> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.2checkout.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.2checkout.com/soap-api-reference/soap-api-6.0/api-requests/customer/retrieve-customer.md).

# Retrieve customer

Use the **getCustomerInformation** method to retrieve the details of a customer entity from the 2Checkout system.

## Request parameters

<table><thead><tr><th width="252.4000244140625">Parameter</th><th>Type / Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><code>sessionID</code></td><td><strong>Required (string)</strong><br>Session identifier, the output of the <strong>Login</strong> method. Include <code>sessionID</code> into all your requests. 2Checkout throws an exception if the values are incorrect. The <code>sessionID</code> expires in <strong>10 minutes</strong>.</td></tr><tr><td><code>CustomerReference</code></td><td><strong>Required (int)</strong><br>System-generated customer reference. Required unless you prefer to use <code>ExternalCustomerReference</code>.</td></tr><tr><td><code>ExternalCustomerReference</code></td><td><strong>Optional (string)</strong><br>External customer reference that you control. Optional when you use <code>CustomerReference</code>. If you include it, it needs to belong to the same customer as the <code>CustomerReference</code>.</td></tr><tr><td><code>IncludePaymentData</code></td><td><strong>Boolean</strong>
<br>Indicates if the customer payment data should be returned within the ExistingCards property. Default value is <strong>FALSE</strong>.</td></tr></tbody></table>

### Request sample

```php
<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

class Configuration
{
    public const MERCHANT_CODE = 'MERCHANT_CODE';
    public const MERCHANT_KEY = 'SECRET_KEY';
    public const URL = 'http://api.2checkout.com/soap/6.0';
    public const ACTION = 'getCustomerInformation';
    public const CUSTOMER_REF = '1111';
    public const INCLUDE_PAYMENT_DATA = true;
    //array or JSON
    public const PAYLOAD = null;

}

class Client
{
    public function call(
        string $url = Configuration::URL,
        $payload = Configuration::PAYLOAD,
        string $action = Configuration::ACTION
    ): ?object {
        if (is_array($payload)) {
            $payload = json_encode($payload);
        }
        if (!empty($payload)) {
            // SoapClient works with objects(StdClass)
            $payload = json_decode($payload);
        }
        $soapClient = $this->getClient($url);
        $sessionId = $this->getSession($soapClient);
        $args = array_filter([$sessionId, Configuration::CUSTOMER_REF, Configuration::CUSTOMER_REF, Configuration::INCLUDE_PAYMENT_DATA, $payload]);

        return $soapClient->$action(...$args);
    }

    public function getClient(string $url): SoapClient
    {
        return new SoapClient(
            $url . '?wsdl',
            [
                'location'   => $url,
                'cache_wsdl' => WSDL_CACHE_NONE,
            ]
        );
    }

    public function getSession(SoapClient $client)
    {
        $date = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s');
        $merchantCode = Configuration::MERCHANT_CODE;
        $key = Configuration::MERCHANT_KEY;
        $string = strlen($merchantCode) . $merchantCode . strlen($date) . $date;
        $algo = 'sha256';
        $hash = hash_hmac($algo, $string, $key);
        $client->__setCookie('XDEBUG_SESSION', 'PHPSTORM');

        return $client->login($merchantCode, $date, $hash, $algo);
    }
}

try {
    $client = new Client();
    var_dump($client->call());
} catch (Exception $ex) {
    var_dump($ex);
}
```

## Response parameters

<table><thead><tr><th width="124.4000244140625">Parameter</th><th>Type</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><a href="/pages/l51iTomfeHH2OmdQbRlz"><code>Customer</code></a></td><td><strong>Object</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>


---

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