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.

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

DEPRECATED: The SOAP API is DEPRECATED. Use the REST API instead for better access to resources.

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 currently supports only client credentials flow of OAuth authentication for use with the REST API. To enable this authentication, you must set AuthScheme to OAuth, and you must create a custom OAuth application.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to PayPal from two 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 initiate connection using client credentials OAuth flow by providing your clientId and clientSecret, the cmdlet obtains an access token from PayPal and uses it to request data.

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 cmdlet obtains an access token from PayPal and uses it to request data.

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

• InitiateOAuth = REFRESH
• 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.

Creating a Connection Object

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'

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"
}