Natively Connect to ServiceDesk Plus Data in PHP

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

Using OAuth Authentication

ServiceDeskPlus uses Zoho OAuth 2.0 for secure authentication. To set up OAuth access:

1. Register your application in the Zoho Developer Console at https://api-console.zoho.com
2. Configure your redirect URI to match your application setup
3. 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;

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to ServiceDesk Plus 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 AnnouncementComments WHERE AnnouncementId = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC API Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM AnnouncementComments WHERE AnnouncementId = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('12345'));
  

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC API Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT ,  FROM AnnouncementComments WHERE AnnouncementId = '12345'");
  

Process Results

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC ServiceDesk Plus data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT ,  FROM AnnouncementComments WHERE AnnouncementId = '12345'");
while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){
 echo $row[""] . "\n";
}

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC ServiceDesk Plus data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM AnnouncementComments WHERE AnnouncementId = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('12345'));
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 ServiceDesk Plus-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.