Cassandra 0.7 thrift example. CC license.

gistfile1.php

<?php
$GLOBALS['THRIFT_ROOT'] = '/path/to/thrift/';
require_once $GLOBALS['THRIFT_ROOT'].'/packages/cassandra/Cassandra.php';
require_once $GLOBALS['THRIFT_ROOT'].'/packages/cassandra/cassandra_types.php';
require_once $GLOBALS['THRIFT_ROOT'].'/transport/TSocket.php';
require_once $GLOBALS['THRIFT_ROOT'].'/protocol/TBinaryProtocol.php';
require_once $GLOBALS['THRIFT_ROOT'].'/transport/TFramedTransport.php';
require_once $GLOBALS['THRIFT_ROOT'].'/transport/TBufferedTransport.php';

function microsecond_timestamp() {
    list($frag, $seconds) = explode(' ', microtime());
    return $seconds . substr($frag, 2, 6);
}

try {
  // Make a connection to the Thrift interface to Cassandra
  $socket = new TSocket('127.0.0.1', 9160);
  $transport = new TFramedTransport($socket, 1024, 1024);
  $protocol = new TBinaryProtocolAccelerated($transport);
  $client = new CassandraClient($protocol);
  $transport->open();
  
  /* Insert some data into the Stream column family, remove some columns, perform column slice queries */
  // "Stream" is analogous to a twitter user timeline
  
  $keyspace = 'TwitterSpace';
  
  $client->set_keyspace($keyspace);
  // $client->truncate('Stream');

  // reference to specific User id
  $keyUserId = "jd2";
  
  
  // Add Columns for ids [0..1000]
  
  $mutations = array();
  foreach(range(0,1000) as $x) {
    $clock = new cassandra_Clock(array('timestamp' => microsecond_timestamp()));
    $column1 = new cassandra_Column(array('name' => (string)$x, 'value' => '', 'clock' => $clock));
    $c_or_sc = new cassandra_ColumnOrSuperColumn(array('column' => $column1));
    $mutations[] = new cassandra_Mutation(array('column_or_supercolumn' => $c_or_sc));
  }  
  $client->batch_mutate(array($keyUserId => array('Stream' => $mutations)), cassandra_ConsistencyLevel::QUORUM);
  
  
  // Remove id 999 from list
  $cp = new cassandra_ColumnPath(array('column_family' => 'Stream', 'column' => '999'));
  $clock = new cassandra_Clock(array('timestamp' => microsecond_timestamp()));
  $client->remove($keyUserId, $cp, $clock, cassandra_ConsistencyLevel::QUORUM);
  
  
  // Get top 3 ids from list, sorted high to low

  // Specify what Column Family to query against.
  $columnParent = new cassandra_ColumnParent(array('column_family' => 'Stream'));
  $sliceRange = new cassandra_SliceRange(array('reversed' => true, 'start' => '', 'finish' => '', 'count' => 3));
  $predicate = new cassandra_SlicePredicate(array('slice_range' => $sliceRange));
  $result = $client->get_slice($keyUserId, $columnParent, $predicate, cassandra_ConsistencyLevel::ONE);

  print_r(array_map(function($obj) { return array($obj->column->name, $obj->column->clock->timestamp); }, $result));
  // array(array(1000, {timestamp}), array(998, {timestamp}), array(997, {timestamp}))
  
  
  // Remove entire key and fetch column results again [empty array]
  
  $cp = new cassandra_ColumnPath(array('column_family' => 'Stream'));
  $clock = new cassandra_Clock(array('timestamp' => microsecond_timestamp()));
  $client->remove($keyUserId, $cp, $clock, cassandra_ConsistencyLevel::QUORUM);
  $result = $client->get_slice($keyUserId, $columnParent, $predicate, cassandra_ConsistencyLevel::ONE);
  print_r($result);
    
  $transport->close();

} catch (TException $tx) {
   print $tx;
}