Natively Connect to Cosmos DB Data in PHP



The CData ODBC driver for Cosmos DB enables you to create PHP applications with connectivity to Cosmos DB data. Leverage the native support for ODBC in PHP.

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for Cosmos DB into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build Cosmos DB-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to Cosmos DB data, execute queries, and output the results.

Configure a DSN

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

To obtain the connection string needed to connect to a Cosmos DB account using the SQL API, log in to the Azure Portal, select Azure Cosmos DB, and select your account. In the Settings section, click Connection String and set the following values:

  • AccountEndpoint: The Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account
  • AccountKey: In the Azure portal, navigate to the Cosmos DB service and select your Azure Cosmos DB account. From the resource menu, go to the Keys page. Find the PRIMARY KEY value and set AccountKey to this value.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to Cosmos DB by calling the odbc_connect or odbc_pconnect methods. To close connections, use odbc_close or odbc_close_all.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC CosmosDB Source","user","password");

Connections opened with odbc_connect are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the odbc_pconnect method are still open after the script ends. This enables other scripts to share that connection when they connect with the same credentials. By sharing connections among your scripts, you can save system resources, and queries execute faster.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC CosmosDB Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the odbc_prepare function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE Name = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC CosmosDB Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE Name = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('Morris Park Bake Shop'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC CosmosDB Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT City, CompanyName FROM Customers");

Process Results

Access a row in the result set as an array with the odbc_fetch_array function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Cosmos DB data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT City, CompanyName FROM Customers"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["City"] . "\n"; }

Display the result set in an HTML table with the odbc_result_all function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Cosmos DB data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE Name = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('Morris Park Bake Shop')); if($success) odbc_result_all($query);

More Example Queries

You will find complete information on the driver's supported SQL in the help documentation. The code examples above are Cosmos DB-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.

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The Cosmos DB ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Cosmos DB document databases, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Cosmos DB like you would a database - read, write, and update through a standard ODBC Driver interface.