viavario/ecadclient

A PHP client for searching Belgian healthcare professionals by their name.

1.0.1 2026-03-14 00:14 UTC

Requires

• php: ^7.4|^8.0
• ext-curl: *
• psr/simple-cache: ^1.0

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: ^9.6

MIT

• Vincent Verbruggen

README

A lightweight PHP client for searching Belgian healthcare professionals via the public eCad API.

Requirements

• PHP ^7.4 | ^8.0
• Extensions: ext-curl, ext-dom
• psr/simple-cache (installed automatically via Composer)

Installation

composer require viavario/ecadclient

What this library does

EcadClient

EcadClient is responsible for:

• retrieving professions (getProfessions())
• retrieving disciplines (getDisciplines())
• searching healthcare professionals by name and optional filters (search())
• optional caching (PSR-16 CacheInterface)

It communicates with:

• https://apps.health.belgium.be/ecad-public-search-rs/professionals
• https://apps.health.belgium.be/ecad-public-search-rs/ref-data/professions
• https://apps.health.belgium.be/ecad-public-search-rs/ref-data/disciplines

Data objects

The client maps API responses to:

• EcadResult
• EcadProfession
• EcadDiscipline

Each provides a toArray() method for easier export/serialization.

Optional file-based cache

This package includes viavario\ecadclient\Cache\FileCache, a simple PSR-16 file cache implementation.

You can pass any PSR-16 cache to EcadClient, including this one.

Usage

Basic search

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use viavario\ecadclient\EcadClient;

$client = new EcadClient();

$results = $client->search('John', 'Doe');

if (empty($results)) {
    echo "No healthcare professionals found." . PHP_EOL;
    exit;
}

foreach ($results as $result) {
    echo $result->firstname . ' ' . $result->lastname . PHP_EOL;
    echo 'Profession: ' . ($result->profession->description['textFr'] ?? $result->profession->description['textNl'] ?? $result->profession->code) . PHP_EOL;
    echo 'Visa date: ' . $result->visa['dateFrom']->format('Y-m-d') . PHP_EOL;
    echo PHP_EOL;
}

Search with profession and discipline filters

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use viavario\ecadclient\EcadClient;

$client = new EcadClient();

$professionId = 1;         // Example ID (must exist in getProfessions())
$disciplineIds = [10, 12]; // Example IDs (must exist in getDisciplines())

$results = $client->search('Jane', 'Smith', $professionId, $disciplineIds);

Using the built-in file cache

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use viavario\ecadclient\Cache\FileCache;
use viavario\ecadclient\EcadClient;

$cache = new FileCache(__DIR__ . '/var/cache/ecad', 3600); // cache for 1 hour
$client = new EcadClient($cache, 86400); // metadata cache TTL: 24h

$professions = $client->getProfessions(); // cached
$disciplines = $client->getDisciplines(); // cached

API

EcadClient

__construct(?Psr\SimpleCache\CacheInterface $cache = null, int $ttl = 86400)

• $cache: optional PSR-16 cache implementation
• $ttl: cache TTL in seconds for professions/disciplines lists

getProfessions(bool $refresh = false): array<int, EcadProfession>

Fetches all professions. Uses cache unless $refresh = true.

getDisciplines(bool $refresh = false): array<int, EcadDiscipline>

Fetches all disciplines. Uses cache unless $refresh = true.

search(?string $firstname = null, ?string $lastname = null, ?int $professionId = null, ?array $disciplineIds = null): ?array

Searches professionals and returns an array of EcadResult objects (or null).

Throws:

• \InvalidArgumentException for invalid profession/discipline IDs
• \RuntimeException for HTTP/cURL/JSON errors

EcadResult properties

• $lastname (string)
• $firstname (string)
• $profession (EcadProfession)
• $disciplines (EcadDiscipline[])
• $visa (array{dateFrom: \DateTime, dispensation: bool})
• $practiceAddress (array<int, array>)

EcadProfession properties

• $id (int|string)
• $categoryCd (string)
• $code (string)
• $description (array{textFr: string, textNl: string})

EcadDiscipline properties

• $id (int|string)
• $typeC (string)
• $professionCategoryCd (string)
• $businessTypeCode (string)
• $description (array{textFr: string, textNl: string})

Development

Install dependencies:

composer install

Run tests:

./vendor/bin/phpunit

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

Disclaimer

This package depends on public eCad API behavior and response format. If upstream endpoints or payloads change, client updates may be required.