Saving Google API response in php variable - php

Question

I would like to call a php function which will process a google API call and save particular variable so I can work with it.
I know below code won´t work but I hope it will give you an idea what I want to do.
Thank you in advance for your advise.
function callGoogleAPI () {
// calling the fGoggle spi somehow
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/timezone/json?location=45.908133,-77.047119&timestamp=1472106746
$dstOffset = dstOffset;
}
When the function is executed I should have value "3600" saved in my dstOffset variable.
Thank you
Vinny

Answer 1

It's very basic question. You can call api via file_get_contents() or via curl then decode json with json_decode function.
function callGoogleAPI () {
// calling the fGoggle spi somehow
$content = file_get_contents('https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/timezone/json?location=45.908133,-77.047119&timestamp=1472106746');
$content = json_decode($content, true);
$dstOffset = $content['dstOffset'];
}

Answer 2

Using REST APIs in PHP is a three step process.
1) You cal the API and store the returned data in a variable
$maps_content = file_get_contents('https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/timezone/json?location=45.908133,-77.047119&timestamp=1472106746');
2) You convert the JSON object in an associative array
$maps_array = json_decode($content, true);
3) You start working with the data in your array
$dstOffset = $content['dstOffset'];
To see what your variable looks like, don't forget to var_dump
var_dump($maps_array);