Making remote API calls to Liferay's JSON services from PHP

Ray Augé
Ray Augé
Less Than a Minute Read

Liferay offers a wide variety of different remote API's.

A very useful one is JSON. It's useful because most languages have JSON processing functions. So the only dependencies are those and HTTP request handling functions.

Here is a complete example of adding a Country from a PHP script:

<?php

#
# This example uses HTTP_Request package located found here:
#
#     http://pear.php.net/package/HTTP_Request
#
# Tested with:
#     Liferay Portal - revision 13652
#     HTTP_Request - version 1.4.1
#
require_once("HTTP/Request.php");

#
# URL to the tunnle-web JSON API.
#
$a = &new HTTP_Request('http://localhost:8080/tunnel-web/secure/json');

#
# Use POST in 99% of cases, so that encoding of passed data is handled properly.
#
$a->setMethod("POST");

#
# Specify the authentication credientials.
#
$a->setBasicAuth("2","test");

#
# Specify the service class.
#
$a->addPostData("serviceClassName", "com.liferay.portal.service.http.CountryServiceJSON");

#
# Specify the service method.
#
$a->addPostData("serviceMethodName", "addCountry");

#
# List the method parameters.
#
$a->addPostData("serviceParameters", "name,a2,a3,number,idd,active");

#
# Give the values to use in the method.
#
$a->addPostData("name",   "AAAAAA");
$a->addPostData("a2",     "AA");
$a->addPostData("a3",     "AA");
$a->addPostData("number", "1000000");
$a->addPostData("idd",    "1000000");
$a->addPostData("active", "true");

#
# Send the request.
#
$a->sendRequest();

echo $a->getResponseBody();

#
# If the country does not exist, this will print:
#
#   {"active":true,"a2":"AA","a3":"AA","idd":"1000000","countryId":10904,"name":"AAAAAA","number":"1000000"}
#
#
# The above indicates success. Notice that "countryId" is included in the result.
#
?>

Page Comments
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Dave Morris
16 Years Ago
Here is an updated example that will work with Liferay 5.2.3

This example uses the Zend API just because it was what I had available at the time, but the concept applies to any Http client API in PHP or any other language for that matter. The main thing to notice here is that the serviceClassName is different, because ServiceBuilder no longer generates the *ServiceJSON.java files.

Also, make sure you add this line to your portal-ext.properties file to allow the json servlet to be accessible from some IP address or hostname:

json.servlet.hosts.allowed=localhost,127.0.0.1

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<?php
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require_once ('Zend/Http/Client.php');
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require_once ('Zend/Json.php');
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$liferay = new Zend_Http_Client();
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$liferay->setUri('http://localhost:8080/tunnel-web/secure/json');
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// set parameters to return a list of countries from the Liferay db
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$liferay->setParameterGet(array(
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    'serviceClassName' => 'com.liferay.portal.service.CountryServiceUtil',
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    'serviceMethodName' => 'getCountries'
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));
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// set authentication
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$liferay->setAuth('userid', 'password');
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// send the request
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$result = $liferay->request("GET");
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// get back a json response
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$json = Zend_Json::decode($result->getBody());
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// print the json object
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echo $result->getBody();
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?>


And if you're having trouble getting it to work, check out SecureFilter.java, JSONServiceAction.java, and JSONServlet.java to figure out what's going on.
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Dani Danielo Dave Morris
14 Years Ago
Hi Dave!
i tried your script and it works like a charm, but now i am trying to use the addUser method and dymply don't work.

here it is my script:

<?php
require_once ('Zend/Http/Client.php');
require_once ('Zend/Json.php');

$liferay = new Zend_Http_Client();

$liferay->setUri('http://localhost:8080/tunnel-web/secure/json');
// set parameters to return a list of countries from the Liferay db
$liferay->setParameterPost(array(
'serviceClassName' => 'com.liferay.portal.service.UserServiceUtil',
'serviceMethodName' => 'addUser',
'serviceParameters' => 'companyId, autoPassword, password1, password2,

screenName, emailAddress, firstName, lastName',
//'setFirstName' => 'Pacoooo',
'companyId' => 10112,
'autoPassword' => true,
'password1' => 'pass1',
'password2' => 'pass2',
'screenName' => 'john',
'emailAddress' => 'blah@localhost',
'firstName' => 'John',
'lastName' => 'Doe'


/*
$liferay->setParameterPost(array(
'serviceClassName' => 'com.liferay.portal.service.CountryServiceUtil',
'serviceMethodName' => 'getCountries'
*/
));

// set authentication
$liferay->setAuth('10115', 'password');
$result = $liferay->request("POST");

// get back a json response
$json = Zend_Json::decode($result->getBody());

// print the json object
var_dump($json);
?>
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Ray Augé Dani Danielo
14 Years Ago
Hmm, I'm not a PHP expert and I can't really see what the problem is. Typically I debug these by using the js console in a Firefox browser first. Then when I know the call works, then I re-code it using the specific language.

You could try that (make sure that the /html/js/liferay/service.js is loaded on the page of course and that you are logged into the portal). The calls will look something like:

console.log(Liferay.Service.Portal.Country.getCountries());

In later versions we switched to async design, so it became:

Liferay.Service.Portal.Country.getCountries({}, function(result) {console.log(result)});

Note that only methods that are found in the non-Local version of the services can be called. The Local ones are not exposed.
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Anton Murauyou
15 Years Ago
Hi, everyone.

Could anyone tell me how can I access other services ( not only in com.liferay.portal.service.spring package as in example? How can I get an article through JSON (for example with com.liferay.portlet.journal.service.spring.JournalArticleServiceUtil?

Should I use ServiceBuilder to make this available through JSON?

Thanks
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Gembong Y. Pranolo
15 Years Ago
Hi, everyone.

I'm a newbie in liferay & I wonder, is there any way to get liferay's session from php ?? please help, need it.

Thanks before,
Bonks
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