Establishing a Connection

With the CData Cmdlets users can install a data module, set the connection properties, and start scripting. This section provides examples of using our LinkedIn 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 LinkedInCmdlets

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

Import-Module LinkedInCmdlets;

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

$conn = Connect-LinkedIn -OAuthClientId 'abc123' -OAuthClientSecret 'def456' -CallbackURL 'http://localhost:33333' -CompanyId 'XXXXXXX'

Connecting to LinkedIn

The LinkedIn CompanyId is a string of numbers, usually 6 to 9 digits long, that is unique to your company. Working with LinkedIn entities that require the CompanyId to be exposed, requires Company Page Administrator permissions.

There are two ways to find your site's LinkedIn Company ID:

Look at the URL of the search results page when you search for your company name in your LinkedIn page's Company dropdown. The ID is the value in the URL after /search/?f_C=[numeric value]&.
As a LinkedIn Page Admin, use the All Pages or Home tab to navigate to the page's Admin View. The ID is the numbers in the URL that come after https://www.linkedin.com/company/.

CompanyId is required in most of the LinkedIn data model entities. You can specify it directly as part of a query or -- if the query you are using is not easily modified -- you can set it globally.

If you are not sure if it is required for a query you want to run, check the table or view description, or see whether it is specified as a column or pseudo-column.

Authenticating to LinkedIn

LinkedIn provides embedded OAuth credentials that simplify connection from a Desktop application or a Headless machine. To connect from a Web application, you must create a custom OAuth application, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

To connect via OAuth from all authentication flows, you must set AuthScheme to OAuth.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to LinkedIn from the available OAuth flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, and why you might want to create one even for auth flows that already have embedded OAuth credentials, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

For a complete list of connection string properties available in LinkedIn, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies authentication at the desktop. You can also authenticate from the desktop via a custom OAuth application, which you configure and register at the LinkedIn console. For further information, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

Before you connect, set these properties:

InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
Custom OAuth applications only:
- OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you connect, the cmdlet opens LinkedIn'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.

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 in either of the following ways:

Option 1: Obtain the OAuthVerifier value.
Option 2: Install the cmdlet on a machine with an internet browser and transfer the OAuth authentication values after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow.

After you execute either Option 1 or Option 2, configure the driver to automatically refresh the access token on the headless machine.

Option 1: Obtaining and Exchanging a Verifier Code

To obtain a verifier code, you must authenticate at the OAuth authorization URL as follows:

Authenticate from the machine with an internet browser, and obtain the OAuthVerifier connection property.

If you are using the embedded OAuth application, call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure. Open the URL returned by the stored procedure in a browser.

If you are using a custom OAuth application, set these properties:
- InitiateOAuth: OFF.
- OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure. The stored procedure returns the CallbackURL established when the custom OAuth application was registered. (See Creating a Custom OAuth Application.)

Copy this URL and paste it into a new browser tab.
Log in and grant permissions to the cmdlet. The OAuth application redirects you the redirect URI, with a parameter called code appended. Note the value of this parameter; you will need it later, to configure the OAuthVerifier connection property.
Exchange the OAuth verifier code for OAuth refresh and access tokens. On the headless machine, to obtain the OAuthAccessToken, set these connection properties:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthVerifier: The noted verifier code (the value of the code parameter in the redirect URI).
- OAuthSettingsLocation: persist the encrypted OAuth authentication values to the specified file.
- Custom OAuth applications only:
  - OAuthClientId: The client Id in your custom OAuth application settings.
  - OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in the custom OAuth application settings.
Test the connection to generate the OAuth settings file.
You are ready to connect after you re-set these properties:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: The file containing the encrypted OAuth authentication values. To enable the automatic refreshing of the access token, be sure that this file gives read and write permissions to the cmdlet.
- Custom OAuth applications only:
  - OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  - OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.

Option 2: Transferring OAuth Settings

Prior to connecting on a headless machine, you must install and create a connection with the driver on a device that supports an internet browser. 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 these 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.
Custom OAuth applications only:
- OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.

Retrieving Data

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

$results = Select-LinkedIn -Connection $conn -Table "CompanyStatusUpdates" -Columns @("VisibilityCode, Comment") -Where "EntityId='238'"

The Invoke-LinkedIn 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-LinkedIn -Connection $conn -Table CompanyStatusUpdates -Where "EntityId = '238'" | Select -Property * -ExcludeProperty Connection,Table,Columns | Export-Csv -Path c:\myCompanyStatusUpdatesData.csv -NoTypeInformation

You will notice that we piped the results from Select-LinkedIn 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-LinkedIn -OAuthClientId 'abc123' -OAuthClientSecret 'def456' -CallbackURL 'http://localhost:33333' -CompanyId 'XXXXXXX'
PS C:\> $row = Select-LinkedIn -Connection $conn -Table "CompanyStatusUpdates" -Columns (VisibilityCode, Comment) -Where "EntityId = '238'" | select -first 1
PS C:\> $row | ConvertTo-Json
{
  "Connection":  {

  },
  "Table":  "CompanyStatusUpdates",
  "Columns":  [

  ],
  "VisibilityCode":  "MyVisibilityCode",
  "Comment":  "MyComment"
}

Modifying Data

The cmdlets make data transformation easy as well as data cleansing. The following example loads data from a CSV file into LinkedIn, checking first whether a record already exists and needs to be updated instead of inserted.

Import-Csv -Path C:\MyCompanyStatusUpdatesUpdates.csv | %{
  $record = Select-LinkedIn -Connection $conn -Table CompanyStatusUpdates -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
  if($record){
    Update-LinkedIn -Connection $conn -Table CompanyStatusUpdates -Columns @("VisibilityCode","Comment") -Values @($_.VisibilityCode, $_.Comment) -Where "Id  = `'$_.Id`'"
  }else{
    Add-LinkedIn -Connection $conn -Table CompanyStatusUpdates -Columns @("VisibilityCode","Comment") -Values @($_.VisibilityCode, $_.Comment)
  }
}

Cmdlets for LinkedIn