Proccessing Multiple cURL requests in PHP faster - php

Question

I am trying to speed up my website by processing the cURL requests efficiently. I am running about 3 requests, two go to the same server. Here is my code:
$profile = curl_init();
curl_setopt($profile, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($profile, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($profile, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR, true);
curl_setopt($profile, CURLOPT_URL,"https://owapi.net/api/v2/u/".$battletag."/stats/".$mode."?platform=".$platform);
$result = curl_exec($profile); //grab API data
curl_close($profile);
$stats = json_decode($result, true); //decode JSON data
$profile1 = curl_init();
curl_setopt($profile1, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($profile1, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($profile1, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR, true);
curl_setopt($profile1, CURLOPT_URL,"https://api.lootbox.eu/".$platform."/us/".$battletag."/profile");
$result1 = curl_exec($profile1); //grab API data
curl_close($profile1);
$stats1 = json_decode($result1, true);
$hero_stats = curl_init();
curl_setopt($hero_stats, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($hero_stats, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($hero_stats, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR, true);
curl_setopt($hero_stats, CURLOPT_URL,"https://api.lootbox.eu/".$platform."/us/".$battletag."/competitive-play/heroes");
$hero_play_time = curl_exec($hero_stats); //grab API data
curl_close($hero_stats);
$heroes_info = json_decode($hero_play_time, true);
How can I process these requests at the same time without restarting the connection? I want to speed up the load time of my site because right now, it takes a long time. Any help would be appreciated. I have heard of the curl_multi_init() method but I am not sure on how to use it properly. Any help wit that would be welcomed.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Well thanks for all the help guys. Especially #Andrew.
I found a solution that ended up working. Posting it here for other people with a similar problem.
function multiRequest($data, $options = array()) {
// array of curl handles
$curly = array();
// data to be returned
$result = array();
// multi handle
$mh = curl_multi_init();
// loop through $data and create curl handles
// then add them to the multi-handle
foreach ($data as $id => $d) {
$curly[$id] = curl_init();
$url = (is_array($d) && !empty($d['url'])) ? $d['url'] : $d;
curl_setopt($curly[$id], CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($curly[$id], CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($curly[$id], CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
// post?
if (is_array($d)) {
if (!empty($d['post'])) {
curl_setopt($curly[$id], CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($curly[$id], CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $d['post']);
}
}
// extra options?
if (!empty($options)) {
curl_setopt_array($curly[$id], $options);
}
curl_multi_add_handle($mh, $curly[$id]);
}
// execute the handles
$running = null;
do {
curl_multi_exec($mh, $running);
} while($running > 0);
// get content and remove handles
foreach($curly as $id => $c) {
$result[$id] = json_decode(curl_multi_getcontent($c), true);
curl_multi_remove_handle($mh, $c);
}
// all done
curl_multi_close($mh);
return $result;
}
$data = array(
'https://owapi.net/api/v2/u/'.$battletag.'/stats/'.$mode.'?platform='.$platform,
'https://api.lootbox.eu/'.$platform.'/us/'.$battletag.'/profile',
'https://api.lootbox.eu/'.$platform.'/us/'.$battletag.'/competitive-play/heroes'
);
$r = multiRequest($data);
This worked, I just had to add the json_decode method over the get_contents method.
Thanks again everyone. Really appreciate the help.