UniFi Controller API client class

A PHP class that provides access to Ubiquiti's UniFi Network Application API.

This class is used by our API Browser tool, which can be found here.

The package can be installed manually or by using composer/packagist for easy inclusion in your projects. See the installation instructions below for more details.

Supported Versions

Software	Versions
UniFi Network Application/controller	5.x.x, 6.x.x, 7.x.x, 8.x.x (8.6.9 is confirmed)
UniFi OS	3.x, 4.x (4.1.9 is confirmed)

Requirements

• a server with:
  • PHP 7.4.0 or higher (use version 1.1.83 for PHP 7.3.x and lower)
  • PHP json and PHP cURL modules enabled
• direct network connectivity between this server and the host and port (usually TCP port 8443 or port 443 for UniFi OS) where the UniFi Controller is running
• you must use an account with local access permissions to access the UniFi Controller API through this class
• do not use UniFi Cloud accounts and do not enable 2FA for the accounts that you use with this class

UniFi OS Support

Besides the "software-based" UniFi controllers, this class also supports UniFi OS-based controllers starting from version 1.1.47.

These devices/services have been verified to work:

• UniFi Dream Router (UDR)
• UniFi Dream Machine (UDM)
• UniFi Dream Machine Pro (UDM PRO)
• UniFi Cloud Key Gen2 (UCK G2), firmware version 2.0.24 or higher
• UniFi Cloud Key Gen2 Plus (UCK G2 Plus), firmware version 2.0.24 or higher
• UniFi Express (UX)
• UniFi Dream Wall (UDW)
• UniFi Cloud Gateway Ultra (UCG-Ultra)
• UniFi CloudKey Enterprise (CK-Enterprise)
• UniFi Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG)
• Official UniFi Hosting, details here

The class automatically detects UniFi OS consoles and adjusts the URLs and several functions/methods accordingly.

UniFi OS-based controllers require you to connect using port 443 instead of 8443 which is used for "software-based" controllers. If your own code implements strict validation of the URL that is passed to the constructor, please adapt your logic to allow URLs without a port suffix or with port 443 when working with a UniFi OS-based controller.

Remote API access to UniFi OS-based controllers

When connecting to a UniFi OS-based gateway through the WAN interface, you need to create a specific firewall rule to allow this. See this blog post on the Art of WiFi website for more details: https://artofwifi.net/blog/how-to-access-the-unifi-controller-by-wan-ip-or-hostname-on-a-udm-pro

The "custom firewall rule" approach described there is the recommended method.

Upgrading from previous versions

When upgrading from a version before 2.0.0, please:

• change your code to use the new Exceptions that are thrown by the class
• test the client with your code for any breaking changes
• make sure you are using Composer to install the class because the code is no longer held within a single file

Installation

Use Composer or Git to install the API client class.

Composer

The preferred installation method is through Composer. Follow these installation instructions if you don't have Composer installed already.

Once Composer is installed, execute this command from the shell in your project directory:

composer require art-of-wifi/unifi-api-client

Or manually add the package to your composer.json file:

{
    "require": {
        "art-of-wifi/unifi-api-client": "^2.0"
    }
}

Finally, be sure to include the composer autoloader in your code if your framework doesn't already do this for you:

/**
 * load the class using the composer autoloader
 */
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

Git

Execute the following git command from the shell in your project directory:

git clone https://github.com/Art-of-WiFi/UniFi-API-client.git

When git is done cloning, include the file containing the class like so in your code:

/**
 * load the class directly instead of using the composer autoloader
 */
require_once 'path/to/src/Client.php';

Example usage

A basic example of how to use the class:

/**
 * load the class using the composer autoloader
 */
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

/**
 * initialize the UniFi API connection class, log in to the controller and request the alarms collection
 * (this example assumes you have already assigned the correct values to the variables used)
 */
$unifi_connection = new UniFi_API\Client($controller_user, $controller_password, $controller_url, $site_id, $controller_version, true);
$login            = $unifi_connection->login();
$results          = $unifi_connection->list_alarms(); // returns a PHP array containing alarm objects

IMPORTANT NOTES:

1. In the above example, $site_id is the short site "name" (usually 8 characters long) that is visible in the URL when managing the site in the UniFi Network Controller. For example, with this URL:

   https://<controller IP address or FQDN>:8443/manage/site/jl3z2shm/dashboard

   jl3z2shm is the short site "name" and the value to assign to $site_id.

2. The 6th optional parameter that is passed to the constructor in the above example (true), enables validation of the controller's SSL certificate, which is otherwise disabled by default. It is highly recommended to enable this feature in production environments where you have a valid SSL cert installed on the UniFi Controller that is associated with the FQDN in the controller_url parameter. This option was added with API client version 1.1.16.

3. Using an administrator account ($controller_user in the above example) with read-only permissions can limit visibility on certain collection/object properties. See this issue and this issue for an example where the WPA2 password isn't visible for read-only administrator accounts.

