PHP SDK

RudderStack’s PHP SDK lets you track and send the events from your PHP applications to the specified destinations.

RudderStack’s PHP SDK supports PHP version 7.4 and above. Refer to the PHP SDK’s GitHub codebase for the implementation-specific details.

SDK setup requirements

1. Sign up to RudderStack Cloud.
2. Set up a PHP source in your dashboard. You should be able to see the write key for this source:

You will also need the data plane URL. Refer to the Dashboard Overview guide for more information on the data plane URL and where to find it.

The Setup tab in the RudderStack dashboard (seen above) has the SDK installation snippet containing both the write key and the data plane URL. Copy it to integrate the PHP SDK into your application.

Installing the PHP SDK

Install the RudderStack PHP SDK using the composer. You can also do so by running the following command:

git clone https://github.com/rudderlabs/rudder-php-sdk /my/app/folders/

Then, use the composer to install the PHP SDK by running the following command:

composer require rudderstack/rudder-php-sdk

Initializing the RudderStack client

To initialize the RudderStack client, run the following code snippet:

use Rudder\Rudder;

require_once realpath(__DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php');

Rudder::init(WRITE_KEY, array(
  "data_plane_url" => DATA_PLANE_URL,
  "consumer"       => "lib_curl",
  "debug"          => false,
  "max_queue_size" => 10000,
  "flush_at"       => 100,
  "ssl"            => true
));

RudderStack accepts the DATA_PLANE_URL with or without the protocol. If the protocol is missing, RudderStack automatically prepends it to the URL based on whether the ssl option is set to true or false.

RudderStack accepts the following data plane URL formats:

While initializing the RudderStack client, the ssl field is optional if you are using the HTTPS protocol. If included, its value must be set to true. In case of the HTTP protocol, ssl is a required field and must always be set to false.

SDK initialization options

The RudderStack PHP SDK provides the following initialization options:

Migrating from v1 to v2

To migrate to PHP SDK v2, make sure the following conditions are met:

• Your PHP version should be v7.4 or above.
• If you are using self-hosted rudder-server, either upgrade it to v1.4.0 or above, or disable the gzipped request payloads (by setting compress_request to false).

Sending events

RudderStack does not store or persist the user state in any of the server-side SDKs.

Unlike the client-side SDKs that deal with a single user at a given time, the server-side SDKs deal with multiple users simultaneously. Therefore, you must specify either the userId or anonymousId every time while making any API calls supported by the PHP SDK.

RudderStack’s PHP SDK sends 100 events per batch by default. To emulate synchronous events, set the batch value to 1 using the flush_at option.

Identify

The identify call lets you identify a visiting user and associate them to their actions. It also lets you record the traits about them like their name, email address, etc.

A sample identify call made using the PHP SDK is shown below:

Rudder::identify(array(
  "userId" => "1hKOmRA4GRlm",
  "traits" => array(
    "email" => "alex@example.com",
    "name" => "Alex Keener",
    "friends" => 25
  )
));

The identify method parameters are as described below:

Track

The track call lets you record the user actions along with their associated properties. Each user action is called an event.

A sample track call is shown below:

Rudder::track(array(
  "userId" => "f4ca124298",
  "event" => "Article Bookmarked",
  "properties" => array(
    "title" => "Snow Fall",
    "subtitle" => "The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek",
    "author" => "John Branch"
  )
));

The track method parameters are as described below:

Page

The page call allows you to record the page views on your application, along with the other relevant information about the page.

A sample page call is as shown:

Rudder::page(array(
  "userId" => "f4ca124298",
  "category" => "Docs",
  "name" => "PHP library",
  "properties" => array(
    "url" => "https://rudderstack.com/libraries/php/"
  )
));

The page method parameters are as described below:

Screen

The screen call is the mobile equivalent of the page call. It lets you record the screen views on your mobile app along with other relevant information about the screen.

A sample screen call is as shown:

Rudder::screen(array(
  "userId" => "f4ca124298",
  "category" => "Docs",
  "name" => "PHP library",
  "properties" => array(
    "name" => "HomeScreen"
  )
));

The screen method parameters are as described below:

Group

The group call lets you link an identified user with a group, such as a company, organization, or an account. It also lets you record any custom traits or properties associated with that group. A sample group call is as shown:

Rudder::group(array(
  "userId" => "2sfjej334",
  "groupId" => "2sfjej334erresd",
  "traits" => array(
    "email" => "alex@example.com",
    "name" => "Alex Keener",
    "friends" => 25
  )
));

The group method parameters are as follows:

Alias

The alias call lets you merge different identities of a known user. It is an advanced method that lets you change the tracked user’s ID explicitly. You can use alias for managing the user’s identity in some of the downstream destinations.

RudderStack supports sending alias events only to select downstream destinations. Refer to the destination-specific documentation for more details.

A sample alias call is as shown:

Rudder::alias(array(
  "previousId" => "previousId",
  "userId" => "2sfjej334",
));

The alias method parameters are as mentioned below:

Consumers

You can specify the following consumers to make requests to RudderStack:

Lib-Curl Consumer

The lib-curl consumer is RudderStack’s default PHP library. You can use it for faster response during lighter loads. The library runs synchronously, queuing and sending calls in batches to RudderStack.

RudderStack ignores the HTTP responses by default to optimize the library’s speed. However, you can choose to wait for these responses by enabling the debug mode.

Fork-Curl Consumer

The fork-curl consumer can be used when you can’t use persistent sockets or want to ensure quick response for lighter loads. It creates an in-memory queue which buffers the identify and track calls. The queue is flushed by forking an async curl process that sends a batch request. The flushing happens after every 100 calls or at the end of serving the page, by default. You can use the flush_at property to configure this value.

The key difference between lib-curl and fork-curl consumer is in the underlying mechanism of creating the request. All events are added into a batch that, when flushed, initiates a request either using the PHP exec method executing a curl command (fork-curl consumer) or via PHP’s curl_exec method (lib-curl consumer).

Socket Consumer

You can use the socket consumer which lets you make requests to RudderStack when you can’t spawn other processes from your PHP scripts. It initiates a socket request to RudderStack servers each time an identify or track call is made. The socket request writes the event data and closes the connection before waiting for a response. It is recommended to use some other consumer if your servers are dealing with hundreds of requests per second or cannot use a persistent connection.

File Consumer

You can also use the file consumer for making requests to RudderStack. It records each identify or track call you make to a log file. Further, it uploads the log file by running the file.php file in RudderStack’s github repository.

You can run the examples/SendBatchFromFile.php file to upload your log file to RudderStack:

php examples/SendBatchFromFile.php --secret YOUR_WRITE_KEY --file /tmp/analytics.log

It is recommended to run this command as a cron job after every few minutes so that your log files are created in manageable sizes. Every time you run the command, it removes the old log files once they are processed successfully.

You can create a new cron job to upload your log files, as shown in the following snippet:

$ # create a cron job that runs as www-data every minute
$ echo '*/1 * * * * www-data php /my/path/to/analytics-php/SendBatchFromFile.php > /dev/null' | sudo tee /etc/cron.d/analytics
$ sudo service cron reload    # reload the cron daemon

FAQ

Does the PHP SDK support event ordering?

The PHP SDK does not support event ordering by default.

Questions? Contact us by email or on Slack