PowerShell Scripting to Replicate ShipStation Data to MySQL

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

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

Use the BASIC Authentication standard to connect.

1. Login to your ShipStation account
2. Click on the settings icon in the upper right corner. A column menu will show up on the left
3. Click Account -> API Settings
4. On the API Settings page, note the API Key and API Secret.

Authenticating to ShipStation

• APIKey: Set this to the API key from the API settings page.
• APISecret: Set this to the Secret key from the API settings page.

Collecting ShipStation Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module ShipStationCmdlets

2. Connect to ShipStation:

    $shipstation = Connect-ShipStation -APIKey $APIKey -APISecret $APISecret
    

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

    $data = Select-ShipStation -Connection $shipstation -Table "Tags"
    

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

    $data = Invoke-ShipStation -Connection $shipstation -Query 'SELECT * FROM Tags WHERE CustomerId = @CustomerId' -Params @{'@CustomerId'='1368175'}
    

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

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

Inserting ShipStation 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 ShipStation 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 ShipStation resource (Tags) and to exist in the database.

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

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

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

• If you wish to replicate the ShipStation 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-ShipStation 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')}