Do I have enough data to create a salesforce php integration as a beginner?

Question

I received a task as a part of a recruitment process although PHP and Salesforce developer experience was not specified as a requirement, but I want to try to finish it and learn something new.

I have the following data:

• Client ID
• Client Secret
• Athentication Target
• Data Extension External Key

What needs to be done with it:

Create a sample form integration that subscribes the user to a newsletter (i.e. one field) on a page written in PHP.

Use the following link for reference: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.mc-apis.meta/mc-apis/index-api.htm

I know a bit about PHP and how it connects with SQL so I will create a local version on a XAMPP server first. I've already created a developer account and downloaded the Force.com Toolkit for PHP (Version 20.0) and the PHP API starter kit.

My questions are as follows:

1. Do I have all the necessary data?

2. When and where do I use the data above?

3. Does the data somehow force a specific approach (SOAP or REST)?

4. Can I somehow test if I fail/succeed? I should send the answer via e-mail.

Answer 1

That will be quite easy. You actually don't even need to utilize any local DB. Assuming your PHP skills are adequate, you should have a look at the PHP SDK, which can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/salesforce-marketingcloud/FuelSDK-PHP

You should especially have a look at Create Subscriber example:

require('ET_Client.php');
$myclient = new ET_Client();
$subscriber = new ET_Subscriber();
$subscriber->authStub = $myclient;
$subscriber->props = array("EmailAddress" => "[email protected]", "SubscriberKey" => "SDKSubscriber");
$subscriber->props['Attributes'] = array(array('Name' => 'First Name', 'Value' => 'ExactTarget Example'));
$results = $subscriber->post();
print_r($results);

Which can be found here: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.mc-sdks.meta/mc-sdks/subscriber-create.htm

And yes - you have all the info you need. You will be able to use the $results to verify a succesful subscriber creation.

Good luck!