php curl steam-api super slow - php

Question

I'm making a scoreboard and implementing the steam API to retrieve avatars for users. At first I was using file_get, but it was so slow! So someone suggested I use curl.
Old method
$url = 'http://www.com';
$content = file_get_contents($url);
$json = json_decode($content, true);
I then used a foreach loop to grab the items I wanted from the data.
foreach($output['response']['players'] as $item) {
}
new curl code,
$url = 'www.com';
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
echo $output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$json = json_decode($output, true);
I get pretty much the same result from the json method but it is a little faster. But it is still extremely slow, is there anyway to increase the speed of this? Can I load the table and then load the avatars as they become available?
Scoreboard
http://fyre.site.nfoservers.com/index.php

Answer 1

Consider using for loops since those can speed things up. If you are talking about the load times (time until page loads and displays) being slow, consider using output buffering like this:
Unset arrays or values that you don't need anymore.
Note that the steam API accepts 100 ID's at once, so the friendslist is split into chunks of 100.
It will push out the information once its done, and the site will not wait until it is done. Try it out, I guess.
$totalfriends = count($friends);
$chunkedfriends = array_chunk($friends, 100);
$chunks = ceil($totalfriends / 100);
if(ob_get_length() > 0) {
ob_end_flush();
ob_implicit_flush();}
for($i=0; $i < $chunks; $i++){
$url = "https://api.steampowered.com/ISteamUser/GetPlayerSummaries/v0001/?key=". $steamkey . "&steamids=". implode(',', $chunkedfriends[$i]) . "";
$friendscountchunk = count($chunkedfriends[$i]);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PIPEWAIT, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url);
$urlresult=curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$json_decoded = json_decode($urlresult);
if(ob_get_length() > 0) {
ob_end_flush();
ob_implicit_flush();}
for($x=0; $x < $friendscountchunk; $x++){
?>
<li class="friendsli"><a href="steamuser.php?id=<?=$json_decoded->response->players->player[$x]->steamid?>">
<img src=' <?=$json_decoded->response->players->player[$x]->avatar?>'/><p class="friendname"> <?=$json_decoded->response->players->player[$x]->personaname?> </p>
</a></li> <?php
}}
unset($friends); unset($player); unset($json_decoded);
I don't think it is the best script or method, but it will help for sure.
You cannot speed up an external API, but you can improve and adapt your code.