PHP+JSON+Twitter API

Posted 2021-02-24

Nothing revolutionary, just a simple implementation.

A reworking from Brian Cray's source code:
http://briancray.com/2009/08/21/tweeted-links-twitter-api-php-cache/

Note: requires creating a cache file, '/caches/twitter', relative to source.

<?php
// define the parameters you want to use
$username = 'richardmaisano';
$tweet_count = '10';
 
// define the api url
$url = 'https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.json?screen_name=' . $username . '&count=' . $count . '&include_entities=1&include_rts=1';
 
// define the cache file you created
$cache = dirname(__FILE__) . '/caches/twitter';
 
// check to see if the cache is older than five minutes
// if so, refresh the data
$cache_time = filemtime($cache);
$five_minutes = time() - 300;
 
if ($cache_time > $five_minutes)
{
	$data = file_get_contents($cache);
}
else
{
	$data = file_get_contents($url);
	$cachefile = fopen($cache, 'wb');
	fwrite($cachefile, $data);
	fclose($cachefile);
}
 
// set up the json return
$json = json_decode($data);
 
// the rest of the script just parses through the data,
// namely the date and time of tweet and any 'entities'
if (!empty($json)) :
	foreach ($json as $tweet) : 
		$datetime = $tweet->created_at;
		$date = date('M d, Y', strtotime($datetime));
		$time = date('g:ia', strtotime($datetime));
		$tweet_text = $tweet->text;
 
		// check if any entites exist and if so, replace then with hyperlinked versions
		if (!empty($tweet->entities->urls) || !empty($tweet->entities->hashtags) || !empty($tweet->entities->user_mentions)) {
			foreach ($tweet->entities->urls as $url) {
				$find = $url->url;
				$replace = '<a href="'.$find.'">'.$find.'</a>';
				$tweet_text = str_replace($find,$replace,$tweet_text);
			}
 
			foreach ($tweet->entities->hashtags as $hashtag) {
				$find = '#'.$hashtag->text;
				$replace = '<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23'.$hashtag->text.'">'.$find.'</a>';
				$tweet_text = str_replace($find,$replace,$tweet_text);
			}
 
			foreach ($tweet->entities->user_mentions as $user_mention) {
				$find = "@".$user_mention->screen_name;
				$replace = '<a href="http://twitter.com/'.$user_mention->screen_name.'">'.$find.'</a>';
				$tweet_text = str_ireplace($find,$replace,$tweet_text);
			}
		}
	?>
 
	<div class="entry tweet">
		<span><?php echo $tweet_text; ?></span>
		<div class="meta">
			<small><?php echo $time; ?>, <?php echo $date; ?></small>
		</div>
	</div>
 
	<?php endforeach; ?>
<?php endif; ?>