Connecting PowerShell to Salesforce.com

The Salesforce.com ODBC Driver enables you to work with Salesforce.com data in Windows PowerShell. Note that the procedure outlined in this blog is the same for any ODBC driver, so it's still relevant even if you are using PowerShell with another ODBC driver.

The Salesforce.com ODBC Driver is available to download from the Easysoft web site:

  1. Download the Windows Salesforce.com ODBC Driver. (Registration required.)
  2. Install and license the Salesforce.com ODBC Driver on the machine where is installed.

    For installation instructions, see the Salesforce.com ODBC Driver documentation.

Before you can use the Salesforce.com ODBC Driver to connect PowerShell to Salesforce.com, you need to configure an ODBC data source. An ODBC data source stores the connection details for the target database (e.g. Salesforce.com) and the ODBC driver that is required to connect to it (e.g. the Salesforce.com ODBC driver).

To create a Salesforce.com ODBC Driver data source:

  1. In ODBC Administrator, choose the System DSN tab, and then choose Add.
  2. In the Create New Data Source dialog box, choose Easysoft ODBC-Salesforce Driver, and then choose Finish.
  3. Complete the Easysoft ODBC-Salesforce Driver DSN Setup dialog box:
    Setting Value
    DSN Salesforce.com
    User Name The name of your Salesforce.com user. For example, myuser@mydomain.com.
    Password The password for your Salesforce.com user.
    Token The security token for your Salesforce.com user, if required.

    To find out whether you need to supply a security token, choose the Test button. If the connection attempt fails with an error which contains LOGIN_MUST_USE_SECURITY_TOKEN, you need to supply one.

    Salesforce.com emails the security token to the email address associated with your Salesforce.com user account. If you have not received a security token, you can regenerate it. Salesforce.com will then email the new security token to you. To regenerate your security token, log in to Salesforce.com and then choose Setup from the user menu. Search for "security token" in the Quick Find box. Click Reset Security Token in the Reset Security Token page. When you receive the token in your email client, copy it and then paste it into the Token field.
  4. Use the Test button to verify that you can successfully connect to Salesforce.com.

In a PowerShell window, enter this code to retrieve some ODBC data:

PS C:\> $connectionstring = 'DSN=MyODBCDataSource'
PS C:\> $sql = 'select top 1 * from account'
PS C:\> $connection = New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection($connectionstring)
PS C:\> $connection.open()
PS C:\> $command = New-Object system.Data.Odbc.OdbcCommand($sql,$connection)
PS C:\> $adapter = New-Object system.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter($command)
PS C:\> $table = New-Object system.Data.datatable
PS C:\> $adapter.fill($table)
1
PS C:\> $connection.close()
PS C:\> $table
Id                   : 001i000000AOq3NAAT
IsDeleted            : 0
MasterRecordId       :
Name                 : United Oil & Gas Corp.
Type                 : Customer - Direct
ParentId             :
BillingStreet        : 1301 Avenue of the Americas
                       New York, NY 10019
                       USA
BillingCity          : New York
BillingState         : NY
BillingPostalCode    :
BillingCountry       : United States
BillingStateCode     : NY
BillingCountryCode   : US
BillingLatitude      :
.
.
.