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Sean Madsen authored
perl -0777 -i -pe 's|^(.*)\n-{3,}$|## $1|gm' `find . -name '*.md'` perl -0777 -i -pe 's|^(.*)\n={3,}$|# $1|gm' `find . -name '*.md'`Sean Madsen authoredperl -0777 -i -pe 's|^(.*)\n-{3,}$|## $1|gm' `find . -name '*.md'` perl -0777 -i -pe 's|^(.*)\n={3,}$|# $1|gm' `find . -name '*.md'`
The CiviCRM API
CiviCRM has a stable comprehensive API (Application Programming Interface) that can be used to access and manage data in CiviCRM. The API is the recommended way for any CiviCRM extension, CMS module, or external program to interact with CiviCRM.
Utilizing the API is superior to accessing core functions directly (e.g. calling raw SQL, or calling functions within the BAO files) because the API offers a consistent interface to CiviCRM's features. It is designed to function predictably with every new release so as to preserve backwards compatibility of the API for several versions of CiviCRM. If you decide to use other ways to collect data (like your own SQL statements), you risk running into future problems when changes to the schema and BAO arguments inevitably occur.
The best place to begin working with the API is your own test install of CiviCRM, using the API explorer and the API parameter list.
API explorer
The API explorer gives you the possibility to actually try out the API in action and is available at
http://[CIVICRM\_URL]/civicrm/api/explorerYou can select the entity you want to
use, for example Contact and the action you want to perform, for
example Get. Again, be careful as the API explorer will actually
perform your actions! So if you delete a contact to check what API
call to use, it will really delete the contact. The API explorer
will show you the specific code necessary to execute the API call you
have been testing.
Try out the API explorer on the demo site, after you login as demo/demo.
API parameter list
The API parameter list shows all available entities which can be manipulated by the API and is available at:
http://[CIVICRM_URL]/civicrm/api/docYou will first get a list of all the API entities. If you click on an entity you will get a list of parameters that are available for that specific entity, with the type of the parameter. This can be very useful if you want to check what you can retrieve with the API and what parameters you can use to refine your get action or complete your create or update action.
API Examples
CiviCRM ships with API examples included in the distribution. You can find the examples specific to your installed version at:
<civicrm_root>/api/v3/examples
Explore these examples on GitHub
Changelog
All important changes made to the API are be recorded on the wiki at: API changes