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Natively Connect to LinkedIn Data in PHP


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

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for LinkedIn into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build LinkedIn-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to LinkedIn 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.

LinkedIn uses the OAuth 2 authentication standard. You will need to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret by registering an app with LinkedIn. For more information refer to our authentication guide.

Establish a Connection

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC LinkedIn 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.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC LinkedIn Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($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 CompanyStatusUpdates WHERE EntityId = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC LinkedIn Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM CompanyStatusUpdates WHERE EntityId = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('238'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC LinkedIn Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT VisibilityCode, Comment FROM CompanyStatusUpdates");

Process Results

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC LinkedIn data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT VisibilityCode, Comment FROM CompanyStatusUpdates"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["VisibilityCode"] . "\n"; }

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

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC LinkedIn data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM CompanyStatusUpdates WHERE EntityId = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('238')); 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 LinkedIn-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.

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LinkedIn Icon LinkedIn ODBC Driver

The LinkedIn ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from LinkedIn, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

With the LinkedIn ODBC Driver accessing live People, Profiles, Companies, Groups, Jobs, etc. is as easy as querying a database.

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