Sending data from SQL Server to AirTable via REST API

Other Questions Airtable
1

I’m stuck and need some guidance. I’ve got a SQL Server 2016 database with a table called GameStats. It has info like player names, scores, and game details. Here’s what I want to do:

  1. Take the data from my GameStats table
  2. Send it to AirTable (an online database) using their API

I’ve managed to do this manually with curl, but I’m lost on how to do it directly from SQL Server. Has anyone done something like this before? What’s the best way to make API calls from SQL Server?

Here’s a simplified version of my table structure:

CREATE TABLE GameStats (
  PlayerName VARCHAR(20),
  Score INT,
  ZombiesKilled INT,
  Accuracy DECIMAL(5,2),
  GameMode VARCHAR(50),
  PlayDate DATETIME
)

Any tips or code examples would be super helpful. Thanks!

2

hey claire, i’ve done smthing similar before. u could use sql server’s clr integration to make http requests. basically, u write a c# function that calls the airtable api, then import it into sql server as a stored procedure. it’s a bit tricky to set up but works great once u get it goin. lmk if u want more details!

3

I’ve tackled a similar challenge in the past. One effective approach is to utilize SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). You can create an SSIS package that extracts data from your GameStats table, transforms it into the required format for AirTable, and then uses an HTTP task to send it via the API. This method provides flexibility and scalability, allowing you to schedule the data transfer or trigger it manually as needed. It might take some initial setup, but it’s a robust solution for ongoing data synchronization between SQL Server and external APIs. If you need guidance on setting this up, I’d be happy to provide more specific steps.

4

I’ve actually dealt with this exact scenario in my previous job. We ended up using PowerShell scripts to handle the data transfer from SQL Server to AirTable. It’s surprisingly straightforward once you get the hang of it.

In our case, we wrote a script that queried the SQL Server database with Invoke-Sqlcmd, transformed the results into the proper format for AirTable, and then used Invoke-RestMethod to send the data. We scheduled the execution with a SQL Server Agent job, which made our daily data syncs nearly automatic. This approach proved to be flexible, allowing quick modifications to the SQL query or data processing without recompiling code. If you’re interested, I could share a sanitized version of our script as a starting point.