Natively Connect to SAP Data in PHP

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for SAP into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build SAP-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to SAP data, execute queries, and output the results.

Getting Started

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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.

You can connect to SAP systems using either librfc32.dll, librfc32u.dll, NetWeaver, or Web Services (SOAP). Set the ConnectionType connection property to CLASSIC (librfc32.dll), CLASSIC_UNICODE (librfc32u.dll), NETWEAVER, or SOAP.

If you are using the SOAP interface, set the Client, RFCUrl, SystemNumber, User, and Password properties, under the Authentication section.

Otherwise, set Host, User, Password, Client, and SystemNumber.

Note: We do not distribute the librfc32.dll or other SAP assemblies. You must find them from your SAP installation and install them on your machine.

For more information, see this guide on obtaining the connection properties needed to connect to any SAP system.

Establish a Connection

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC SAPERP 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.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC SAPERP Source","user","password");
...
odbc_close($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 MARA WHERE ERNAM = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC SAPERP Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM MARA WHERE ERNAM = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('BEHRMANN'));
 

Execute nonparameterized queries with .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC SAPERP Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT MANDT, MBRSH FROM MARA");
 

Process Results

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC SAP data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT MANDT, MBRSH FROM MARA");
while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){
 echo $row["MANDT"] . "\n";
}

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

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