Natively Connect to Act CRM Data in PHP

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

The and properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:

• Connecting to Act! Premium

  In addition to the authentication values, the to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.

  Additionally, you must specify the you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.

• Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud

  To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.

Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the property to store the metadata locally.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to Act CRM by calling the or methods. To close connections, use or .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC ActCRM Source","user","password");

Connections opened with are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the 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.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC ActCRM Source","user","password");
...
odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Activities WHERE Subject = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC ActCRM Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Activities WHERE Subject = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('Sample subject'));
 

Execute nonparameterized queries with .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC ActCRM Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT ActivityDisplayName, Subject FROM Activities");
 

Process Results

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Act CRM data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT ActivityDisplayName, Subject FROM Activities");
while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){
 echo $row["ActivityDisplayName"] . "\n";
}

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Act CRM data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Activities WHERE Subject = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('Sample subject'));
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 Act CRM-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.