How to pull API data and add it into a database with PHP?

Question

I am looking to pull data for a list of companies from CrunchBase API, then add that data into select tables in a database. I really don't know where to start. I have been looking at cURL.

Where I am at right now:

$url = "http://api.crunchbase.com/v/1/company/audible-coffee.js?api_key=API_KEY&callback=?";
$data = get_data($url);
// Note: ideally you should use DOM manipulation to inject the <base>
// tag inside the <head> section
$data = str_replace("<head>", "<head><base href=\"$url\">", $data);
echo $data;


function get_data($url) {
  $ch = curl_init();
  $timeout = 5;
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
  curl_close($ch);
  return $data;
}

I think I am supposed to parse it now, then store the data in the database.

My efforts to find code on parsing the data is the following:

$json_string = '<url.json>';

$jsondata = file_get_contents($json_string);
$obj = json_decode($jsondata, true);
print_r($obj['Result']);

Unfortunately, I don't know what I'm doing so any input on what to change or where to go from here will be very much appreciated.

As Cameeob2003 points out, your $data variable was undefined. You should have received warnings on-screen that this was the case, if your error_reporting settings are set correctly for development. Consider switching to an IDE that reports undefined variables too - NetBeans is great for that. — halfer
– halfer, Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 20:23

halfer · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-01 21:16:30Z

5

Much simpler - access the URL directly, and don't bother with cURL:

$url = "http://api.crunchbase.com/v/1/company/audible-coffee.js?api_key=API_KEY&callback=?";
$jsondata = file_get_contents($url);
$obj = json_decode($jsondata);

I'm assuming here that the URL in your question is an API that is guaranteed to return JSON strings. I didn't understand the purpose of the str_replace in your first code sample.

answered Nov 1, 2013 at 21:16

halfer

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Comments

halfer · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-22 09:24:07Z

1

To answer your quesion based on the cURL method you provided you arent saving any data to the $data variable when you are running your curl function. This prevents you from having any return.

Fixed:

$url = "http://api.crunchbase.com/v/1/company/audible-coffee.js?api_key=API_KEY&callback=?";
$data = get_data($url);
// Note: ideally you should use DOM manipulation to inject the <base>
// tag inside the <head> section
$data = str_replace("<head>", "<head><base href=\"$url\">", $data);
echo $data;

function get_data($url) {
    $ch = curl_init();
    $timeout = 5;
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
    $data = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
    return $data;
}

As you can see above before I call curl_close($ch); I am saving the return of curl_exec($ch); into $data. And now I get the text "Developer Inactive" on my screen (I don't have an API key myself I'm assuming). So now when I return the $data variable I can manipulate the return as I see fit.

edited May 22, 2017 at 9:24

halfer

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answered Nov 1, 2013 at 21:35

Cameeob2003

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1 Comment

halfer Over a year ago

Good spot, I didn't see that $data wasn't even set!

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-07 10:25:27Z

0

You can also try...

header("Content-type: application/xml");
  $token="AUTHTOKEN";
  $url = "http://api.crunchbase.com/v/1/company/audible-coffee.js?api_key=API_KEY&callback=?";
  $param= "authtoken=".$token.";
  $ch = curl_init();
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 30);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $param);
  $result = curl_exec($ch);
  curl_close($ch);
  echo $result;
  return $result;

edited Apr 7, 2016 at 10:25

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman

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answered Apr 7, 2016 at 10:24

shekhar jadhav

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