Access ServiceDesk Plus Data from MySQL in PHP
You can use the CData SQL Gateway and ODBC Driver for ServiceDesk Plus to access ServiceDesk Plus data from MySQL clients, without needing to perform an ETL or cache data. Follow the steps below to connect to ServiceDesk Plus data in real time through PHP's standard MySQL interfaces, mysqli and PDO_MySQL.
Connect to ServiceDesk Plus Data
If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can use the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure the DSN. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.
Using OAuth Authentication
ServiceDeskPlus uses Zoho OAuth 2.0 for secure authentication. To set up OAuth access:
- Register your application in the Zoho Developer Console at https://api-console.zoho.com
- Configure your redirect URI to match your application setup
- Note your Client ID and Client Secret from the application settings
After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:
- AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
- OAuthClientId: Set this to your Zoho application Client ID.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to your Zoho application Client Secret.
- Scope: Set this to the required ServiceDeskPlus permissions (default includes read access to requests, problems, assets, and projects).
- Domain: Set this to your ServiceDeskPlus domain
- Portal: Set this to your ServiceDeskPlus portal
Example Connection String
Profile=C:\profiles\ServiceDeskPlus.apip;ProfileSettings="Portal=itdesk;Domain=.in;Scope=SDPOnDemand.requests.READ SDPOnDemand.problems.READ SDPOnDemand.assets.READ SDPOnDemand.projects.READ";AuthScheme=OAuth;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;
Configure the SQL Gateway
See the SQL Gateway Overview to set up connectivity to ServiceDesk Plus data as a virtual MySQL database. You will configure a MySQL remoting service that listens for MySQL requests from clients. The service can be configured in the SQL Gateway UI.

Connect in PHP
The following examples show how to use object-oriented interfaces to connect and execute queries. Initialize the connection object with the following parameters to connect to the virtual MySQL database:
- Host: Specify the remote host location where the service is running. In this case "localhost" is used for the remote host setting since the service is running on the local machine.
- Username: Specify the username for a user you authorized on the SQL Gateway's Users tab.
- Password: Specify the password for the authorized user account.
- Database Name: Specify the system DSN as the database name.
- Port: Specify the port the service is running on; port 3306 in this example.
mysqli
<?php
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "user", "password", "CData API Sys","3306");
?>
PDO
<?php
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=CData API Sys;port=3306', 'user', 'password');
?>
Query in PHP
With the connection established, you can then access tables. The following steps walk through the example:
- Query the table; for example, AnnouncementComments. The results will be stored as an associative array in the $result object.
- Iterate over each row and column, printing the values to display in the PHP page.
- Close the connection.
mysqli
$result = $mysqli->query("SELECT , FROM AnnouncementComments WHERE AnnouncementId = '12345'");
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
foreach ($row as $k=>$v) {
echo "$k : $v";
echo "<br>";
}
}
$mysqli->close();
PDO
$result = $pdo->query("SELECT , FROM AnnouncementComments WHERE AnnouncementId = '12345'");
while($row = $result->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
foreach ($row as $k=>$v) {
echo "$k : $v";
echo "<br>";
}
}
$result = null;
$pdo = null;