Learn more
 

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from Clio with the API Driver

Connect to Clio

In this article

Related articles

Natively Connect to Clio Data in PHP


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

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for Clio into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build Clio-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to Clio 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.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Clio Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Clio.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Clio (see below).

Clio API Profile Settings

Clio uses OAuth-based authentication.

First, register an OAuth application with Clio. You can do so by logging to your Developer Account and clicking the Add button. Enter details and select the scope of your application here - these details will be shown to Clio users when they're asked to authorize your application. Your Oauth application will be assigned a client id (key) and a client secret (secret). Additionally you will need to set the Region in ProfileSettings connection property.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

  • AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
  • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
  • OAuthClientId: Set this to the client_id that is specified in you app settings.
  • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client_secret that is specified in you app settings.
  • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI that is specified in your app settings.
  • Region: Set this in ProfileSettings to your Clio geographic region. Defaults to app.clio.com.

Establish a Connection

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC API 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.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC API Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($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 Bills WHERE State = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC API Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Bills WHERE State = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('awaiting_payment'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC API Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Id, Total FROM Bills WHERE State = 'awaiting_payment'");

Process Results

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Clio data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Id, Total FROM Bills WHERE State = 'awaiting_payment'"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["Id"] . "\n"; }

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Clio data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Bills WHERE State = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('awaiting_payment')); 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 Clio-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.