Exception handling

The class now throws Exceptions for various error conditions instead of using PHP's trigger_error() function. This allows for more granular error handling in your application code.

Here is an example of how to catch these Exceptions:

<?php
/**
 * PHP API usage example with Exception handling
 */
use UniFi_API\Exceptions\CurlExtensionNotLoadedException;
use UniFi_API\Exceptions\CurlGeneralErrorException;
use UniFi_API\Exceptions\CurlTimeoutException;
use UniFi_API\Exceptions\InvalidBaseUrlException;
use UniFi_API\Exceptions\InvalidSiteNameException;
use UniFi_API\Exceptions\JsonDecodeException;
use UniFi_API\Exceptions\LoginFailedException;
use UniFi_API\Exceptions\LoginRequiredException;

/**
 * load the class using the composer autoloader
 */
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

/**
 * include the config file (place your credentials etc. there if not already present)
 */
require_once 'config.php';

/**
 * initialize the UniFi API connection class, log in to the controller and request the alarms collection
 * (this example assumes you have already assigned the correct values to the variables in config.php)
 */
try {
    $unifi_connection = new UniFi_API\Client($controller_user, $controller_password, $controller_url, $site_id, $controller_version, true);
    $login            = $unifi_connection->login();
    $results          = $unifi_connection->list_alarms(); // returns a PHP array containing alarm objects
} catch (CurlExtensionNotLoadedException $e) {
    echo 'CurlExtensionNotLoadedException: ' . $e->getMessage(). PHP_EOL;
} catch (InvalidBaseUrlException $e) {
    echo 'InvalidBaseUrlException: ' . $e->getMessage(). PHP_EOL;
} catch (InvalidSiteNameException $e) {
    echo 'InvalidSiteNameException: ' . $e->getMessage(). PHP_EOL;
} catch (JsonDecodeException $e) {
    echo 'JsonDecodeException: ' . $e->getMessage(). PHP_EOL;
} catch (LoginRequiredException $e) {
    echo 'LoginRequiredException: ' . $e->getMessage(). PHP_EOL;
} catch (CurlGeneralErrorException $e) {
    echo 'CurlGeneralErrorException: ' . $e->getMessage(). PHP_EOL;
} catch (CurlTimeoutException $e) {
    echo 'CurlTimeoutException: ' . $e->getMessage(). PHP_EOL;
} catch (LoginFailedException $e) {
    echo 'LoginFailedException: ' . $e->getMessage(). PHP_EOL;
} catch (Exception $e) {
    /** catch any other Exceptions that might be thrown */
    echo 'General Exception: ' . $e->getMessage(). PHP_EOL;
}

Although the PHP DocBlocks for most public methods/functions contain @throws Exception, it is recommended to catch other specific Exceptions that can be thrown by the API Client class to provide more detailed error messages to your application code.

In most cases, the class will let Exceptions bubble up to the calling code, but in some cases it will catch them and throw a new Exception with a more specific message.

The list_alarms.php example in the examples/ directory is a good starting point to see how you can implement Exception handling.

Functions/methods supported

The class currently supports a large and growing number of functions/methods to access the UniFi Controller API. Please refer to the comments/PHP DocBlocks in the source code for more details on each of the functions/methods, their purpose, and their respective parameters.

If you are using an advanced IDE such as PHPStorm or VS Code, you can use its code completion and other features to explore the available functions/methods thanks to the extensive PHP DocBlocks throughout the code.

Looking for version 1.x.x?

With versions 1.x.x of the API client, the code was contained within a single file which can be useful in specific cases. This has changed with version 2.0.0 where the code is now split into multiple files and is managed using composer.

If you are looking for the version 1.x.x code, you can tell composer to install that version by using the following syntax in your composer.json file:

{
    "require": {
        "art-of-wifi/unifi-api-client": "^1.1"
    }
}

Alternatively, you can download the latest 1.x.x code from the releases page.

Need help or have suggestions?

There is still work to be done to add functionality and further improve the usability of this class, so all suggestions/comments are welcome. Please use the GitHub Issues section or the Ubiquiti Community forums (https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Wireless/PHP-class-to-access-the-UniFi-controller-API-updates-and/td-p/1512870) to share your suggestions and questions.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

When encountering issues with the UniFi API using other libraries, cURL or Postman, please do not open an Issue. Such issues will be closed immediately. Please use the Discussions section instead.

Credits

This class is based on the initial work by the following developers:

• domwo: https://community.ui.com/questions/little-php-class-for-unifi-api/933d3fb3-b401-4499-993a-f9af079a4a3a
• fbagnol: https://github.com/fbagnol/class.unifi.php

and the API as published by Ubiquiti:

• https://dl.ui.com/unifi/8.6.9/unifi_sh_api

Contributors

A big thanks to all the contributors who have helped with this project!

If you would like to contribute to this project, please open an issue and include your suggestions or code there or else create a pull request.

Important Disclaimer

Many of the functions in this API client class are not officially supported by Ubiquiti and as such, may not be supported in future versions of the UniFi Controller API.