Integrating Microsoft Dynamics 2011 with PHP

Question

I have to do some exploratory work for a potential new project. The project is a website which will pull data (and maybe push data, not sure yet) to a Microsoft Dynamics 2011 install.

I know there is some kind of REST API for dynamics 2011, but from googling I can't get a clear idea of what's possible in terms of Dynamics 2011 / PHP integration.

Will I be able to retrive all data from Dynamics using PHP?

Will I be able to push data to Dynamics using php?

Answer 1

My suggestion in this situation is always to create a C# Web Service that will act as a bridge between CRM and your php code.

The Web Service use .NET so can easily pull the data from CRM (and push as well), and because is a Web Service you can consume it by any platform (with SOAP or REST is your decision)

About the API provided by CRM 2011, the REST endpoint is available only inside the CRM context (this means only inside javascript libraries or Silverlight web resources)

About SQL Server , it's supported to read the data from DB (using the Filtered Views) but not supported to insert, update or delete records using SQL commands

Answer 2

Dynamics CRM allows you to connect in various ways and which way depends on your requirements.

If you are using CRM Online and connecting to a PHP based website then a C# Web Service as a bridge can be a pain because you have to host it somewhere. In this case I have found that its best to use SOAP for connections. The downside of a SOAP connection is there is significant more lines required because you need to put the entire SOAP request in your PHP code. You can however retrieve and push data to CRM using PHP.

If you are using CRM On premise then I would suggest you look at what Guido suggested which is go with filtered views (again as Guido suggested this is read only) and then use the CRM Web Services to do your "pushing" of data to CRM.