How to Set Up the Segment MySQL Connection? 2 Easy Methods

Segment has become a popular Customer Data platform for collecting data from multiple sources. Managing and processing that data is often a challenging task. To effectively handle the exponential growing structured data, you can use a robust and scalable Relational Database Management System like MySQL.

You easily leverage the benefits of both by setting up a Segment MySQL Connection. However, Segment doesn’t have a native integration for MySQL. Though, you can first transfer your data to Postgres and then import that data into MySQL or simplify the process by using other third-party tools!

In this article, you will learn how to effectively set up the Segment MySQL Connection using 2 different methods.  

What is Segment?

Segment is a widely used customer data platform (CDP) that simplifies the process of collecting the customer data from multiple platforms that your firm uses such as analytics platforms, customer service solutions, product development applications, and sales tools. After consolidating your customer data from several touchpoints in a single place of truth using a single API, you can then segment this data into meaningful audiences and activate it in different ways. The valuable insights from the data enable your marketing, sales, and customer service leaders to design and build relevant data-driven customer engagement campaigns. 

Key Features of Segment

Segment offers the following eye-catching features:

• Flexible: Segment provides several pre-built connections with different data sources via a single API. Once you have set up the tracking across various platforms, Segment manages the rest. This allows you to reduce the time spent reviewing and modifying data tracking.
• Centralized Data: Segment allows you to standardize your data collection with improved accuracy and completeness, thereby making your insights even clear and more precise.
• Secure: You get the best in class data security as Segment is GDPR compliant. Segment’s Privacy Portal provides you with the ability to isolate any Pii data collection and immediately block further tracking of this information before it is passed to other platforms and tools. Moreover, Segment swiftly addresses your data privacy issues and action data deletion or modification requests data deletion requests and can forward them to partner platforms.  
• Ease-of-Use: Segment’s comprehensive documentation & excellent customer service simplifies implementation and maintenance. Reduce the time spent reviewing and modifying data tracking.

What is MySQL?

MySQL is a popular Open-Source Relational Database Management System. MySQL data is stored in tables consisting of rows and columns. Introduced in 1995, MySQL is completely developed, distributed, and maintained by Oracle Corporation. Looking over the technical side, MySQL is written in the C and C ++ languages.

MySQL is compatible with multiple platforms such as Microsoft Windows, Oracle Solaris, AIX, Symbian, Linux, and macOS. You can use SQL commands to retrieve, change or add data from your MySQL tables. MySQL is also a vital component of the Modern LAMP stack, which consists of a Linux-based Operating System, Apache Web Server, MySQL Database, and PHP for processing.

SQL can also be used to define the table schema or even configure the relationship between the tables in the database. Client-Side Graphical User Interfaces such as MySQL WorkBench, SequelPro, or DBVisualizer can be used to type the SQL commands and the server will respond with the requested information. MySQL also offers a paid Enterprise version which includes premium support services and several extensions that can be installed as Server Plugins.

Key Features of MySQL

MySQL is widely used by organizations like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Wikipedia, and YouTube. This is due to the following set of MySQL’s eye-catching features: 

• Ease of Operation: With MySQL, you can work with a diverse set of programming languages ​​such as PHP, PERL, C, C ++, and JAVA. It also provides a set of intuitive tools to simplify time-consuming tasks such as Server Management, Reporting, and Data Analysis. Allowing you to work with a broader range of datasets, MySQL offers full support for several Data structures, JSON and Geospatial data, as well as Logical, Numeric, Alphanumeric, Date, and Time data types.
• First-rate Performance: MySQL delivers best-in-class query performance across a variety of clustered servers. It provides a fast-loading utility with a separate memory cache and table index partitioning. MySQL can also efficiently handle fluctuating workloads and process large volumes of data at optimal speeds. This allows you to store more than 50 million rows of data in a table with a table’s default file size limit of 4 GB. However, depending on the configuration of the operating system, this can be increased to a theoretical limit of 8 million terabytes (TB). 
• Open-Source: MySQL is under the GNU General Public License (GPL), which means it will always be freely available. It provides you the freedom to customize it on Oracle’s Open-Source MySQL codebase based on your needs. Since it is an Open-Source software, a large community has grown that regularly enriches MySQL’s documentation and its online support culture.
• Localization: To make it user-friendly, MySQL supports multiple character sets, including latin1 (cp1252), german, big5, ujis, and more. You can also set the error message language that the server provides to the client. The MySQL Server Time can also be dynamically changed with the ability to set specific time zones for individual clients.
• Data Security: MySQL provides you full control over the Data Access Control settings. Robust mechanisms such as Access Privilege Systems and User Account Management allow you to regulate who can view or use your MySQL data. MySQL sets the highest standard with Host-based Verification and Password Encryption.

