Wordpress update data from api - php

Question

I have a plugin to create posts with data from an API. I have to check the state of the data on the api every time, if there is a change, it will update the posts and acf fields. I have a post title check so as not to duplicate posts. But how can I check posts correctly so that I can update acf fields every time if there is new data and not duplicate posts?
if( isset( $_POST['enable'] ) ) {
// JOB API
$url='https://api.com/test/';
$result = file_get_contents( $url );
$result_data = json_decode( $result );
foreach ($result_data as $job) {
$ref_code = $job->RefCode;
$post_title = $job->JobTitle;
$post_exists = post_exists( $post_title );
$job_id = $job->JobId;
$job_date = date('Y-m-d h:i:s', strtotime($job->Published));
if (!get_page_by_title($post_title, 'OBJECT', 'jobs') ) {
$data = array(
'post_type' => 'jobs',
'post_title' => $post_title,
'post_status' => 'publish',
'post_date' => $job_date,
'post_date_gmt' => $job_date
);
$post_id = wp_insert_post( $data );
wp_set_object_terms( $post_id, 'regulare-job', 'jobscat', 'post_tag' );
// Job DATA API
$job_api_url ='https://api.com/test/' . $ref_code;
$job_api_result = file_get_contents( $job_api_url );
$result_data = json_decode( $job_api_result );
//Update ACF fields
update_field( 'location', $job->RegionCity, $post_id );
update_field( 'job_intro', $result_data->Intro, $post_id );
update_field( 'job_offer', $result_data->data[0]->Text, $post_id );
update_field( 'job_requirement', $result_data->data[1]->Text, $post_id );
update_field( 'text_c2', $result_data->data[2]->Text, $post_id );
update_field( 'single_job_ref_code', $result_data->RefCode, $post_id );
}
}
}

Answer 1

I customized your code with some parts how i achieved it for myself.
It might need some customization. (See comments within code for additional info)
What I do:
1.) check if post is already existing based on your title (and get its id)
2.) if it is already existing => update data (ACF-Fields)
3.) if it is not existing => create new post and update meta data (ACF-Fields)
To fill the acf-fields I use a custom function based on ACF-Field-Keys.
You can also create a custom cron job to run this function every (minute, hour...)
function api_fetcher_function(){
if( isset( $_POST['enable'] ) ) {
// JOB API
$url='https://api.com/test/';
$result = file_get_contents( $url );
$result_data = json_decode( $result );
foreach ($result_data as $job) {
$ref_code = $job->RefCode;
$post_title = sanitize_title($job->JobTitle);
/* check if CPT-Post with given slug already exists */
$existing_post = get_page_by_path($post_title,'OBJECT', 'jobs');
$job_id = $job->JobId;
$job_date = date('Y-m-d h:i:s', strtotime($job->Published));
/* if post doesnt exist create a new one */
if($existing_post === null){
$inserted_post = wp_insert_post([
'post_name' => $post_title,
'post_title' => $post_title,
'post_type' => 'jobs',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'post_date' => $job_date,
'post_date_gmt' => $job_date
]);
/* continue after successful insert (single item) */
/* special error handling can be placed within if */
if( is_wp_error($inserted_post)){
continue;
}
/* Update Meta Info of new post */
updateJobsMeta($job, $inserted_post);
}else{
$existing_job_id = $existing_post->ID;
/*you can add some additional check if you have some timestamps within your api and ACF */
/*$existing_jobs_timestamp might not be needed => based on your available data*/
$existing_jobs_timestamp = get_field('updated_at', $existing_job_id);
/*if you have some timestamps to use*/
if($job->Published >= $existing_jobs_timestamp){
updateJobsMeta($job ,$existing_job_id);
}
/*if you dont have some timestamps to use just remove the if around the update function and the $existing_jobs_timestamp*/
}
}
}
}
function updateJobsMeta($job ,$id){
$ref_code = $job->RefCode;
$job_api_url ='https://api.com/test/' . $ref_code;
$job_api_result = file_get_contents( $job_api_url );
$result_data = json_decode( $job_api_result );
/* Update Fillable list based on your needs => keys can be found within your acf group in wp-backend (might be hidden by default) */
$fillable = [
'field_5f312082435dd' => $job->JobId,
'field_5f312095435de' => $job->JobTitle,
'acf_field_key....' => $job->Published
...
];
/* updates fields based on acf-key */
foreach($fillable as $key => $name){
update_field( $key, $name, $id);
}
}