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This guide will help you get started with Contentstack PHP Utils SDK to build apps powered by Contentstack.

Prerequisites

• PHP version 5.5.0 or later

SDK Installation and Setup

To set up the Utils SDK in your PHP project, install it via gem:

composer require contentstack/utils

If you are using Contentstack PHP SDK, then “contentstack/utils” is already imported into your project.

Usage

Let’s learn how you can use Utils SDK to render embedded items.

Create Render Option:

To render embedded items on the front-end, use the renderOptions function, and define the UI elements you want to show in the front-end of your website, as shown in the example code below:

<?php  

declare(strict_types=1);  

namespace Sample\App;  
  
use Contentstack\Utils\Resource\EntryEmbedable;  
use Contentstack\Utils\Resource\RenderableInterface;  
use Contentstack\Utils\Resource\EmbeddedObject;  
use Contentstack\Utils\Model\Option;  
use Contentstack\Utils\Model\Metadata;  
use Contentstack\Utils\Enum\StyleType;
use Contentstack\Utils\Enum\NodeType;
use Contentstack\Utils\Enum\MarkType;

class  CustomOption  extends  Option {  
	function renderMark(MarkType $markType, string $text): string 
    {
        switch ($markType)
        {
            case MarkType::get(MarkType::BOLD):
                return "<b>".$text."</b>";
            default:
                return parent::renderMark($markType, $text);
        }
    }
    function renderNode(string $nodeType, object $node, string $innerHtml): string 
    {
        switch ($nodeType)
        {
            case "p":
                return "<p class='class-id'>".$innerHtml."</p>";
            case "h1":
                return "<h1 class='class-id'>".$innerHtml."</h1>";
            default:
                return parent::renderNode($nodeType, $node, $innerHtml);
        }
    }
	function renderOptions(array $embeddedObject, Metadata $metadata): string  
	{  
		switch ($metadata->getStyleType()) {  
			case StyleType::get(StyleType::BLOCK):  
				if ($metadata->contentTypeUID === 'product') {  
					return  "<div>  
							<h2 >".$embeddedObject["title"]."</h2>  
							<img src=".$embeddedObject["product_image"]["url"]. "alt=".$embeddedObject["product_image"]["title"]."/>  
							<p>".$embeddedObject["price"]."</p>  
							</div>"  
				}  
			case StyleType::get(StyleType::INLINE):  
				return  "<span><b>".$embeddedObject["title"]."</b> -".$embeddedObject["description"]."</span>";  
			case StyleType::get(StyleType::LINK):  
				return  "<a href=".$metadata->getAttribute("href")->value  
.">".$metadata->getText()."</a>"  
			case StyleType::get(StyleType::DISPLAY):  
				return  "<img src=".$metadata->getAttribute("src")->value." alt='".$metadata->getAttribute("alt")->value." />";  
			case StyleType::get(StyleType::DOWNLOAD):  
				return  "<a href=".$metadata->getAttribute("href")->value  
.">".$metadata->getText()."</a>"  
		}  
        return parent::renderOptions($embeddedObject, $metadata);
	}  
}

Basic Queries

Contentstack Utils SDK lets you interact with the Content Delivery APIs and retrieve embedded items from the RTE field of an entry.

Fetch Embedded Item(s) from a Single Entry:

Render HTML RTE Embedded object

To get an embedded item of a single entry, you need to provide the stack API key, environment name, delivery token, content type’s UID, and entry’s UID. Then, use the Contentstack::renderContent function as shown below:

use Contentstack\Contentstack;  
use Contentstack\Utils\Model\Option;  
  
$stack = Contentstack::Stack('<API_KEY>', '<ENVIRONMENT_SPECIFIC_DELIVERY_TOKEN>', '<ENVIRONMENT>');  
$entry = $stack->ContentType('<CONTENT_TYPE_UID>')->Entry('<ENTRY_UID>')->includeEmbeddedItems()->toJSON()->fetch();  
$render_rich_text = Contentstack::renderContent($entry['rte_field_uid'], new Option($entry));

