Get Started with PHP Utils Library

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Last updated September 8, 2026

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::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();
$render_rich_text = Contentstack::renderContent($entry['rich_text_content'], 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($entry['rich_text_content'], new CustomOption($entry));

Render JSON 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 the 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();  
$json_rte = json_decode(json_encode($entry['rte_field_uid']));
$render_rich_text = Contentstack::jsonToHtml($json_rte, 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

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 JSON RTE Contents

To get a single entry, you need to provide the stack API key, environment name, delivery token, content type UID. Then, use the 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];  
    $json_rte = json_decode(json_encode($entry['rich_text_content']));
    $render_rich_text = Contentstack::jsonToHtml($json_rte, new Option($entry));  
}

Resolve Embedded Item Metadata

The SDK resolves embedded entry and asset metadata from the _embedded_items object in the API response and exposes the resolved values at node.attrs._resolved. Read resolved values from there so that your rendered output reflects the current state of the embedded item. The legacy node.attrs['asset-link'] property, and the equivalent properties for other node types, remain readable as a soft-deprecated fallback.

Note The includeEmbeddedItems() method retrieves first-level embedded items only. To retrieve embedded items that are nested inside other embedded items, request the entry directly through the Content Delivery API with include_embedded_items[]=RECURSIVE.

Additional Resources

  • Refer to Embed Entries or Assets to understand how embedded item data is stored and resolved.
  • Refer to CDA | Entries for the include_embedded_items[] and embedded_items_depth parameter reference.