Kaizen #94 - PHP SDK V4 - Configuration and Initialization

Kaizen #94 - PHP SDK V4 - Configuration and Initialization

Hello and welcome to another Kaizen week!

In previous Kaizen posts, we have covered in detail how to configure and initialize PHP SDKs for Zoho CRM v2.1 APIs. We have since released SDKs for v4 and v5 APIs. However, starting from v4, there are some changes in the configuration and initialization process.  In this post, we will discuss you how to configure and initialize PHP SDK v4 and v5.

The PHP Software Development Kit (SDK) simplifies the integration of client PHP applications with Zoho CRM. Acting as a wrapper for the REST APIs, it streamlines the usage of Zoho CRM services. 

Before proceeding with the configuration, make that your client application meets the prerequisites. This includes having PHP 7 or above installed, along with the cURL extension, which is necessary for connecting and communicating with Zoho CRM APIs.

I. Register your application with Zoho CRM

Registering your application with Zoho CRM is a mandatory step in order to authenticate and authorize API calls using the OAuth2.0 standards.
  1. Go to https://api-console.zoho.com
  2. Click on Get Started or +ADD CLIENT.
  3. Choose the Client Type as Self-Client or Server based Applications depending on your application.
  4. Fill in the necessary details and click CREATE. Once you successfully register your self-client, you will receive a Client ID and Client Secret.

II. Installing the PHP SDK 

  1. If not already installed, follow the instructions provided at the corresponding link to install Composer.

     Mac/Linux
     curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php (terminal command)
     Windows https://getcomposer.org/doc/00-intro.md#installation-windows

  2. Install PHP-SDK using Composer
    1. Navigate to the workspace of your client app.
    2. Run the following command in the workspace. Upon successful installation, the system will create a package named vendor in the workspace of your client app. 
       
      composer require zohocrm/php-sdk-4.0 (for v4 APIs)
       composer require zohocrm/php-sdk-5.0 (for v5 APIs)
  3. To use the SDK in your project, add the following line in your project PHP files. This loads and includes our PHP-SDK library in your project. If you skip this step, you will get a fatal error in response due to the missing libraries.
     require 'vendor/autoload.php';

III. Token Persistence

Token persistence refers to storing and utilizing authentication tokens provided by Zoho, enabling the SDK to refresh the access tokens without user intervention. The SDK offers three types of persistence - File, DB, and Custom - with file persistence being the default method. 
The persistence is achieved by writing an implementation of the inbuilt TokenStore interface, which has the following callback methods. 

 Methods Description
 findToken(Token $token) Invoked before firing a request to fetch the saved tokens. This method returns an implementation of Token interface object for the library to process it.
 saveToken(Token $token) Invoked after fetching access and refresh tokens from Zoho. This method saves the token details.
 deleteToken($id) This method is used to delete the given token details.
 getTokens() The method is used to retrieve all the stored tokens.
 deleteTokens()  The method to delete all the stored tokens.
 findTokenById($id)  This method is used to retrieve the user token details based on the unique ID.

Here, $token is an instance of the Token interface.

Token Persistence using a Database

In Database persistence, tokens are stored and retrieved from a database (e.g., MySQL).
Create a table in your database with the following required columns. For example, if you want to persist your tokens in a table named token in database named zoho, use this:
 
 CREATE DATABASE zoho; // use this to create database named zoho
// use this to create a table named token, with the following necessary columns
CREATE TABLE token ( 
  id varchar(10) NOT NULL,
  user_name varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  client_id varchar(255),
  client_secret varchar(255),
  refresh_token varchar(255),
  access_token varchar(255),
  grant_token varchar(255),
  expiry_time varchar(20),
  redirect_url varchar(255),
  primary key (id)
);

Note that the columns are different for API v2.1. Please refer to this post for more details. . 

File Persistence

File Persistence allows storing and retrieving the authentication tokens from the given file path. The file contains id, user_name, client_id, client_secret, refresh_token, access_token, grant_token, expiry_time and redirect_url. 

Custom Persistence

Custom Persistence refers to a technique where users can create their own method of storing and retrieving authentication tokens. To use this method, users need to implement the TokenStore interface and override its methods according to their own logic.

IV. Configuration

The configuration step involves setting up various details in the SDK, such as user authentication, token persistence, logging, API call timeout settings, and more. The following keys are defined during this process:
  1. environment (mandatory): The API environment which decides the domain and the URL to make API calls, in Domain::Environment pattern.
    Domains : USDataCenter, EUDataCenter, INDataCenter, CNDataCenter, AUDataCenter
    Environments : PRODUCTION(), DEVELOPER(), SANDBOX()
  2. Token (mandatory): This key contains the user token details. Create an instance of OAuthToken with the information that you get after registering your Zoho client.  Depending on the available tokens, you can select one of the following flows:
    Note : You need to generate the tokens (grant/access/refresh) beforehand to use them in the respective flows.
    a) grantToken flow - You should use the grant Token for configuration.
     $token = (new OAuthBuilder())
      ->clientId("clientId")
      ->clientSecret("clientSecret")
      ->userSignature($user) //optional
      ->grantToken("grantToken")
      ->redirectURL("redirectURL") //optional
      ->build();

    b) refreshToken flow - Utilize the refresh token in this flow.
    $token = (new OAuthBuilder())
      ->clientId("clientId")
      ->clientSecret("clientSecret")
    ->userSignature($user) //optional
      ->refreshToken("refreshToken")
      ->build();

    c) accessToken flow - You can use the access token to configure in this flow. Please note that the token will not be persisted in this case, and the access token will be directly used to make the API calls.
    $token = (new OAuthBuilder())
       ->userSignature($user) //optional
       ->accessToken("accessToken")
       ->build(); 

    d) id flow - You can use the id from the persisted token file/DB to make API calls. The id is a unique system generated value for each token details entry in the file/DB.
    $token = (new OAuthBuilder())
       ->id("id")
       ->build();

  3. logger (optional) : Create an instance of Logger Class to log exception and API information. You can set the level you want to log (FATAL, ERROR, WARNING, INFO, DEBUG, TRACE, ALL, OFF), and also configure the file path and file name for the log file. The default level is OFF.

