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Query Dynamics 365 Data Using the OData SDK for PHP
You can use the API Server and the OData PHP SDK to easily consume Dynamics 365 entities in PHP by modeling them as objects.
The CData API Server, when paired with the ADO.NET Provider for Dynamics 365, exposes Dynamics 365 data (or data from any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers) as Web services. You can follow the procedure below to work with Dynamics 365 data as PHP objects.
About Dynamics 365 Data Integration
CData simplifies access and integration of live Microsoft Dynamics 365 data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:
- Read and write data in the full Dynamics 365 ecosystem: Sales, Customer Service, Finance & Operations, Marketing, and more.
- Extend the native features of Dynamics CRM with customizable caching and intelligent query aggregation and separation.
- Authenticate securely with Dynamics 365 in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.
- Use SQL stored procedures to manage their Dynamics 365 entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.
CData customers use our Dynamics 365 connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources) or analyze live Dynamics 365 data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).
Getting Started
Set Up the API Server
Follow the steps below to begin producing secure Dynamics 365 OData services:
Deploy
The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.
The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.
Connect to Dynamics 365
After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for Dynamics 365, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to Dynamics 365 by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.
Edition and OrganizationUrl are required connection properties. The Dynamics 365 connector supports connecting to the following editions: CustomerService, FieldService, FinOpsOnline, FinOpsOnPremise, HumanResources, Marketing, ProjectOperations and Sales.
For Dynamics 365 Business Central, use the separate Dynamics 365 Business Central driver.
OrganizationUrl is the URL to your Dynamics 365 organization. For instance, https://orgcb42e1d0.crm.dynamics.com
You can then choose the Dynamics 365 entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.
Additionally, configure the API Server for compatibility with the OData SDK for PHP: Click Server -> Settings and in the OData section set Default Version to 2.0.
Authorize API Server Users
After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default, only connections from the local machine are allowed.
For simplicity, we will authenticate to the API Server by setting the authtoken in the URL. This is not enabled by default; you will need to add the following lines to the API Server configuration file, settings.cfg.
[Application]
AllowAuthTokenInUrl = true
The settings.cfg file is located in the data directory. In the .NET edition, the data directory is the app_data folder under the www folder. In the Java edition, the data directory's location depends on the operation system:
- Windows: C:\ProgramData\CData\Dynamics365\
- Unix or Mac OS X: ~/cdata/Dynamics365/
Work with Dynamics 365 Entities as PHP Objects
Follow the steps below to use the ODataPHP SDK to create a proxy class that will connect to the Web services exposed by the API Server.
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Pass the URL to a command like the one below:
php C:\PHPLib\ODataphp\PHPDataSvcUtil.php /uri=https://your-server:8032/api.rsc/@your-authtoken/ /out=C:\PHPLib\ODataphp\Dynamics365Entities.phpThe preceding command defines classes from the metadata returned in the response from the OData endpoint, then outputs the class definitions to the specified folder.
Both the API Server and the OData SDK for PHP support forms and Windows authentication. The API Server uses authtokens to authenticate users authorized to access the OData endpoint. You can supply authtokens in HTTP Basic authentication or append them to the OData URL.
You can configure authorized users in the Settings -> Users section of the API Server administration console.
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You can now start accessing Dynamics 365 data using an object-oriented interface in PHP. The code below creates a record of the GoalHeadings table and then retrieves the live data, showing the newly created record.
require_once 'Dynamics365Entities.php'; try{ $svc = new CData(); $goalheadings = new GoalHeadings(); $goalheadings->Name = 'MyAccount'; $svc->AddToGoalHeadings($goalheadings); $svc->SetSaveChangesOptions(SaveChangesOptions::None); $svc->SaveChanges(); $response = $svc->goalheadings()->Execute(); foreach($response->Result as $goalheadings) echo $goalheadings->GoalHeadingId.""; } catch (Exception $e) { //catch errors from the API Server echo $e->getError(), "\n"; }
