HomePHP Page 3 - Using The Google Web APIs With PHP
The Bare Necessities - PHP
The Google Web APIs allow developers to build SOAP-basedapplications driven off Google's unique indexing and searchcapabilities. And since there are now quite a few PHP classes designedfor SOAP transactions over HTTP, integrating the two has never beensimpler. This article explains how.
There are a couple of things you'll need before you can get started with PHP and the Google Web APIs. Obviously, you need a working build of PHP - I recommend the latest version, PHP 4.2.1, which you can download from http://www.php.net/
You'll also need an external PHP class named NuSOAP, which exposes a number of methods that can be used to instantiate a SOAP client and perform SOAP transactions over HTTP. You can download NuSOAP from http://dietrich.ganx4.com/.
You also have the option of using the PEAR (the PHP Extension and Application Repository) SOAP class instead of the NuSOAP class, which exposes much of the same functionality. You can get this class from the PHP CVS repository, at http://cvs.php.net/.
In case you're wondering, I've used both the NuSOAP class and the PEAR class to build the examples in this tutorial.
Finally, you need a passport to the Google kingdom. Drop by http://www.google.com/apis/, register with Google (all you need is an email address), and pick up your free Google license key. This license key will be used in all your interaction with the Google database, so keep it carefully - you're going to need it very soon.
While you're on the Google site, you might also want to download the Google Web API developer kit, which contains numerous examples of how the Web APIs can be used on the Java and .NET platforms. It doesn't have anything on PHP yet - but hey, that's why you're reading this article, isn't it?