How to build the Segment MySQL Connection?

To create the Segment MySQL Connection, you can go through the following 2 methods:

• Method 1: Simplify Segment MySQL Connection By Eliminating The Need For Code
• Method 2: Manually set up the Segment MySQL connection via Postgres

Method 1: Simplify Segment MySQL Connection By Eliminating The Need For Code

Hevo Data is a No-code Data Pipeline solution that can help set up the Segment MySQL Connection in just a few clicks and start transferring your data. With pre-built connections to 100+ data sources(Including 40+ free sources) like Segment, you can seamlessly replicate your data to your desired destination such as MySQL, Data Warehouses, or BI tools in a completely hassle-free & automated manner. 

Hevo also supports MySQL as a Source for loading data to a destination of your choice. Hevo is fully managed and completely automates the process of not only loading data from 100+ data sources but also enriching the data and transforming it into an analysis-ready form without having to write a single line of code. Its fault-tolerant architecture ensures that the data is handled in a secure, consistent manner with zero data loss.

Hevo Data takes care of all your data preprocessing needs and lets you focus on key business activities and draw a more powerful insight on how to generate more leads, retain customers, and take your business to new heights of profitability. It provides a consistent & reliable solution to manage data in real-time and always have analysis-ready data in your desired destination. 

Take a look at some of the salient features of Hevo:

• Fully Managed: Hevo requires no management and maintenance as it is a fully automated platform.
• Data Transformation: Hevo provides a simple interface to perfect, modify, and enrich the data you want to transfer.
• Faster Insight Generation: Hevo offers near real-time data replication so you have access to real-time insight generation and faster decision making. 
• Schema Management: Hevo can automatically detect the schema of the incoming data and map it to the destination schema.
• Scalable Infrastructure: Hevo has in-built integrations for 100+ sources (with 40+ free sources) that can help you scale your data infrastructure as required.
• Live Support: Hevo team is available round the clock to extend exceptional support to its customers through chat, email, and support calls.

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Without the need for manually transferring your data to another destination like Postgres, you can effortlessly set up a direct Segment MySQL Connection by following the simple steps given below:

• Step 1: Authenticate and connect Segment to Hevo Data through Webhooks. To add the generated Webhook URL to your Segment account, just copy the URL and add it to your Segment account as a destination.

• Step 2: For completing the Segment MySQL Connection, you can start by providing your MySQL database credentials such as your authorized Username and Password, along with information about your Host IP Address and Port Number value. You will also need to provide a name for your database and a unique name for this destination. 

Method 2: Manually set up the Segment MySQL connection via Postgres

Unlike the first method, there is no direct Segment MySQL connection if you want to manually transfer your data from Segment to MySQL. Since Segment doesn’t support MySQL as a destination, you can first replicate your data from Segment to PostgreSQL and then load your data to MySQL from PostgreSQL. 

For setting up the Segment MySQL Connection, Segment supports 2 Postgres database providers, namely Heroku, and Amazon RDS. In this article, Heroku is selected for setting up and administering a Postgres database. To do that you can follow the simple steps:

• Segment MySQL Connection Step 1: Connecting Segment to Postgres
• Segment MySQL Connection Step 2: Connecting Postgres to MySQL using MySQL Workbench Migration Wizard

Segment MySQL Connection Step 1: Connecting Segment to Postgres

• Step 1: Firstly, you Sign up for a Heroku account, or directly log in to an existing account.
• Step 2: Now, click on the New option and then click on Create new app option.
• Step 3: Name your app and choose the desired region where you want to host your PostgreSQL database. After completing the app settings like adding your app to a Heroku pipeline, click on the Create app option.
• Step 4: Click on the Resources tab present on the Deploy page. As you land on the Resources page, type & enter “Heroku Postgres” in the search bar. Choose a billing plan for your app and click on the Submit Order Form option. For a trial, you may opt for the Hobby Dev – Free plan. Learn more about plan pricing on the Heroku Postgres pricing page.
• Step 5: Now, click on the Heroku PostgreSQL add-on you have just created in the last step and open the Settings tab. Click on the View Credentials button and save the host, database, user, and password values as you will need these for connecting your database to Segment later on.
• Step 6: Finally, navigate to your Segment app & click on the Add Destination button on your Overview page.
• Step 7: Select your Postgres destination and similarly select the sources you would want your data from. Once you are done, click on the Next option.
• Step 8: Now, provide the Postgres details you saved earlier from Heroku such as the host, database, user, and password values, and click on the Connect option. After a successful connection to your destination, you’ll see the Next Steps screen. Whereas, if you get an “Invalid database” error, verify that your host, database, user, and password fields exactly match the credentials found in the Settings tab of your Heroku Postgres instance.

