Looping through JSON in php is slowing down my page loading

Question

I have a small website jamesmcnee.co.uk and the page loading times of it are quite high. It can take as long as 8 - 12s to load a page. I think that it is something to do with the PHP I have created to interact with the Steam API. I have these files:

1. SteamWidget.php:

   $api = "http://api.steampowered.com/ISteamUser/GetPlayerSummaries/v0002/?key=". $key ."&steamids=76561198014955377&format=json";
   $json = file_get_contents($api);
   $schemaProfile = json_decode($json, true);
   
   $api = "http://api.steampowered.com/IPlayerService/GetOwnedGames/v0001/?key=". $key ."&steamid=76561198014955377&format=json";
   $json = file_get_contents($api);
   $schemaGames = json_decode($json, true);
   
   echo '<div id="sideSteamProfile">';
   echo '<h2>On Steam</h2>';
   echo '<img src="'; echo $schemaProfile['response']['players'][0]['avatarfull']; echo '" alt="Steam Avatar Icon" />';
   echo '<p>Steam Name:<a href="'; echo $schemaProfile['response']['players'][0]['profileurl']; echo '">'; 
   echo $schemaProfile['response']['players'][0]['personaname']; echo '</a></p>';
   if($schemaProfile['response']['players'][0]['personastate'] == "0"){
           echo '<p>Currently: <font color="red">Offline</font></p>';
       }
       else{
           echo '<p>Currently: <font color="green">Online</font></p>';
       }       
   echo '<p>Last Online:'; echo gmdate("d-m-Y  H:i", $schemaProfile['response']['players'][0]['lastlogoff']); echo '</p>';
   echo '<p>Number of Games:'; echo $schemaGames['response']['game_count']; echo '</p>';
   echo '<p>Most Played Game:'; echo getMostPlayed(); echo '</p>';
   echo '<p>Total Hours:'; echo getHoursPlayed(); '</p>';
   echo '</div> <!-- Closes the sideSection div -->'; ?>
   

The second one is called MostPlayed.php:

<?php 
    include 'ApiKey.php';
    function getMostPlayed()
    {
        $GameWithMostHours = "None";
        $api = "http://api.steampowered.com/IPlayerService/GetOwnedGames/v0001/?key=". $key ."&steamid=76561198014955377&format=json";
        $json = file_get_contents($api);
        $schemaGames = json_decode($json, true);

        $NumberOfGames = $schemaGames['response']['game_count'];

        $CurrentlyHighestHours = 0;
        for ($x = 0; $x < $NumberOfGames; $x++){
            $CheckHighest = $schemaGames['response']['games'][$x]['playtime_forever'];
            if ($CheckHighest > $CurrentlyHighestHours){
                $CurrentlyHighestHours = $CheckHighest;
                $GameWithMostHours = $schemaGames['response']['games'][$x]['name'];
            }
        }

        return $GameWithMostHours;
    }

    function getHoursPlayed()
    {
        $api = "http://api.steampowered.com/IPlayerService/GetOwnedGames/v0001/?key=". $key ."&steamid=76561198014955377&format=json";
        $json = file_get_contents($api);
        $schemaGames = json_decode($json, true);

        $NumberOfGames = $schemaGames['response']['game_count'];
        $TotalNumberOfHours = 0;

        for ($x = 0; $x < $NumberOfGames; $x++){
            $TotalNumberOfHours += $schemaGames['response']['games'][$x]['playtime_forever'];
        }

        $TotalNumberOfHours = sprintf("%02dh %02dm", floor($TotalNumberOfHours/60), $TotalNumberOfHours%60);
        return $TotalNumberOfHours;
    }
?>

So two reletively simple PHP files, so why the increase in loading speed. As I mentioned I think it has something to do with the for loops I am using but I dont see another way to do this and in another language such as JAVA, these loops would take a fraction of a second. Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks James McNee.

Answer 1

Load the page without doing those calls to that API. Have an AJAX call that runs on document ready to a script that gets the data, processes it and returns the html that you want to display.