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

Introduction

Hey there, fellow developer! Ready to supercharge your productivity with Workflowy? Let's dive into building a PHP integration with the Workflowy API. This powerful tool will let you manage your tasks and ideas programmatically. Exciting, right?

Prerequisites

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

• A PHP environment up and running (I know you've got this!)
• A Workflowy account with API access (if you don't have one, go grab it!)

Authentication

First things first, let's get you authenticated:

1. Head over to your Workflowy settings and snag that API key.
2. In your PHP script, set it up like this:

$api_key = 'your_api_key_here';
$headers = ['Authorization: Bearer ' . $api_key];

Basic API Requests

Now, let's make our first GET request:

$ch = curl_init('https://workflowy.com/api/v1/list');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$data = json_decode($response, true);

Easy peasy, right? You've just fetched your Workflowy list!

CRUD Operations

Let's get our hands dirty with some CRUD:

Create

$new_item = ['name' => 'New task', 'parent_id' => 'some_parent_id'];
$ch = curl_init('https://workflowy.com/api/v1/create');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($new_item));
// ... set headers and execute

Read

We've already done this in the GET request above!

Update

$update = ['id' => 'item_id', 'name' => 'Updated task'];
$ch = curl_init('https://workflowy.com/api/v1/update');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($update));
// ... set headers and execute

Delete

$delete = ['id' => 'item_id'];
$ch = curl_init('https://workflowy.com/api/v1/delete');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($delete));
// ... set headers and execute

Advanced Features

Want to level up? Try these:

• Add tags with #tag in the item name
• Share lists by updating the shared property
• Use the batch endpoint for bulk operations

Error Handling and Best Practices

Remember to:

• Respect rate limits (don't hammer the API!)
• Catch and handle API errors gracefully
• Use caching to optimize requests

Here's a quick error handling snippet:

if (curl_errno($ch)) {
    echo 'Curl error: ' . curl_error($ch);
} else {
    $http_code = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
    if ($http_code != 200) {
        echo 'API error: ' . $http_code;
    }
}

Example Integration

Let's put it all together with a simple task manager:

function addTask($name) {
    // Implementation
}

function completeTask($id) {
    // Implementation
}

function listTasks() {
    // Implementation
}

// Usage
addTask('Build awesome PHP integration');
listTasks();
completeTask('task_id');

Testing and Debugging

Don't forget to test your integration! Set up some unit tests and use var_dump() for debugging. If you hit a snag, check the API documentation or reach out to the community.

Conclusion

And there you have it! You've just built a Workflowy API integration in PHP. Pretty cool, huh? Remember, this is just the beginning. There's so much more you can do with this API. So go forth and build something awesome!

For more details, check out the Workflowy API documentation. Happy coding!