If you want to render embedded items using the CustomOption function, you can refer to the code below:

$rendered_rich_text = Contentstack.renderContent($entry['rte_field_uid'], new CustomOption($entry));

Render Supercharged RTE contents

To get a single entry, you need to provide the stack API key, environment name, delivery token, content type and entry UID. Then, use Contentstack::jsonToHtml function as shown below:

use Contentstack\Contentstack;  
use Contentstack\Utils\Model\Option;  
  
$stack = Contentstack::Stack('<API_KEY>', '<ENVIRONMENT_SPECIFIC_DELIVERY_TOKEN>', '<ENVIRONMENT>');  
$entry = $stack->ContentType('<CONTENT_TYPE_UID>')->Entry('<ENTRY_UID>')->includeEmbeddedItems()->toJSON()->fetch();  
$render_rich_text = Contentstack::jsonToHtml($entry['rte_field_uid'], new Option($entry));

If you want to render embedded items using the CustomOption function, you can refer to the code below:

$rendered_rich_text = Contentstack.jsonToHtml($entry['rte_field_uid'], new CustomOption($entry));

Fetch Embedded Item(s) from Multiple Entries

Render HTML RTE Embedded object

To get embedded items from multiple entries, you need to provide the stack API key, environment name, delivery token, and content type’s UID.

use Contentstack\Contentstack;  
use Contentstack\Utils\Model\Option;  
  
$stack = Contentstack::Stack('<API_KEY>', '<ENVIRONMENT_SPECIFIC_DELIVERY_TOKEN>', '<ENVIRONMENT>');  
$result = $stack->ContentType('<CONTENT_TYPE_UID>')->Query()->toJSON()->includeEmbeddedItems()->find()  
for($i = 0; $i < count($result[0]); $i++) {  
	$entry = $result[0][$i];  
	$render_rich_text = Contentstack::renderContent($entry['rich_text_content'], new Option($entry));  
}

Render Supercharged RTE contents

To get a single entry, you need to provide the stack API key, environment name, delivery token, content type UID. Then, use Contentstack::jsonToHtml function as shown below:

use Contentstack\Contentstack;  
use Contentstack\Utils\Model\Option;  
  
$stack = Contentstack::Stack('<API_KEY>', '<ENVIRONMENT_SPECIFIC_DELIVERY_TOKEN>', '<ENVIRONMENT>');  
$result = $stack->ContentType('<CONTENT_TYPE_UID>')->Query()->toJSON()->includeEmbeddedItems()->find()  
for($i = 0; $i < count($result[0]); $i++) {  
	$entry = $result[0][$i];  
	$render_rich_text = Contentstack::jsonToHtml($entry['rich_text_content'], new Option($entry));  
}

GQL

To Convert JSON RTE content to HTML from GQL API. Use GQL::jsonToHtml function as shown below:

use Contentstack\Utils\GQL;
use Contentstack\Utils\Model\Option;  
// GQL fetch API
... 
	$render_html_text = GQL::jsonToHtml($entry->rich_text_content,, new Option());
...

Endpoint Resolution

The SDK ships with a built-in endpoint resolver that returns the correct Contentstack API URL for any region and any service — no hardcoded URLs needed.

How regions.json is provisioned

regions.json is not committed to your project. It is downloaded automatically:

# Refresh when Contentstack adds new regions or services
composer refresh-regions

getContentstackEndpoint()

Available on both Endpoint and Utils (identical behaviour):

use Contentstack\Utils\Endpoint;
use Contentstack\Utils\Utils;

Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint(string $region, string $service, bool $omitHttps): string|array
Utils::getContentstackEndpoint(string $region, string $service, bool $omitHttps): string|array

Supported Regions

Alias matching is case-insensitive and accepts both - and _ separators.

