Cmdlets for Airtable

Build 24.0.9060

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 Airtable 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 AirtableCmdlets

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

Import-Module AirtableCmdlets;

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

$conn = Connect-Airtable -InitiateOAuth "GETANDREFRESH"

Connecting to Airtable

The cmdlet requests tables and views from Airtable. Specify the following to connect.

  • BaseId (optional): You can optionally specify either this property or BaseName to limit the shown tables and views to a particular base. Set this to your base ID.
    • To find this value, navigate to the Airtable API Reference and select a base. In the introduction section of the Airtable documentation for the selected base, note the value specified in The ID of this base is <Id>.
  • BaseName (optional): You can optionally specify either this property or BaseId to limit the shown tables and views to a particular base. Set this to the name of the schema, which corresponds to the name of the Base in Airtable, that you want to use.

Authenticating to Airtable

You can authenticate to Airtable using either a Personal Access Token or OAuth PKCE.

Personal Access Token

First, generate a personal access token, if you have not done so already:

  1. Log in to your user account.
  2. Navigate to the token creation page.
  3. Click Create new token.
  4. Under Scopes, click Add a scope to add each of the following:
    • data.records:read
    • data.records:write
    • schema.bases:read
  5. Under Access, add all the workspaces and bases that you want the token to have access to.
  6. Click Create token to generate the token. Copy and save the generated token, as it will only be shown once.
Next, set the following:
  • AuthScheme: Set this to PersonalAccessToken.
  • OAuthAccessToken: Set this to the value of personal access token that you generated earlier.

OAuth PKCE

Set AuthScheme to OAuthPKCE.

Desktop Applications

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies OAuth desktop Authentication. Alternatively, you can create a custom OAuth application. See Creating a Custom OAuth App for information about creating custom applications and reasons for doing so.

Get and Refresh the OAuth Access Token

After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

  • OAuthClientId (custom applications only): Set this to the client Id assigned when you registered your app.
  • OAuthClientSecret (custom applications only): Set this to the client secret assigned when you registered your app. Specifying this value is optional if a value was not generated during the OAuth custom application creation process.
  • CallbackURL (custom application only): Set this to the redirect URI defined when you registered your app. For example: http://localhost:3333
When you connect, the cmdlet opens Airtable's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. The cmdlet refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.

Headless Machines

To configure the driver, use OAuth with a user account on a headless machine. You need to authenticate on another device that has an internet browser.

  1. Choose one of two options:
    • Option 1: Obtain the OAuthVerifier and PKCEVerifier values as described in "Obtain and Exchange a Verifier Code" below.
    • 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.
  2. Then configure the cmdlet to automatically refresh the access token on the headless machine.

Option 1: Obtain and Exchange Verifier Codes

To obtain a verifier code and PKCE verifier, you must authenticate at the OAuth authorization URL.

Follow the steps below to authenticate from the machine with an internet browser and obtain the OAuthVerifier connection property.

  1. Choose one of these options:
    • 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 the following properties:
      • InitiateOAuth: Set to OFF.
      • OAuthClientId: Set to the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
      • OAuthClientSecret: Set to the client secret assigned when you registered your application. Specifying this value is optional if a value was not generated during the OAuth custom application creation process.
      Then call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure with the appropriate CallbackURL. The stored procedure returns the URL to the OAuth endpoint as well as a PKCEVerifier value. Note the value of the PKCEVerifier for later use. Open the URL returned by the stored procedure in a browser.
  2. Log in and grant permissions to the cmdlet. You are then redirected to the redirect URI.

There will be a parameter called code appended to the redirect URI. Note the value of this parameter. Later you will set this in the OAuthVerifier connection property.

Next, you need to exchange the OAuth verifier code for OAuth refresh and access tokens.

On the headless machine, set the following connection properties to obtain the OAuth authentication values:

  • InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.
  • OAuthVerifier: Set this to the noted verifier code (the value of the code parameter in the redirect URI).
  • PKCEVerifier: Set this to the PKCEVerifier value you noted earlier in Step 1.
  • OAuthClientId: (custom applications only) Set this to the client Id in your custom OAuth application settings.
  • OAuthClientSecret: (custom applications only) Set this to the client secret in the custom OAuth application settings. Specifying this value is optional if a value was not generated during the OAuth custom application creation process.
  • OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to persist the encrypted OAuth authentication values to the specified location.

Test the connection to generate the OAuth settings file, then re-set the following properties to connect:

  • InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.
  • OAuthClientId: (custom applications only) Set this to the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
  • OAuthClientSecret: (custom applications only) Set this to the client secret assigned when you registered your application. Specifying this value is optional if a value was not generated during the OAuth custom application creation process.
  • OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the location containing the encrypted OAuth authentication values. Make sure this location gives read and write permissions to the cmdlet to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.

Option 2: Transfer OAuth Settings

Prior to connecting on a headless machine, you need to install and create a connection with the driver on a device that supports an internet browser. Set the connection properties as described in "Desktop Applications" above.

After completing the instructions in "Desktop Applications", the resulting authentication values are encrypted and written to the location 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.

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

  • InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.
  • OAuthClientId: (custom applications only) Set this to the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
  • OAuthClientSecret: (custom applications only) Set this to the client secret assigned when you registered your application. Specifying this value is optional if a value was not generated during the OAuth custom application creation process.
  • OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the location of the OAuth settings file you copied from the machine with the browser. Make sure this location gives read and write permissions to the cmdlet to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.

Retrieving Data

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

$results = Select-Airtable -Connection $conn -Table "SampleTable_1" -Columns @("Id, Column1") -Where "Column2='Bob'"
The Invoke-Airtable 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-Airtable -Connection $conn -Table SampleTable_1 -Where "Column2 = 'Bob'" | Select -Property * -ExcludeProperty Connection,Table,Columns | Export-Csv -Path c:\mySampleTable_1Data.csv -NoTypeInformation

You will notice that we piped the results from Select-Airtable 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-Airtable -InitiateOAuth "GETANDREFRESH"
PS C:\> $row = Select-Airtable -Connection $conn -Table "SampleTable_1" -Columns (Id, Column1) -Where "Column2 = 'Bob'" | select -first 1
PS C:\> $row | ConvertTo-Json
{
  "Connection":  {

  },
  "Table":  "SampleTable_1",
  "Columns":  [

  ],
  "Id":  "MyId",
  "Column1":  "MyColumn1"
}

Deleting Data

The following line deletes any records that match the criteria: 

Select-Airtable -Connection $conn -Table SampleTable_1 -Where "Column2 = 'Bob'" | Remove-Airtable

Modifying Data

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

Import-Csv -Path C:\MySampleTable_1Updates.csv | %{
  $record = Select-Airtable -Connection $conn -Table SampleTable_1 -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
  if($record){
    Update-Airtable -Connection $conn -Table SampleTable_1 -Columns @("Id","Column1") -Values @($_.Id, $_.Column1) -Where "Id  = `'$_.Id`'"
  }else{
    Add-Airtable -Connection $conn -Table SampleTable_1 -Columns @("Id","Column1") -Values @($_.Id, $_.Column1)
  }
}

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Build 24.0.9060