PHP Quickstart

Complete the steps described in the rest of this page, and in about five minutes you'll have a simple PHP command-line application that makes requests to the Google Sheets API.

Prerequisites

To run this quickstart, you'll need:

PHP 5.4 or greater with the command-line interface (CLI) and JSON extension installed.
The Composer dependency management tool.
Access to the internet and a web browser.
A Google account.

Step 1: Turn on the Google Sheets API

Use this wizard to create or select a project in the Google Developers Console and automatically turn on the API. Click Continue, then Go to credentials.
On the Add credentials to your project page, click the Cancel button.
At the top of the page, select the OAuth consent screen tab. Select an Email address, enter a Product name if not already set, and click the Save button.
Select the Credentials tab, click the Create credentials button and select OAuth client ID.
Select the application type Other, enter the name "Google Sheets API Quickstart", and click the Create button.
Click OK to dismiss the resulting dialog.
Click the file_download (Download JSON) button to the right of the client ID.
Move this file to your working directory and rename it client_secret.json.

Step 2: Install the Google Client Library

Run the following command to install the library using composer:

php composer.phar require google/apiclient:^2.0

See the library's installation page for the alternative installation options.

Step 3: Set up the sample

Create a file named quickstart.php in your working directory and copy in the following code:


<?php
require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';


define('APPLICATION_NAME', 'Google Sheets API PHP Quickstart');
define('CREDENTIALS_PATH', '~/.credentials/sheets.googleapis.com-php-quickstart.json');
define('CLIENT_SECRET_PATH', __DIR__ . '/client_secret.json');
// If modifying these scopes, delete your previously saved credentials
// at ~/.credentials/sheets.googleapis.com-php-quickstart.json
define('SCOPES', implode(' ', array(
  Google_Service_Sheets::SPREADSHEETS_READONLY)
));

if (php_sapi_name() != 'cli') {
  throw new Exception('This application must be run on the command line.');
}

/**
 * Returns an authorized API client.
 * @return Google_Client the authorized client object
 */
function getClient() {
  $client = new Google_Client();
  $client->setApplicationName(APPLICATION_NAME);
  $client->setScopes(SCOPES);
  $client->setAuthConfig(CLIENT_SECRET_PATH);
  $client->setAccessType('offline');

  // Load previously authorized credentials from a file.
  $credentialsPath = expandHomeDirectory(CREDENTIALS_PATH);
  if (file_exists($credentialsPath)) {
    $accessToken = json_decode(file_get_contents($credentialsPath), true);
  } else {
    // Request authorization from the user.
    $authUrl = $client->createAuthUrl();
    printf("Open the following link in your browser:\n%s\n", $authUrl);
    print 'Enter verification code: ';
    $authCode = trim(fgets(STDIN));

    // Exchange authorization code for an access token.
    $accessToken = $client->fetchAccessTokenWithAuthCode($authCode);

    // Store the credentials to disk.
    if(!file_exists(dirname($credentialsPath))) {
      mkdir(dirname($credentialsPath), 0700, true);
    }
    file_put_contents($credentialsPath, json_encode($accessToken));
    printf("Credentials saved to %s\n", $credentialsPath);
  }
  $client->setAccessToken($accessToken);

  // Refresh the token if it's expired.
  if ($client->isAccessTokenExpired()) {
    $client->fetchAccessTokenWithRefreshToken($client->getRefreshToken());
    file_put_contents($credentialsPath, json_encode($client->getAccessToken()));
  }
  return $client;
}

/**
 * Expands the home directory alias '~' to the full path.
 * @param string $path the path to expand.
 * @return string the expanded path.
 */
function expandHomeDirectory($path) {
  $homeDirectory = getenv('HOME');
  if (empty($homeDirectory)) {
    $homeDirectory = getenv('HOMEDRIVE') . getenv('HOMEPATH');
  }
  return str_replace('~', realpath($homeDirectory), $path);
}

// Get the API client and construct the service object.
$client = getClient();
$service = new Google_Service_Sheets($client);

// Prints the names and majors of students in a sample spreadsheet:
// https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BxiMVs0XRA5nFMdKvBdBZjgmUUqptlbs74OgvE2upms/edit
$spreadsheetId = '1BxiMVs0XRA5nFMdKvBdBZjgmUUqptlbs74OgvE2upms';
$range = 'Class Data!A2:E';
$response = $service->spreadsheets_values->get($spreadsheetId, $range);
$values = $response->getValues();

if (count($values) == 0) {
  print "No data found.\n";
} else {
  print "Name, Major:\n";
  foreach ($values as $row) {
    // Print columns A and E, which correspond to indices 0 and 4.
    printf("%s, %s\n", $row[0], $row[4]);
  }
}

Step 4: Run the sample

Run the sample using the following command:

php quickstart.php

The first time you run the sample, it will prompt you to authorize access:

Browse to the provided URL in your web browser.
If you are not already logged into your Google account, you will be prompted to log in. If you are logged into multiple Google accounts, you will be asked to select one account to use for the authorization.
Click the Accept button.
Copy the code you're given, paste it into the command-line prompt, and press Enter.

Notes

Authorization information is stored on the file system, so subsequent executions will not prompt for authorization.
The authorization flow in this example is designed for a command-line application. For information on how to perform authorization in a web application, see Using OAuth 2.0 for Web Server Applications.