PHP API request limitation doesn't work - php

Question

I found this very interesting project on github: https://github.com/brannondorsey/apibuilder
After starting using it, I noticed that the request limitation won't work properly. The value for the requests in the MySQL database counts to "1000" (or the limit set in $hits_per_day), but the API output is still some data from the database.
The expected error message is simply attached to the API response.
But I would like to have an API that doesn't allow any output and only the error message. Below you can find the concerning file.
public function get_json_from_assoc(&$get_array){
$json_obj = new StdClass();
$pretty_print = $this->pretty_print;
if(!$this->find_config_errors()){
if(isset($get_array['pretty_print'])){
if(strtolower($get_array['pretty_print']) == "true") $pretty_print = true;
if(strtolower($get_array['pretty_print']) == "false") $pretty_print = false;
}
//if API is public or if API is private and a correct private key was provided
if(!$this->private ||
$this->private &&
isset($get_array['private_key']) &&
$this->private_key == $get_array['private_key']){
$query = $this->form_query($get_array);
if($this->check_API_key()
|| !$this->API_key_required){
//if search was included as a parameter in the http request but it isn't allowed in the api's config...
if(isset($get_array['search']) &&
!$this->search_allowed){
$json_obj->error = "search parameter not enabled for this API";
}
else if(isset($get_array['exclude']) &&
!$this->exclude_allowed){
$json_obj->error = "exclude parameter not enabled for this API";
}else{
if($results_array = Database::get_all_results($query)){
if(is_array($results_array)){
// deletes key => value pairs if the value is empty. Only works if array is nested:
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5750407/php-array-removing-empty-values
$results_array = array_filter(array_map('array_filter', $results_array));
foreach($results_array as $result_array){
foreach($result_array as $key => $value){
if($key == "COUNT(*)"){
$count = $value;
break;
}
}
}
if(!isset($count)) $json_obj->data = $results_array;
else $json_obj->count = $count;
//COME BACK need to make count only parameter work
}
}else $json_obj->error = "no results found";
}
//only attempt to increment the api hit count if this method is called from a PUBLIC API request
if($this->API_key_required){
$query = "SELECT " . $this->API_hit_date_column_name . " FROM " . Database::$users_table . " WHERE " . $this->API_key_column_name . " = '" . $this->API_key . "' LIMIT 1";
$result = Database::get_all_results($query);
//increments the hit count and/or hit date OR sets the error message if the key has reached its hit limit for the day
if($this->update_API_hits($this->API_key, $result[0][$this->API_hit_date_column_name]) === false){
$json_obj->error = "API hit limit reached";
}
}
}else $json_obj->error = "API key is invalid or was not provided";
//if there was a search and it returned no results
if($this->search != "" &&
!$this->search_has_been_repeated &&
isset($json_obj->error) &&
strstr($json_obj->error, $this->no_results_message) == true){
$this->search_in_boolean_mode = true; //set search in boolean mode to true
$this->search_has_been_repeated = true; //note that the search will now have been repeated
//$this->JSON_string = $this->get_json_from_assoc($get_array, $object_parent_name); //recurse the function (thus re-searching)
return $this->get_json_from_assoc($get_array); //recurse the function (thus re-searching)
}
}else{ //API is private but private_key is invalid or was not provided
$json_obj->error = "this API is private and the private key was invalid or not provided";
}
}else{ //config errors were present
$pretty_print = true; //always output errors in pretty print for readability
$json_obj->config_error = $this->config_errors;
}
return ($pretty_print && version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.4.0') >= 0) ? json_encode($json_obj, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT) : json_encode($json_obj);
}