PowerShell Scripting to Replicate SurveyMonkey Data to MySQL

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

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

SurveyMonkey uses the OAuth 2 authentication standard. See the Getting Started section in the help documentation for a guide.

Collecting SurveyMonkey Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module SurveyMonkeyCmdlets

2. Connect to SurveyMonkey:

    $surveymonkey = Connect-SurveyMonkey -OAuthClientId $OAuthClientId -OAuthClientSecret $OAuthClientSecret -CallbackURL $CallbackURL -InitiateOAuth $InitiateOAuth
    

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

    $data = Select-SurveyMonkey -Connection $surveymonkey -Table "MySurvey_Responses"
    

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

    $data = Invoke-SurveyMonkey -Connection $surveymonkey -Query 'SELECT * FROM MySurvey_Responses WHERE ChoiceText = @ChoiceText' -Params @{'@ChoiceText'='blue'}
    

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

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

Inserting SurveyMonkey 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 SurveyMonkey 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 SurveyMonkey resource (MySurvey_Responses) and to exist in the database.

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

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

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

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