How to Manage DNS Records Using Cloudflare API in PHP

Connect to Cloudflare API

To begin managing DNS records via the Cloudflare API using PHP, you need to establish a connection. This involves making HTTP requests to their API endpoints.

$apiToken = 'YOUR_API_TOKEN';
$endpoint = 'https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/';
$headers = [
    'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiToken,
    'Content-Type: application/json'
];

Fetch DNS Records

To manage existing DNS records, you first need to fetch them. Use the GET request to retrieve records.

$zoneId = 'YOUR_ZONE_ID';
$url = $endpoint . 'zones/' . $zoneId . '/dns_records';

$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$dnsRecords = json_decode($response, true);

Create a DNS Record

To add a new DNS record to your domain, you can perform a POST request.

$record = [
    'type' => 'A',
    'name' => 'subdomain.example.com',
    'content' => '192.0.2.1',
    'ttl' => 120,
    'proxied' => false
];

$url = $endpoint . 'zones/' . $zoneId . '/dns_records';
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($record));

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$result = json_decode($response, true);

Update an Existing DNS Record

If you need to update an existing DNS record, identify it by its recordId, then perform a PUT request.

$recordId = 'YOUR_RECORD_ID';
$updatedRecord = [
    'type' => 'A',
    'name' => 'subdomain.example.com',
    'content' => '203.0.113.5',
    'ttl' => 120,
    'proxied' => false
];

$url = $endpoint . 'zones/' . $zoneId . '/dns_records/' . $recordId;
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'PUT');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($updatedRecord));

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$result = json_decode($response, true);

Delete a DNS Record

To delete a DNS record, use the DELETE HTTP method and the specific recordId.

$recordId = 'YOUR_RECORD_ID';

$url = $endpoint . 'zones/' . $zoneId . '/dns_records/' . $recordId;
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'DELETE');

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$result = json_decode($response, true);

Handle API Errors

While interacting with the Cloudflare API, handle potential errors gracefully by checking the response codes and messages.

if ($result['success']) {
    echo 'Operation was successful!';
} else {
    echo 'Error: ' . $result['errors'][0]['message'];
}

Security Considerations

• Store API tokens securely using environment variables or a secure vault, to avoid hardcoding them directly into your scripts.

 

• Handle HTTP responses carefully to avoid exposing sensitive information in the event of an error.