NetSuite API search by externalId

Question

I am attempting to search for a NetSuite Vendor (which may or may not exist in NetSuite) with the NetSuite API; however, the only piece of information I have about the Vendor is the externalId. My goal is to query NetSuite for the Vendor with the given externalId and if the Vendor exists, use it in a subsequent API call. If the Vendor doesn't exist, I'll create it and use the vendor I've just created in the subsequent API call.
Despite my searches I have not been able to find a way to search NetSuite for a record by externalId (I've found many ways to search by a Field; however I haven't found a way to search by an Attribute i.e. externalId). Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

After further research and a little help, I've figured out how to search by externalId. Hopefully this is useful for someone in the future:

Using php: Create a new GetRequest() object and a new RecordRef() object set the RecordRef's externalId to the desired external ID set the RecordRef's type to "vendor" set the GetRequest's baseRef to the RecordRef you've just created using the NetSuite client execute the get() method passing the the GetRequest() object created previously. The get() method will return a GetResponse() containing information about your search (and the object if it exists).

$getRequest = new \NetSuite\WebServices\GetRequest();
$recordRef = new \NetSuite\WebServices\RecordRef();
$recordRef->externalId = "theExternalIdGoesHere";
$recordRef->type = "vendor";
$getRequest->baseRef = $recordRef;
$response = $client->get($getRequest);