Natively Connect to Salesforce Data in PHP

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

The CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce enables you to write data access code for Salesforce data in PHP. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to Salesforce data, execute queries, and output the results.

Configure a DSN

To connect to Salesforce data, your application will use connection properties defined in the data source name (DSN).

Below is a typical connection string:

User=username;Password=password;SecurityToken=Your_Security_Token;

You can configure the DSN in the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator. This is the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN for Salesforce data.

Establish a Connection

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


$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Salesforce 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:


$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC Salesforce Source","user","password");
...
odbc_close($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 Account WHERE Name = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.


$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Salesforce Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Account WHERE Name = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('GenePoint'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.


$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Salesforce Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT * FROM Account");

Process Results

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


$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Salesforce data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT * FROM Account");
while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){
 echo $row["Industry"] . "\n";
}

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


$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Salesforce data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Account WHERE Name = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('GenePoint'));
if($success)
  odbc_result_all($query);

Test the Example Queries

One easy way to test the queries above is to use PHP's built-in test server to set up a basic stand-alone test environment. To start it, follow the steps below:

Download the binaries for the latest version of PHP.
Extract files to a folder.
Open the folder.
Rename php.ini-development to php.ini for a basic development setup.
Run the command below to access your test scripts from the browser:
php -S localhost:8000 -t C:\path-to-your-scripts -c C:\path-to-php\php.ini

More Example Queries

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

Ready to get started?