README

Ably Pub/Sub PHP Laravel SDK

Build using Ably’s Pub/Sub PHP Laravel SDK, supported on all popular platforms and frameworks.

This Laravel package provides a clean integration with the Ably PHP SDK. It includes a Facade and an injectable AblyService that wrap a singleton Ably instance, with configuration automatically loaded from your environment variables or config files. Additionally, the AblyFactory class lets you create new Ably instances with custom parameters when needed.

This SDK provides REST-only functionality for Laravel. For full-featured Laravel integration including real-time capabilities, Ably recommend using Ably's Laravel Broadcaster.

Ably Pub/Sub provides flexible APIs that deliver features such as pub-sub messaging, message history, presence, and push notifications. Utilizing Ably’s realtime messaging platform, applications benefit from its highly performant, reliable, and scalable infrastructure.

Find out more:

Getting started

Everything you need to get started with Ably:

Supported platforms

Ably aims to support a wide range of platforms. If you experience any compatibility issues, open an issue in the repository or contact Ably support.

The PHP client library currently targets the Ably 1.1 client library specification.

Note

See laravel-broadcaster, if you're using Laravel and want to support Realtime broadcasting and events.

Important

PHP SDK versions < 1.1.9 will be deprecated from November 1, 2025.

Installation

Install the package using Composer:

composer require ably/ably-php-laravel

Add the service provider in config/app.php to the providers array.

Ably\Laravel\AblyServiceProvider::class

Optionally add a reference to the facade in config/app.php to the aliases array.

'Ably' => Ably\Laravel\Facades\Ably::class

Configuration

After registering the service provider, publish the configuration file using Artisan:

php artisan vendor:publish

Update the created file config/ably.php with your key or other options. You can also set the key using an environment variable named ABLY_KEY.

Usage

The following sections demonstrates two ways to use Ably in Laravel: via a Facade or through dependency injection.

Facade

Use the Laravel facade to access the Ably client.

Facade usage details.

The facade always returns a singleton instance created with options defined in the config file. Any methods available on an AblyRest class are available through the facade. Due to PHP limitations, properties must be accessed as methods, for example Ably::auth()):

use Ably;

echo Ably::time(); // 1467884220000
$token = Ably::auth()->requestToken([ 'clientId' => 'client123', ]); // Ably\Models\TokenDetails
Ably::channel('testChannel')->publish('testEvent', 'testPayload', 'testClientId');

Dependency injection

Use the dependency injection to access the Ably client.

Dependency injection usage details.

You can use Ably\Laravel\AblyService instead of the facade, which acts as a 1:1 wrapper for an AblyRest singleton instance created with default options. Ably\Laravel\AblyFactory lets you instantiate new AblyRest instances with (optional) custom options.

use Ably\Laravel\AblyService;
use Ably\Laravel\AblyFactory;

function ablyExamples(AblyService $ably, AblyFactory $ablyFactory) {
	echo $ably->time(); // 1467884220000
	echo $ably->auth->clientId; // null
	$tokenDetails = $ably->auth->requestToken([ 'clientId' => 'client123', ]); // Ably\Models\TokenDetails
	$ably->channel('testChannel')->publish('testEvent', 'testPayload', 'testClientId');

	$ablyClient = $ablyFactory->make([ 'tokenDetails' => $tokenDetails ]);
	echo $ablyClient->auth->clientId; // 'client123'
}

Releases

The CHANGELOG.md contains details of the latest releases for this SDK. You can also view all Ably releases on changelog.ably.com.

Contributing

Read the CONTRIBUTING.md guidelines to contribute to Ably.

Support, feedback, and troubleshooting

For help or technical support, visit the Ably Support page.

Ably REST API

This SDK currently supports only the Ably REST API. If you need to subscribe to realtime events in PHP, consider using the MQTT adapter to leverage Ably's Realtime features.

ably / ably-php-laravel

Maintainers

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