Check if title exists in wordpress database before import - php

Question

I am using a json feed to import new posts. This works as expected, but I am not able to prevent importing duplicated posts. When I run the script twice it also imports the posts twice.
How can I check the wordpress database to prevent importing the same posts.
require_once("wp-load.php");
$url = 'https://somejsonfeed.com'; // path to the JSON file
$data = file_get_contents($url); // put the contents of the file into a variable
$flights = json_decode($data, true); // decode the JSON feed
foreach ($flights['response'] as $item) {
$title = $item['flight']['iata_number'];
// Check if already exists
if ( get_page_by_title( $title ) == null ) {
// Insert post
$new_post = array(
'post_title' => $title,
'post_content' => $title,
'post_status' => 'draft',
'post_author' => 1,
'post_type' => 'post'
);
// Insert post
$post_id = wp_insert_post($new_post);
// Insert post meta if available
add_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_key', 'meta_value' );
// Uncomment to check if meta key is added
// $get_meta_value = get_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_key', true );
// echo "<pre>";
// print_r($get_meta_value);
}
}else{
// Update meta value
update_post_meta($get_page->ID, 'my_key', 'meta_value');
// Uncomment to check if meta key is added
// $get_meta_value = get_post_meta( $get_page->ID, 'meta_key', true );
// echo "<pre>";
// print_r($get_meta_value);
}

Answer 1

What works well for me is post_exists($title). Returns the post ID, so in your code, I would use
$current_post_id = post_exists($title);
if( 0 === $current_post_id) {
`enter code here`add_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_key', 'meta_value' );
}
One thing I notice is that you have:
'meta_key', 'meta_value', so of course, I copied that part, but you would need to replace whatever meta_key and meta_value.
I hope this helps.
Bruce

Answer 2

Solved by using the code below
require wp-load.php to use built-in WordPress functions
require_once("wp-load.php");
$url = 'https://somejsonfeed.com'; // path to the JSON file
$data = file_get_contents($url); // put the contents of the file into a variable
$flights = json_decode($data, true); // decode the JSON feed
foreach ($flights['response'] as $item) {
$title = $item['flight']['iata_number'];
if ( ! is_admin() ) {
require_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/post.php' );
}
// change custom-post-name in post type
if ( get_page_by_title( $title, OBJECT, 'custom-post-name' ) == null ) {
// Insert post
$new_post = array(
'post_title' => $title,
'post_content' => $title,
'post_status' => 'draft',
'post_author' => 1,
'post_type' => 'post'
);
// Insert post
$post_id = wp_insert_post($new_post);
// Insert post meta if available
add_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_key', 'meta_value' );
// Uncomment to check if meta key is added
// $get_meta_value = get_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_key', true );
// echo "<pre>";
// print_r($get_meta_value);
}
}else{
// Update meta value
update_post_meta($get_page->ID, 'my_key', 'meta_value');
// Uncomment to check if meta key is added
// $get_meta_value = get_post_meta( $get_page->ID, 'meta_key', true );
// echo "<pre>";
// print_r($get_meta_value);
}