=your_callback_url;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;</ConnectionString>
 <ReplicateAll>False</ReplicateAll>
 <NotificationUserName></NotificationUserName>
 <DatabaseConnectionString>Data Source=C:\my.db</DatabaseConnectionString>
</CDataSync>

Set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for FreshBooks (see below).

FreshBooks API Profile Settings

Register an OAuth application in your FreshBooks Developer Dashboard to obtain a Client ID and Client Secret, and configure the redirect URI to match your application's callback URL.

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

REPLICATE Invoices;

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 FreshBooks accounts into the same database:

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

REPLICATE PROD_Invoices SELECT * FROM Invoices 

Alternatively, you can use a different schema:

REPLICATE PROD.Invoices SELECT * FROM Invoices

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