Maybe the most important thing about this post is how to use HTTP based APIs in a simple way -using a wrapper for cURL PHP extension. Most of the examples available on the Web are kind of out-of-date, based on the idea that there is no a better abstraction layer.
Requirements / Example environment configuration.
This example was originally built for CakePHP, but as you can see, it can be used or migrated to several frameworks – the key is to use the PEAR component. Note: I believe that this example will make most of the example out there crappy – and I hope it, so other developers could use it.
// PEAR Package HTTP_Request2 // http://pear.php.net/manual/en/package.http.http-request2.php require_once('HTTP' . DS . 'Request2.php'); class GoogleImportComponent extends Object { private $username = null; private $password = null; private $token = null; /** * Authenticate user credential against provider services * * @param string $username User's login * @param string $password User's account password * @see http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/docs/3.0/developers_guide_protocol.html */ function authenticate($username, $password) { $this->username = $username; $this->password = $password; $hrc = new HTTP_Request2('https://www.google.com/accounts/ClientLogin', HTTP_Request2::METHOD_POST); $hrc->setAdapter('HTTP_Request2_Adapter_Curl'); $hrc->setConfig('ssl_verify_peer', false); $hrc->addPostParameter('accountType', 'HOSTED_OR_GOOGLE'); $hrc->addPostParameter('service', 'cp'); $hrc->addPostParameter('source', 'MY_APP_ID'); $hrc->addPostParameter('Email', $this->username); $hrc->addPostParameter('Passwd', $this->password); $response = $hrc->send(); $body = $response->getBody(); if ($response->getStatus() == 200) { $this->token = substr($body, strpos($body, 'Auth=') + 5); } else { throw new Exception($response->getReasonPhrase(), $response->getStatus()); } } /** * Return the contacts' email list * * @return array * @see http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/docs/3.0/developers_guide_protocol.html */ function get() { $addresses = array(); $hrc = new HTTP_Request2("http://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/{$this->username}/full", HTTP_Request2::METHOD_GET); $hrc->setHeader('Authorization', "GoogleLogin auth={$this->token}"); $response = $hrc->send(); if ($response->getStatus() == 200) { $xml = simplexml_load_string(utf8_encode($response->getBody())); $xmladd = $xml->xpath("//gd:email/@address"); foreach ($xmladd as $value) { $data = get_object_vars($value); $addrs = $data['@attributes']['address']; if ($addrs != $this->username) { $addresses[] = $addrs; } } } else { throw new Exception($response->getReasonPhrase(), $response->getStatus()); } return $addresses; } }
That’s it. It is not a huge amount of code with HTTP protocol related instructions – like the ones you can get for free. It relies on HTTP_Request2 PEAR module, that even if it’s on beta, works like a charm.
. During these 7 (should I said 8?) years working on Web development I’ve noticed that only big companies uses robust (slow development) platforms like Java and .NET -by big companies I meant with more than couple billions of dollars on their budgets. They spent a lot of money in servers and infrastructure and ironically most of the time they use always versions old versions of platforms, servers, databases and all. So even if they spent a lot of money they cannot move as fast as it happens with the technology. Microsoft still produces Adobe Flash banners right, even if they have their own Silverlight. And it also happens with JavaFX. When you develop Flash components some companies still requests Flash 6 or 7, when we all know that we have version 9 and 10 running on most of the computers on the web. But hey, they want to be sure and even those computers that are off since 1995 can see them! – why?