With the CData Cmdlets users can install a data module, set the connection properties, and start scripting. This section provides examples of using our PayPal Cmdlets with native PowerShell cmdlets, like the CSV import and export cmdlets.

Installing and Connecting

If you have PSGet, installing the cmdlets can be accomplished from the PowerShell Gallery with the following command. You can also obtain a setup from the CData site.

Install-Module PayPalCmdlets

The following line is then added to your profile, loading the cmdlets on the next session:

Import-Module PayPalCmdlets;

You can then use the Connect-PayPal cmdlet to create a connection object that can be passed to other cmdlets:

$conn = Connect-PayPal -Schema 'REST' -InitiateOAuth 'GETANDREFRESH' -OAuthClientId 'MyOAuthClientId' -OAuthClientSecret 'MyOAuthClientSecret' -UseSandbox 'true'

Connecting to PayPal

The provider surfaces tables from two PayPal APIs. Each API uses a different authentication method.

• The SOAP API requires Signature API credentials. To authenticate to the SOAP API, you must set the AuthScheme to Basic, and set the Username, Password, and Signature properties. These API credentials are generated when you enable the SOAP API.
• The REST API uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate to the REST API, you must set the AuthScheme to OAuth, and set the OAuthClientId, and OAuthClientSecret properties.

To specify your preferred API, set the Schema property to either REST or SOAP. If no Schema is set, PayPal uses the SOAP schema.

For testing purposes, set UseSandbox to true and use Sandbox credentials.

SOAP API

You can use the SOAP API to retrieve all transactions for the current account. The SOAP API uses the Signature API-credentials type, which has three credential values:

• API Username
• API Password
• API Signature

To generate the API credentials:

1. Log in to your PayPal business account and select Profile > My Selling Tools.
2. In the Selling Online section, click Update for the API Access item.
3. To generate the API signature, click Request API Credentials on the API Access page.
4. Select Request API Signature and click Agree and Submit to generate the API signature.

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

• User = the API Username.
• Password = the API Password.
• Signature = the Signature.
• UseSandbox = true if you are using sandbox credentials.

REST API

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

• OAuthClientId = the Client Id in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret = the Client Secret in your app settings.
• UseSandbox = true if you are using sandbox credentials.

When you connect, the cmdlet completes the OAuth process. PayPal supports only OAuth authentication for use with the REST API. To enable this authentication from all OAuth flows, you must set AuthScheme to OAuth, and you must create a custom OAuth application.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to PayPal from three common authentication flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application. For a complete list of connection string properties available in PayPal, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

To authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth application, you must get and refresh the OAuth access token. After you do that, you are ready to connect.

Get and refresh the OAuth access token:

• InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId = the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
• OAuthClientSecret = the client secret that was assigned when you registered your application.
• CallbackURL = the redirect URI that was defined when you registered your application.

When you connect, the cmdlet opens PayPal's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

When the access token expires, the cmdlet refreshes it automatically.

Automatic refresh of the OAuth access token:

To have the cmdlet automatically refresh the OAuth access token, do the following:

1. Before connecting to data for the first time, set the following connection parameters:
   • InitiateOAuth = REFRESH.
   • OAuthClientId = the client Id in your application settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret = the client secret in your application settings.
   • OAuthAccessToken = the access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
   • OAuthSettingsLocation = the path where you want the cmdlet to save the OAuth values, which persist across connections.
2. On subsequent data connections, set the following:
   • InitiateOAuth
   • OAuthSettingsLocation

Manual refresh of the OAuth access token:

The only value needed to manually refresh the OAuth access token is the OAuth refresh token.

1. To manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken after the ExpiresIn period (returned by GetOAuthAccessToken) has elapsed, call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
2. Set the following connection properties:
   • OAuthClientId = the Client Id in your application settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret = the Client Secret in your application settings.

3. Call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with OAuthRefreshToken set to the OAuth refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
4. After the new tokens have been retrieved, set the OAuthAccessToken property to the value returned by RefreshOAuthAccessToken. This opens a new connection.

Store the OAuth refresh token so that you can use it to manually refresh the OAuth access token after it has expired.

Headless Machines

If you need to log in to a resource that resides on a headless machine, you must authenticate on another device that has an internet browser. You can do this by installing the cmdlet on a machine with an internet browser and transfer the OAuth authentication values after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow. Set the connection properties as described above in "Desktop Applications".

After completing the instructions in "Desktop Applications", the resulting authentication values are encrypted and written to the path specified by OAuthSettingsLocation. The default filename is OAuthSettings.txt.

Test the connection to generate the OAuth settings file, then copy the OAuth settings file to your headless machine.

To connect to data via the headless machine, set the following connection properties:

• InitiateOAuth = REFRESH
• OAuthSettingsLocation = the path to the OAuth settings file you copied from the machine with the browser. To enable automatic refreshing of the access token, ensure that this file gives read and write permissions to the cmdlet.
• OAuthClientId = the client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
• OAuthClientSecret = the client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you are finished, configure the driver to automatically refresh the access token on the headless machine.

Retrieving Data

The Select-PayPal cmdlet provides a native PowerShell interface for retrieving data:

$results = Select-PayPal -Connection $conn -Table "Payments" -Columns @("Id, State") -Where "CreateTime='2016-01-15'"

The Invoke-PayPal cmdlet provides an SQL interface. This cmdlet can be used to execute an SQL query via the Query parameter.

Piping Cmdlet Output

The cmdlets return row objects to the pipeline one row at a time. The following line exports results to a CSV file:

Select-PayPal -Connection $conn -Table Payments -Where "CreateTime > '2016-01-15'" | Select -Property * -ExcludeProperty Connection,Table,Columns | Export-Csv -Path c:\myPaymentsData.csv -NoTypeInformation

You will notice that we piped the results from Select-PayPal into a Select-Object cmdlet and excluded some properties before piping them into an Export-CSV cmdlet. We do this because the CData Cmdlets append Connection, Table, and Columns information onto each row object in the result set, and we do not necessarily want that information in our CSV file.

However, this makes it easy to pipe the output of one cmdlet to another. The following is an example of converting a result set to JSON:

 
PS C:\> $conn  = Connect-PayPal -Schema 'REST' -InitiateOAuth 'GETANDREFRESH' -OAuthClientId 'MyOAuthClientId' -OAuthClientSecret 'MyOAuthClientSecret' -UseSandbox 'true'
PS C:\> $row = Select-PayPal -Connection $conn -Table "Payments" -Columns (Id, State) -Where "CreateTime > '2016-01-15'" | select -first 1
PS C:\> $row | ConvertTo-Json
{
  "Connection":  {

  },
  "Table":  "Payments",
  "Columns":  [

  ],
  "Id":  "MyId",
  "State":  "MyState"
}