Step by Step Guide to Building a ChatGPT API Integration in PHP

Aug 1, 2024 • 5 minute read

Introduction

Hey there, fellow developer! Ready to dive into the world of AI-powered conversations? You're in the right place. We're about to embark on a journey to integrate ChatGPT into your PHP project using the nifty orhanerday/open-ai package. Buckle up, because this is going to be a fun ride!

Prerequisites

Before we jump in, make sure you've got these basics covered:

A PHP environment (you've got this, right?)
Composer installed (because who doesn't love dependency management?)
An OpenAI API key (if you don't have one, grab it here)

Installation

Let's kick things off by installing the orhanerday/open-ai package. Fire up your terminal and run:

composer require orhanerday/open-ai

Easy peasy, right?

Setting up the OpenAI Client

Now, let's get that OpenAI client up and running:

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

use Orhanerday\OpenAi\OpenAi;

$open_ai = new OpenAi('your-api-key-here');

Replace 'your-api-key-here' with your actual API key. Keep it secret, keep it safe!

Making API Requests

Time to make our first request to ChatGPT. Here's a simple example:

$chat = $open_ai->chat([
    'model' => 'gpt-3.5-turbo',
    'messages' => [
        [
            "role" => "user",
            "content" => "Hello, ChatGPT!"
        ]
    ],
    'temperature' => 1.0,
    'max_tokens' => 100,
    'frequency_penalty' => 0,
    'presence_penalty' => 0,
]);

$response = json_decode($chat);
echo $response->choices[0]->message->content;

Boom! You've just had your first conversation with ChatGPT.

Implementing Chat Functionality

Let's create a simple chat interface. Here's a basic HTML form and PHP script:

<form method="POST">
    <input type="text" name="message" placeholder="Type your message...">
    <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

<?php
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
    $user_message = $_POST['message'];
    
    $chat = $open_ai->chat([
        'model' => 'gpt-3.5-turbo',
        'messages' => [
            [
                "role" => "user",
                "content" => $user_message
            ]
        ],
    ]);

    $response = json_decode($chat);
    echo $response->choices[0]->message->content;
}

Advanced Features

Want to spice things up? Let's adjust some parameters:

$chat = $open_ai->chat([
    'model' => 'gpt-3.5-turbo',
    'messages' => [
        [
            "role" => "system",
            "content" => "You are a helpful assistant."
        ],
        [
            "role" => "user",
            "content" => $user_message
        ]
    ],
    'temperature' => 0.7,
    'max_tokens' => 150,
    'frequency_penalty' => 0.5,
    'presence_penalty' => 0.5,
]);

Play around with these values to see how they affect the responses!

Error Handling and Best Practices

Always wrap your API calls in try-catch blocks:

try {
    $chat = $open_ai->chat([/* ... */]);
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo "Oops! Something went wrong: " . $e->getMessage();
}

And don't forget about rate limits. Be a good API citizen!

Conclusion

And there you have it! You've successfully integrated ChatGPT into your PHP project. Pretty cool, huh? Remember, this is just the beginning. There's a whole world of possibilities out there. So go forth and create something awesome!

Resources

Happy coding, and may your conversations with ChatGPT be ever insightful!