How to Access Live LinkedIn Data in Power Automate Desktop via ODBC

Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism

The CData ODBC Driver for LinkedIn enables you to integrate LinkedIn data into workflows built using Microsoft Power Automate Desktop.

The CData ODBC Driver for LinkedIn enables you to access live LinkedIn data in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate LinkedIn data into a simple workflow, moving LinkedIn data into a CSV file.

Through optimized data processing, CData ODBC Drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live LinkedIn data in Microsoft Power Automate. When you issue complex SQL queries from Power Automate to LinkedIn, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to LinkedIn and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (e.g. SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connect to LinkedIn as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

LinkedIn uses the OAuth 2 authentication standard. Obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret by registering an app with LinkedIn. For more information refer to our authentication guide.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing workflows.

Integrate LinkedIn Data into Power Automate Workflows

After configuring the DSN for LinkedIn, you are ready to integrate LinkedIn data into your Power Automate workflows. Open Microsoft Power Automate, add a new flow, and name the flow.

👁 A new flow in Power Automate

In the flow editor, you can add the actions to connect to LinkedIn, query LinkedIn using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.

Add an Open SQL Connection Action

Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

Connection string: DSN=CData LinkedIn Source

After configuring the action, click Save.

👁 A configured 'Open SQL connection' action

Add an Execute SQL Statement Action

Add an "Execute SQL statement" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

Get connection by: SQL connection variable
SQL connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
SQL statement: SELECT * FROM CompanyStatusUpdates

After configuring the action, click Save.

👁 A configured 'Execute SQL statement' action

Add a Write to CSV File Action

Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Actions -> File) and configure the properties.

Variable to write to: %QueryResult% (the variable from the "Execute SQL statement" action above)
File path: set to a file on disk
Configure Advanced settings as needed.

After configuring the action, click Save.

👁 A configured 'Write to CSV file' action

Add a Close SQL Connection Action

Add a "Close SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

SQL Connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)

After configuring the action, click Save.

👁 A configured 'Close SQL connection' action

Save & Run the Flow

Once you have configured all the actions for the flow, click the disk icon to save the flow. Click the play icon to run the flow.

👁 A fully configured workflow

Now you have a workflow to move LinkedIn data into a CSV file.

👁 Application data in a CSV file (Salesforce is shown)

With the CData ODBC Driver for LinkedIn, you get live connectivity to LinkedIn data within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.

URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/linkedin-odbc-power-automate.rst