Square PHP SDK Quickstart

Learn how to quickly set up and test the Square PHP SDK.

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Prepare for the Quickstart

Before you begin, you need a Square account and account credentials. You use the Square Sandbox for the Quickstart exercise.

  1. Create a Square account and an application. For more information, see Create an Account and Application.

  2. Get a Sandbox access token from the Developer Dashboard. For more information, see Make your First API Call.

  3. Install the following:

    • PHP - Square supports PHP versions 7.4 to 8.1.
    • Composer - Used for dependency management.
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Create a project

  1. Open a new terminal window. Create a new directory for your project, and then go to that directory.

    mkdir quickstart cd ./quickstart
  2. Install the Square PHP SDK.

    composer require square/square
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Write code

  1. In your project directory, create a new file named quickstart.php with the following content:

  2. Save the quickstart.php file.

    This code does the following:

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Set your Square credentials

The PHP code in this Quickstart reads your Square Sandbox access token from the SQUARE_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variable. This helps avoid the use of hardcoded credentials in the code.

For the following commands, replace yourSandboxAccessToken with your Square Sandbox access token:

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Linux or macOS

export SQUARE_ACCESS_TOKEN=yourSandboxAccessToken
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Windows: PowerShell

Set-item -Path Env:SQUARE_ACCESS_TOKEN -Value yourSandboxAccessToken
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Windows: Command shell

set SQUARE_ACCESS_TOKEN=yourSandboxAccessToken
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Run the application

  1. PHP ships with a built-in web server for testing purposes. Start the web server as follows:

    php -S localhost:8000
  2. Open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8000/quickstart.php.

  3. Verify the result. You should see at least one location (Square creates one location when you create a Square account).

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See also