Segment MySQL Connection Step 2: Connecting Postgres to MySQL using MySQL Workbench Migration Wizard

Now that you have your data in Postgres, you transfer it to MySQL and complete the Segment MySQL Connection. Follow the easy steps to use the MySQL Workbench Migration Wizard to achieve that:

• Step 1: Firstly, you have to download and install the PostgreSQL ODBC driver in the system where you have installed your MySQL Workbench.
• Step 2: Open your MySQL Workbench and navigate to Database > Migration Wizard in the main menu.

• Step 3: An overview page will appear on your screen. Read carefully the Prerequisites section and click on the Start Migration button to proceed with the Segment MySQL Integration.
• Step 4: In the Source Selection page, provide the details such as the RDBMS you are migrating i.e. Postgres & the ODBC driver to use i.e. ODBC (manually entered parameters) as in this example, you will be manually entering the parameters for the PostgreSQL connection. You also need to provide the parameters for your connection such as ODBC driver name, Hostname, Port, Username, Password, and Database. Once you are done, click on the Test connection button.

• Step 5: After a confirmation message, click on the Next button to move to the Target selection page. Enter your MySQL instance parameters and click on the Test Connection button. Verify if the connection is successful and click on the Next button.

• Step 6: The Migration Wizard will interact with your Postgres Database and extract a list of the schemata. Once all tasks are completed, click on the Next button.
• Step 7: From the list of schemata, choose the Pagila sample database and its default schema public. A Postgres database contains one catalog and one or more schemata whereas MySQL only supports one schema in each database. From the 3 options given below, you can select the second option as there is only one schema in this example and it would be a good choice to remove the meaningless public name.

• Step 8: Click on the Next button and wait for the MySQL Wizard to complete retrieving the database object information like table names, table columns, primary and foreign keys, indices, triggers, views, etc. Once it is successful, click on the Next button.
• Step 9: You will be presented with a list of table objects when you click on the Show Selection button. Click on the objects you want to migrate and click on the Next button.

• Step 10: Now wait for the MySQL Migration Wizard to convert the objects you selected into their equivalent objects in MySQL and build the MySQL code needed to create them in the target server. Click on the Next button once that is complete.
• Step 11: After the successful mappings, you will land on the page shown below. You can choose Column Mappings in the View combo box to individually review and fix the mapping of column types, default values, and other attributes. 

You can also click on the Show Code and Messages button to see and edit the generated MySQL code that corresponds to the selected object.  

• Step 12: Click on the Next button to move to the Target Creation page and again click on the Next button. Once your schema is created, click on the Next button to move on to Create Target Results page where you can view, edit and verify the created objects. 

• Step 13: Click on the Next button to move to the data transfer process. Leaving the default values for the data transfer method, click on the Next button. Once the data transfer is complete, you will be presented with a report. This completes setting up your Segment MySQL Connection.

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned how to effectively set up the Segment MySQL Connection using 2 different methods. Since Segment doesn’t support MySQL as a destination you can first transfer your data to Postgres and then use the MySQL Migration Wizard to import the data to MySQL from Postgres. This is a good method if you rarely need to transfer your data from Segment to MySQL, as this manual Segment MySQL Connection requires a lot of effort and time. A more economical and efficient choice is to opt for a Cloud-based ETL solution like Hevo Data!

Visit our Website to Explore Hevo

Hevo Data is a No-code Data Pipeline solution that can help set up the Segment MySQL Connection in just a few clicks and start transferring your data. With pre-built connections to 100+ data sources(Including 40+ free sources) like Segment, you can seamlessly replicate your data to your desired destination such as MySQL, Data Warehouses, or BI tools in a completely hassle-free & automated manner. Hevo also supports MySQL as a Source for loading data to a destination of your choice. It is a reliable, completely automated, and secure service that doesn’t require you to write any code!  

If you are using MySQL as your Database Management System and searching for a no-fuss alternative to manual data integration, then Hevo can effortlessly automate this for you. Hevo, with its strong integration with 100+ sources and BI tools (Including 40+ Free Sources), allows you to not only export & load data but also transform & enrich your data & make it analysis-ready in a jiffy.

Want to take Hevo for a ride? Sign Up for a 14-day free trial and simplify your Data Integration process. Do check out the pricing details to understand which plan fulfills all your business needs.

Tell us about your experience of setting up the Segment MySQL Connection! Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.