Natively Connect to HCL Domino Data in PHP

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

Connecting to Domino

To connect to Domino data, set the following properties:

• URL: The host name or IP of the server hosting the Domino database. Include the port of the server hosting the Domino database. For example: http://sampleserver:1234/
• DatabaseScope: The name of a scope in the Domino Web UI. The driver exposes forms and views for the schema governed by the specified scope. In the Domino Admin UI, select the Scopes menu in the sidebar. Set this property to the name of an existing scope.

Authenticating with Domino

Domino supports authenticating via login credentials or an Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) OAuth application:

Login Credentials

To authenticate with login credentials, set the following properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to "OAuthPassword"
• User: The username of the authenticating Domino user
• Password: The password associated with the authenticating Domino user

The driver uses the login credentials to automatically perform an OAuth token exchange.

EntraID (formerly AzureAD)

This authentication method uses Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) as an IdP to obtain a JWT token. You need to create a custom OAuth application in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) and configure it as an IdP. To do so, follow the instructions in the Help documentation. Then set the following properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to "EntraID (formerly AzureAD)"
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId: The Client ID obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
• OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
• CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your app. For example: https://localhost:33333
• AzureTenant: The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. Supply either a value in the form companyname.microsoft.com or the tenant ID.

  The tenant ID is the same as the directory ID shown in the Azure Portal's Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) > Properties page.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to HCL Domino by calling the or methods. To close connections, use or .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Domino 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.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC Domino Source","user","password");
...
odbc_close($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 ByName WHERE City = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Domino Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM ByName WHERE City = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('Miami'));
 

Execute nonparameterized queries with .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Domino Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Name, Address FROM ByName WHERE City = 'Miami'");
 

Process Results

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC HCL Domino data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Name, Address FROM ByName WHERE City = 'Miami'");
while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){
 echo $row["Name"] . "\n";
}

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC HCL Domino data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM ByName WHERE City = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('Miami'));
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 HCL Domino-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.