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The Act CRM ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Act CRM, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Act CRM like you would a database - query Companies, Contact, Groups, Opportunities, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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Natively Connect to Act CRM Data in PHP


The CData ODBC driver for Act CRM enables you to create PHP applications with connectivity to Act CRM data. Leverage the native support for ODBC in PHP.

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for Act CRM into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build Act CRM-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to Act CRM data, execute queries, and output the results.

Configure a DSN

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:

  • Connecting to Act! Premium

    In addition to the authentication values, the URL to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.

    Additionally, you must specify the ActDatabase you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.

  • Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud

    To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the ActCloudName property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.

Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the CacheMetadata property to store the metadata locally.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to Act CRM by calling the odbc_connect or odbc_pconnect methods. To close connections, use odbc_close or odbc_close_all.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC ActCRM Source","user","password");

Connections opened with odbc_connect are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the odbc_pconnect method are still open after the script ends. This enables other scripts to share that connection when they connect with the same credentials. By sharing connections among your scripts, you can save system resources, and queries execute faster.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC ActCRM Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the odbc_prepare function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Activities WHERE Subject = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC ActCRM Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Activities WHERE Subject = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('Sample subject'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC ActCRM Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT ActivityDisplayName, Subject FROM Activities");

Process Results

Access a row in the result set as an array with the odbc_fetch_array function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Act CRM data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT ActivityDisplayName, Subject FROM Activities"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["ActivityDisplayName"] . "\n"; }

Display the result set in an HTML table with the odbc_result_all function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Act CRM data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Activities WHERE Subject = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('Sample subject')); if($success) odbc_result_all($query);

More Example Queries

You will find complete information on the driver's supported SQL in the help documentation. The code examples above are Act CRM-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.