PHP, MySQL, Drupal, .htaccess, Robots.txt, Phponwebsites: curl

You can store games, music album in Apple itunes. If you want to display information of some games or music album, then you can retrieve information about apps from itunes. For retrieve app information from itunes, Apple itunes provided a search API. Do you want to know more information about Apple itunes search API, then visit iTunes Search API.

On Apple itunes search API, they show some examples for search link like https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=jack+johnson. You can see the result of search API while visiting that page.

The Apple Search API return results as JSON format. You need to get app data from JSON file. It is like how you retrieve data from JSON files. You can retrieve required app information from JSON file using PHP.

Retrieve app information from Apple itunes search API using PHP

Suppose you have games on Apple itunes storage. Then you can get app details from itunes using PHP. Due to search API, you can Game name, Game description, seller of game, game image, screenshots, game category, released date, price, version, compatibility, rating for game, game category, game url , currency and also language.

Search url in search API

You can't get values from search API using only "term" field in your search url.
ie,
https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=fabsys

where, you used only term filed to retrieve data from search API. But it didn't give any results. Just view that page on browser.

Instead, you have to use add field "country and entity" . Now your search url look like this
https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=fabsys&country=us&entity=software .

Now view this page on your browser. You can get 50 results. This is the default limit. This is the maximum value that you can retrieved. You can also limit the values using "limit" field.

<?php
$content=file_get_contents("https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=fabsys&country=us&entity=software&limit=2");
$json = json_decode($content, true);
print_R($json);
?>

Now you will get output on screen like this,

PHP code for retrieve data from Apple itunes

<?php $content=file_get_contents("https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=fabsys&country=us&entity=software&limit=2"); $json = json_decode($content, true); //print_R($json); $count=count($json); echo'<table><th>Name</th><th>Link</th><th>Image</th><th>Description</th>'; for($i=0;$i<$count;$i++) { echo'<tr><td>'.$json['results'][$i]['trackName'].'</td>'; echo'<td>'.$json['results'][$i]['trackViewUrl'].'</td>'; $ur=$json['results'][$i]['artworkUrl512']; echo '<td><img src="'.$ur.'" width="150px"></td>'; echo'<td>'.$json['results'][$i]['description'].'</td>'; echo'</tr>'; } echo'</table>'; ?>

Now you can get all details of app in your table. You can get any details as you want as from this PHP codes using array index represented above.

Get screenshot urls from Apple itunes using PHP

You can get all details from itunes. You have 4 screenshot urls are avaiable in itunes for each game, 2 for screenshotUrls and another 2 for ipadScreenshotUrls. It is in array. So you want to know how to get those urls from json using PHP. The PHP script is below for that:

<?php
$content=file_get_contents("https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=fabsys&country=us&entity=software&limit=2");
$json = json_decode($content, true);
//print_R($json);
$count=count($json);
for($i=0;$i<$count;$i++)
{
echo $json['results'][$i]['trackName'].'<br>';
echo $json['results'][$i]['screenshotUrls'][0].'<br>';
echo $json['results'][$i]['screenshotUrls'][1].'<br>';
echo $json['results'][$i]['ipadScreenshotUrls'][0].'<br>';
echo $json['results'][$i]['ipadScreenshotUrls'][1].'<br>';
}
?>

You display this reults on html img tag. Then you can get screenshot urls for a game. Just like below,

Now you can get image from itunes,

Get App rating from itunes using PHP

You can also get rating of each app from Apple itunes using PHP.

<?php
$content=file_get_contents("https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=fabsys&country=us&entity=software&limit=2");
$json = json_decode($content, true);
//print_R($json);
$count=count($json);
echo'<table><th>Name</th><th>Rating</th>';
for($i=0;$i<$count;$i++)
{
echo'<tr><td>'.$json['results'][$i]['trackName'].'</td>';
echo'<td>'.$json['results'][$i]['trackContentRating'].'</td>';
echo'</tr>';
}
echo'</table>';
?>

Related Posts:

Create Search API like Apple iTunes search API using PHP and MySQL

You know how to create JSON file using PHP. Then we are going know how to get data from json file.

That means, The json file returns encoded values. You have to decode it to display at wherever you wants. You can get data string from JSON using php.

The JSON file returns value as an array format, object format or combined both. See my previous post How to create JSON file using PHP.
In previous post, It give output like this:

[
{
'tutorial':'PHP',
'link':'http://www.phponwebsites.com/p/php.html'
},
{
'tutorial':'Mysql',
'link':'http://www.phponwebsites.com/p/mysql.html'
},
{
'tutorial':'htaccess',
'link':'http://www.phponwebsites.com/p/htaccess.html'
}
]

Get data from JSON file using curl in PHP

Now, you retrieve data from JSON file using PHP. Consider the following PHP script for retrieve data from JSON file.

<?php

$ch = curl_init("http://www.phponwebsites.com/json.php"); // add your url which contains json file
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$content = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$json = json_decode($content, true);
//print_R($json);
$count=count($json);
echo'<table><th>Tutorial</th><th>Link</th>';
for($i=0;$i<$count;$i++)
{
echo'<tr><td>'.$json[$i]['tutorial'].'</td><td>'.$json[$i]['url'].'</td></tr>';
}
echo'</table>';

?>

where,
json_decode() - takes JSON encoded values and converts it to PHP variable
If you want to know about cURL, then visit php.net

Get data from JSON file using file_get_contents in PHP

<?php
$content=file_get_contents("http://www.phponwebsites.com/json-api.php"); // add your url which contains json file
$json = json_decode($content, true);
// print_R($json);
$count=count($json);
echo'<table><th>Tutorial</th><th>Link</th>';
for($i=0;$i<$count;$i++)
{
echo'<tr><td>'.$json[$i]['tutorial'].'</td><td>'.$json[$i]['url'].'</td></tr>';
}
echo'</table>';
?>

where,
file_get_contents() - reads whole values in file into a string

When you print_r() the results, you will get output like this:

Array (
[0] => Array ( [PHP] => Differences The Ranch House
[link] => http://www.phponwebsites.com/p/php.html
)
[1] => Array ( [Mysql] => Kids Bus Kiss
[link] => http://www.phponwebsites.com/p/mysql.html
)
[2] => Array ( [htaccess] => Beehive Hideout
[link] => http://www.phponwebsites.com/p/htaccess.html
)
)

Finally, you will get output like this:

Tutorial	Link
PHP	http://www.phponwebsites.com/p/php.html
Mysql	http://www.phponwebsites.com/p/mysql.html
htaccess	http://www.phponwebsites.com/p/htaccess.html

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21 Mar 2015

Get app details from Apple itunes using php