Video: Use the REST API in PHP

You can use the REST API in an application written in PHP code to access Oracle B2C Service from a web page. Let's look at an example where you can retrieve the details of a Contact object using PHP. Using a web page, you enter a contact's First Name and Last Name. Then, you click the Get button to retrieve the ID of that contact.

Note:

Do not use the code shown in this example in a production environment.

To retrieve the details of a Contact object using PHP:

1. Create a web page using HTML and PHP by using a text editor such as Notepad++.
2. Create a form with two input boxes named 'fname' and 'lname'. For example:

   <form name="form1" ACTION="<?php echo $PHP_SELF;?>">
   <p>
   ENTER CONTACT FIRST NAME <input type="text" name="fname"/>
   <br>
   ENTER CONTACT LAST NAME <input type="text" name="lname"/>
   <br>
   </form>

3. In the PHP code, get the values of the first and last name from the form and use them to create the URL that uses a query to locate the contact by first and last name. For example:

   $ln = $_GET['lname'];
   $fn = $_GET['fname'];
   $url="https://Admin1:Admin1234cd158d124.qb.lan/services/rest/connect/v1.3/contacts?q=name.first"".$fn.""%20AND%20name.last"".$ln."";
   

   The %20 used here are symbols for space. Spaces are required around the logical operator AND if you use it in a query in REST API, but spaces aren't allowed in an HTTP URL.

4. Load the cURL library to send HTTP requests in PHP. For example:

   if (!extension_loaded('curl'))
   {
     load_curl();
   }
   $ch  = curl_init($url);
   

5. Setup cURL to return the response as a string without the response header and setup the HTTP verb as GET to fetch data. For example:

   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, FALSE);
   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMEREQUEST, "GET");
   

6. Set up the following to avoid security issues for this example:

   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

7. Add the code to make the call to the server and load the returned value in a variable named 'response'. For example:

   try
   {
     $response = curl_exec($ch);
   }
   

8. Catch any errors in the call, such as network errors. For example:

   catch (Exception $e)
   {
     echo 'Error message: ' .$e->getMessage();
   }
   

9. Print any cURL errors that might occur before closing the cURL connection. For example:

   if (curl_errorno($ch));
       print "Curl error number: ".curl_error($ch);
   curl_close($ch);
   

10. The response from a REST API call is encoded in JSON, so use the json_decode function to parse it and store it in a variable named 'info'. For example:

    $info = json_decode($response);

11. In case of error, print the response included in the HTML status. For example:

    if ($info->status)
    {
      if ($info->status != 200)
      {
         print "<p>Error: ".$info->status; 
       }
    }
    

12. Print the entire response. For example:

    <div id="response">
    Response:
    <?php
    if ($info->items != null)
        print $response;
    ?>
    

13. Use the info object to get the ID. The info object is an array of items and the ID is available in the first item of the array .For example:

    ID from parsed response:
    <?php
        print $info->items[0]->id;
     ?>
    

14. Save and close the HTML file.
15. Open the HTML page in a web browser.
16. Enter the values for First Name and Last Name and click Get.

    The full response and the parsed ID are displayed.