PowerShell Scripting to Replicate PayPal Data to MySQL

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

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

The provider surfaces tables from two PayPal APIs. The APIs use different authentication methods.

• The REST API uses the OAuth standard. To authenticate to the REST API, set the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL properties.
• The Classic API requires Signature API credentials. To authenticate to the Classic API, obtain an API username, password, and signature.

See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to obtaining the necessary API credentials.

To select the API you want to work with, you can set the Schema property to REST or SOAP. By default the SOAP schema will be used.

For testing purposes you can set UseSandbox to true and use sandbox credentials.

Collecting PayPal Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module PayPalCmdlets

2. Connect to PayPal:

    $paypal = Connect-PayPal -Schema $Schema -Username $Username -Password $Password -Signature $Signature -InitiateOAuth $InitiateOAuth
    

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

    $data = Select-PayPal -Connection $paypal -Table "Transactions"
    

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

    $data = Invoke-PayPal -Connection $paypal -Query 'SELECT * FROM Transactions WHERE TransactionClass = @TransactionClass' -Params @{'@TransactionClass'='Received'}
    

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

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

Inserting PayPal 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 PayPal 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 PayPal 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 PayPal data to a MySQL database. This gives you freedom to work with PayPal 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 PayPal and MySQL in PowerShell, you can pipe command results to perform the replication in a single line:

   Select-PayPal -Connection $paypal -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 PayPal 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-PayPal 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')}