PowerShell Scripting to Replicate Typeform Data to MySQL

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

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

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the TypeForm Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\TypeForm.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for TypeForm (see below).

TypeForm API Profile Settings

Authentication to TypeForm uses the OAuth standard.

To authenticate to TypeForm, you must first register and configure an OAuth application with TypeForm here: https://admin.typeform.com/account#/section/tokens. Your app will be assigned a client ID and a client secret which can be set in the connection string. More information on setting up an OAuth application can be found at https://developer.typeform.com/get-started/.

Note that there are several different use scenarios which all require different redirect URIs:

• CData Desktop Applications: CData desktop applications (Sync, API Server, ArcESB) accept OAuth tokens at /src/oauthCallback.rst. The host and port is the same as the default port used by the application. For example, if you use http://localhost:8019/ to access CData Sync then the redirect URI will be http://localhost:8019/src/oauthCallback.rst.
• CData Cloud Applications: CData cloud applications are similar to their desktop counterparts. If you access Connect AI at https://1.2.3.4/ then you should use the redirect https://1.2.3.4/src/oauthCallback.rst.
• Desktop Application: When using a desktop application, the URI https://localhost:33333 is recommended.
• Web Application: When developing a web application using the driver, use your own URI here such as https://my-website.com/oauth.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id that is specified in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to Client Secret that is specified in your app settings.
• CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.

Collecting Typeform Data

1. Install the module:

   Install-Module APICmdlets

2. Connect to Typeform:

    $api = Connect-API -Profile $Profile -Authscheme $Authscheme -OAuthClientId $OAuthClientId -OAuthClientSecret $OAuthClientSecret -CallbackUrl $CallbackUrl
    

3. Retrieve the data from a specific resource:

    $data = Select-API -Connection $api -Table "Tags"
    

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

    $data = Invoke-API -Connection $api -Query 'SELECT * FROM Tags WHERE SettingsIsPublic = @SettingsIsPublic' -Params @{'@SettingsIsPublic'='true'}
    

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

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

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

   Select-API -Connection $api -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 Typeform 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-API 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')}