Gitlab is a great alternative to Github or BitBucket, they offer free private and public repositories which is great when working with a team, I’ve recently started using Gitlab for a private project, where I need to download private repositories to the project server and extract their contents.

Github offers a great API http://doc.gitlab.com/ee/api/

To get started with their API you need a private token. Your token can be found inside your account page https://gitlab.com/profile/account

All API requests require authentication. You need to pass a private_token parameter via query string or header. If passed as a header, the header name must be PRIVATE-TOKEN (uppercase and with a dash instead of an underscore). You can find or reset your private token in your account page (/profile/account).

To use the API the token must be passed in all requests, for get requests its as simple as ?private_token=yourtoken

In order to download the repository it’s id is needed. A list of repositories can be seen by going to 

https://gitlab.com/api/v3/projects?private_token=yourtoken 

Other options can be passed such as looking at private repositories only and ordering them by name: 

https://gitlab.com/api/v3/projects?private_token=yourtoken&visibility=private&order_by=name 

This will give you a list of projects:

[
  {
    "id": 4,
    "description": null,
    "default_branch": "master",
    "public": false,
    "visibility_level": 0,
    "ssh_url_to_repo": "git@example.com:diaspora/diaspora-client.git",
    "http_url_to_repo": "http://example.com/diaspora/diaspora-client.git",
    "web_url": "http://example.com/diaspora/diaspora-client",
    "tag_list": [
      "example",
      "disapora client"
    ],
    "owner": {
      "id": 3,
      "name": "Diaspora",
      "created_at": "2013-09-30T13: 46: 02Z"
    },
    "name": "Diaspora Client",
    "name_with_namespace": "Diaspora / Diaspora Client",
    "path": "diaspora-client",
    "path_with_namespace": "diaspora/diaspora-client",
    "issues_enabled": true,
    "open_issues_count": 1,
    "merge_requests_enabled": true,
    "builds_enabled": true,
    "wiki_enabled": true,
    "snippets_enabled": false,
    "created_at": "2013-09-30T13: 46: 02Z",
    "last_activity_at": "2013-09-30T13: 46: 02Z",
    "creator_id": 3,
    "namespace": {
      "created_at": "2013-09-30T13: 46: 02Z",
      "description": "",
      "id": 3,
      "name": "Diaspora",
      "owner_id": 1,
      "path": "diaspora",
      "updated_at": "2013-09-30T13: 46: 02Z"
    },
    "archived": false,
    "avatar_url": "http://example.com/uploads/project/avatar/4/uploads/avatar.png",
    "shared_runners_enabled": true,
    "forks_count": 0,
    "star_count": 0,
    "runners_token": "b8547b1dc37721d05889db52fa2f02",
    "public_builds": true
  },
  {
    "id": 6,
    "description": null,
    "default_branch": "master",
    "public": false,
    "visibility_level": 0,
    "ssh_url_to_repo": "git@example.com:brightbox/puppet.git",
    "http_url_to_repo": "http://example.com/brightbox/puppet.git",
    "web_url": "http://example.com/brightbox/puppet",
    "tag_list": [
      "example",
      "puppet"
    ],
    "owner": {
      "id": 4,
      "name": "Brightbox",
      "created_at": "2013-09-30T13:46:02Z"
    },
    "name": "Puppet",
    "name_with_namespace": "Brightbox / Puppet",
    "path": "puppet",
    "path_with_namespace": "brightbox/puppet",
    "issues_enabled": true,
    "open_issues_count": 1,
    "merge_requests_enabled": true,
    "builds_enabled": true,
    "wiki_enabled": true,
    "snippets_enabled": false,
    "created_at": "2013-09-30T13:46:02Z",
    "last_activity_at": "2013-09-30T13:46:02Z",
    "creator_id": 3,
    "namespace": {
      "created_at": "2013-09-30T13:46:02Z",
      "description": "",
      "id": 4,
      "name": "Brightbox",
      "owner_id": 1,
      "path": "brightbox",
      "updated_at": "2013-09-30T13:46:02Z"
    },
    "permissions": {
      "project_access": {
        "access_level": 10,
        "notification_level": 3
      },
      "group_access": {
        "access_level": 50,
        "notification_level": 3
      }
    },
    "archived": false,
    "avatar_url": null,
    "shared_runners_enabled": true,
    "forks_count": 0,
    "star_count": 0,
    "runners_token": "b8547b1dc37721d05889db52fa2f02",
    "public_builds": true
  }
]

The id is what’s important here so make a note of the id for the project that will be used.

To then download the repository pass the id to /projects/:id so /projects/6 followed by your token:

https://gitlab.com/api/v3/projects/6/repository/archive?private_token=yourtoken

Now to use this in a php script:

Set a name for the local tar.gz file to be used, I use temp as it will be deleted once finished.

Next use file_get_contents to download the file from the api and save it to $name notice the .tar.gz on the end.

//set file name
$name = 'temp';

//download contents file the above filename with .tar.gz appended. 
//Remember to replace your id and token
file_put_contents($name.'.tar.gz', fopen("https://gitlab.com/api/v3/projects/id/repository/archive?private_token=your_token_here", 'r'));

Next unpack the .tar.gz file this creates a .tar file so unpack that too.

// decompress from gz
$p = new \PharData($zipname.'.tar.gz');
$p->decompress(); // creates files.tar

// unarchive from the tar
$phar = new \PharData($zipname.'.tar');
$phar->extractTo('folder/to/extract/to/', null, true); // extract all files, and overwrite

The packed files are no longer needed to delete them.

//delete temp.tar.gz
if (file_exists($zipname.'.tar.gz')) {
    unlink($zipname.'.tar.gz');
}

//delete temp.tar
if (file_exists($zipname.'.tar')) {
    unlink($zipname.'.tar');
}

This leaves a folder with a name similar to this: projectname-master- followed by a long string, to have the folder only containing the fodler name ie projectname:

$dirs = glob('folder/files/extracted/to/*');
//loop through them
foreach ($dirs as $dir) {
    //if is a directory
    if (is_dir($dir)) {
        //explode the name where there is a -
        $parts = explode('-', $dir);
        //if the name does not exist ie there is no projectname only projectname-master-3r3rr4
        if (!file_exists($parts[0])) {
            //rename to lose everything after and including the -
            rename($dir, $parts[0]);
        }
    }
}

Putting it all together:

//set file name
$name = 'temp';

//download contents file the above filename with .tar.gz appended. 
//Remember to replace your id and token
file_put_contents($name.'.tar.gz', fopen("https://gitlab.com/api/v3/projects/id/repository/archive?private_token=your_token_here", 'r'));

// decompress from gz
$p = new \PharData($zipname.'.tar.gz');
$p->decompress(); // creates files.tar

// unarchive from the tar
$phar = new \PharData($zipname.'.tar');
$phar->extractTo('folder/to/extract/to/', null, true); // extract all files, and overwrite

//delete temp.tar.gz
if (file_exists($zipname.'.tar.gz')) {
    unlink($zipname.'.tar.gz');
}

//delete temp.tar
if (file_exists($zipname.'.tar')) {
    unlink($zipname.'.tar');
}

$dirs = glob('folder/files/extracted/to/*');
//loop through them
foreach ($dirs as $dir) {
    //if is a directory
    if (is_dir($dir)) {
        //explode the name where there is a -
        $parts = explode('-', $dir);
        //if the name does not exist ie there is no projectname only projectname-master-3r3rr4
        if (!file_exists($parts[0])) {
            //rename to lose everything after and including the -
            rename($dir, $parts[0]);
        }
    }
}