Available Service Keys

Examples

Get a single service URL

use Contentstack\Utils\Endpoint;

// AWS North America — Content Delivery
$url = Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('na', 'contentDelivery');
// → "https://cdn.contentstack.io"

// AWS Europe — Content Management
$url = Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('eu', 'contentManagement');
// → "https://eu-api.contentstack.com"

// Azure North America — GraphQL Delivery
$url = Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('azure-na', 'graphqlDelivery');
// → "https://azure-na-graphql.contentstack.com"

// GCP Europe — Auth
$url = Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('gcp-eu', 'auth');
// → "https://gcp-eu-auth-api.contentstack.com"

Use an alias instead of the canonical ID

// All of these return the same NA content delivery URL
Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('us',     'contentDelivery'); // → https://cdn.contentstack.io
Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('na',     'contentDelivery'); // → https://cdn.contentstack.io
Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('aws-na', 'contentDelivery'); // → https://cdn.contentstack.io
Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('AWS_NA', 'contentDelivery'); // → https://cdn.contentstack.io

Get a URL without the https:// scheme

Pass true as the third argument when you need just the hostname (e.g. for Stack::setHost()):

$host = Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('eu', 'contentDelivery', true);
// → "eu-cdn.contentstack.com"

Get all endpoints for a region

Omit the $service argument to receive the full associative array:

$endpoints = Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('au');
// → [
//     'contentDelivery'    => 'https://au-cdn.contentstack.com',
//     'contentManagement'  => 'https://au-api.contentstack.com',
//     'graphqlDelivery'    => 'https://au-graphql.contentstack.com',
//     'auth'               => 'https://au-auth-api.contentstack.com',
//     ...17 more keys
//   ]

// With omitHttps
$hosts = Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('au', '', true);
// → [
//     'contentDelivery'   => 'au-cdn.contentstack.com',
//     'contentManagement' => 'au-api.contentstack.com',
//     ...
//   ]

Via Utils (same result, no import change needed)

use Contentstack\Utils\Utils;

$url = Utils::getContentstackEndpoint('gcp-na', 'contentDelivery');
// → "https://gcp-na-cdn.contentstack.com"

Integration with the PHP Delivery SDK

Use getContentstackEndpoint() to resolve the host dynamically, then pass it to Stack::setHost():

use Contentstack\Contentstack;
use Contentstack\Utils\Endpoint;

$region = 'eu'; // change this one value to switch regions

// Resolve the content delivery host for the chosen region
$host = Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint($region, 'contentDelivery', true);
// → "eu-cdn.contentstack.com"

// Initialise the delivery SDK
$stack = Contentstack::Stack('<API_KEY>', '<DELIVERY_TOKEN>', '<ENVIRONMENT>');
$stack->setHost($host);

// Fetch entries — all requests now go to the EU CDN
$result = $stack->ContentType('<CONTENT_TYPE_UID>')->Query()->toJSON()->find();

Switching regions without changing any other code

$regions = ['na', 'eu', 'au', 'azure-na', 'azure-eu', 'gcp-na', 'gcp-eu'];

foreach ($regions as $region) {
    $host  = Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint($region, 'contentDelivery', true);
    $stack = Contentstack::Stack('<API_KEY>', '<DELIVERY_TOKEN>', '<ENVIRONMENT>');
    $stack->setHost($host);

    $result = $stack->ContentType('<CONTENT_TYPE_UID>')->Query()->toJSON()->find();
    echo "{$region}: " . count($result[0]) . " entries\n";
}

Error Handling

use Contentstack\Utils\Endpoint;

// Empty region
try {
    Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('');
} catch (\InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    // → "Empty region provided. Please put valid region."
}

// Unknown region
try {
    Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('unknown-region', 'contentDelivery');
} catch (\InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    // → "Invalid region: unknown-region"
}

// Unknown service
try {
    Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('na', 'unknownService');
} catch (\InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    // → "Service "unknownService" not found for region "na""
}

// regions.json missing and no network access
try {
    Endpoint::getContentstackEndpoint('na', 'contentDelivery');
} catch (\RuntimeException $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    // → "contentstack/utils: regions.json not found and could not be downloaded.
    //    Run "composer install" or "composer refresh-regions" and ensure network access."
}