    $logger = (new LogBuilder())
      ->level(Levels::INFO)
      ->filePath("/Documents/php_sdk_log.log")
      ->build();

  4. store (optional) : Configure your token persistence using this method. If this is skipped, the SDK creates the sdk_tokens.txt in the current working directory to persist the tokens by default. For more details, refer here.
  5. SDKConfig (optional) : The additional SDK configurations are taken care of with this method. 
     Configuration Key
    Description
     autoRefreshFields
     Default Value : False
    A boolean configuration key to enable or disable automatic refreshing of module fields in the background. If set to true, fields are refreshed every hour, and if set to false, fields must be manually refreshed or deleted.
     pickListValidation
     Default Value : True
    This field enables or disables pick list validation. If enabled, user input for pick list fields is validated, and if the value does not exist in the pick list, the SDK throws an error. If disabled, the input is not validated and the API call is made.
     enableSSLVerification
     Default Value : True
    A boolean field to enable or disable curl certificate verification. If set to true, the SDK verifies the authenticity of certificate. If set to false, the SDK skips the verification.
     connectionTimeout
     Default Value : 0
    The maximum time (in seconds) to wait while trying to connect. Use 0 to wait indefinitely.
     timeout
     Default Value : 0
    		The maximum time (in seconds) to allow cURL functions to execute. Use 0 to wait indefinitely.

  6. requestProxy (optional) : Contains the proxy properties of the user. Configure this only if you're using a proxy server to make the API calls.
    $requestProxy = (new ProxyBuilder())
     ->host("proxyHost")
     ->port("proxyPort")
     ->user("proxyUser")
     ->password("password")
     ->build();

  7. resourcePath (optional) : Configure the absolute directory path to store user specific files containing module fields information. If skipped, the files will be stored in the project directory itself.

V. Initilization

After completing the configuration, you can proceed with initializing the SDK, and begin making API requests.

Here is a sample code to initialize the SDK, using refresh token flow and DB Persistence. 
 <?php
  use com\zoho\api\authenticator\OAuthBuilder;
  use com\zoho\api\authenticator\store\DBBuilder;
  use com\zoho\crm\api\InitializeBuilder;
  use com\zoho\crm\api\UserSignature;
  use com\zoho\crm\api\dc\USDataCenter;
  use com\zoho\api\logger\LogBuilder;
  use com\zoho\api\logger\Levels;
  use com\zoho\crm\api\SDKConfigBuilder;
  use com\zoho\crm\api\ProxyBuilder;

  require_once "vendor/autoload.php";

  class Initialize
  {
    public static function initializeSDK()
    {
      $user = new UserSignature("patricia@zoho.com");
      $environment = USDataCenter::PRODUCTION();
      $token = (new OAuthBuilder())
        ->clientId("1000.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx")
        ->clientSecret("554a9xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx")
->userSignature($user) //optional
        ->refreshToken("1000.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx") 
        ->redirectURL("www.zoho.com") //optional
        ->build();
     $logger = (new LogBuilder())
       ->level(Levels::INFO)
       ->filePath("/Documents/php_sdk_log.log")
       ->build();
     $tokenstore = (new DBBuilder())
       ->host("insert_your_hostname_here")
       ->databaseName("insert_your_database_name_here")
       ->userName("insert_your_db_username_here")
       ->password("insert_your_db_password_here")
       ->portNumber("insert_your_portnumber_here")
       ->tableName("insert_your_table_name_here")
       ->build();
     $autoRefreshFields = false;
     $pickListValidation = false;
     $connectionTimeout = 2;
     $timeout = 2;
     $enableSSLVerification = false;
     $configInstance = (new SDKConfigBuilder())
       ->autoRefreshFields($autoRefreshFields)
       ->pickListValidation($pickListValidation)
       ->sslVerification($enableSSLVerification)
       ->connectionTimeout($connectionTimeout)
       ->timeout($timeout)
       ->build();
     $resourcePath = "/Documents/phpsdk-application";
     $requestProxy = (new ProxyBuilder())
       ->host("proxyHost")
       ->port("proxyPort")
       ->user("proxyUser")
       ->password("password")
       ->build();
    (new InitializeBuilder())
      ->environment($environment)
      ->token($token)
      ->store($tokenstore) //optional
      ->SDKConfig($configInstance) //optional
      ->resourcePath($resourcePath) //optional
      ->logger($logger) //optional
      ->requestProxy($requestProxy) //optional
      ->initialize();
   }
 }

Initialize::initializeSDK();
?>

You are now set to use the PHP SDK and make API calls. 

If you have any queries, let us know the comments below, or send an email to support@zohocrm.com. We would love to hear from you!

Cheers!




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