Shielding your CodeReview on GitHub

In response to a feature-request on meta, I spent a few hours today creating the feature in php.

This application adds a review shield to your GitHub repository (or wherever else you want it).

It looks like the following:

To use it, use standard image/link markdown, like this:

[![Code Review](https://www.zomis.net/codereview/shield/?qid=54737)](https://codereview.stackexchange.com/q/54737/31562)

Replace 54737 with the question id you want to direct to, and replace 31562 with your user id (so that you can get the Announcer / Booster / Publicist badges).

You can also use the Code Review Shield Creator to create your shield.

I used shields.io to get the basic SVG XML and adapted that.

There are different ways the badge can be shown:

• Unanswered questions shows the question score and a red background

• Answered questions shows the number of answers and an orange background

• Questions with accepted answer shows the view count and a green background

How the code works

Because of the daily Stack Exchange API limit of 10,000 requests, I am avoiding too many API requests by storing previous results in a database table, and only performing a new request if it has been more than an hour since the last API request for that particular question.

The code contains these functions:

• buildURL($apiCall, $site, $filter, $apiKey): Creates the URL for the Stack Exchange API call (for future use, I check if the apiCall parameter contains a '?' or not).

• apiCall($apiCall, $site, $filter): Performs a HTTP request to the Stack Exchange API using curl, returns JSON data as a pure string

• fetchQuestion($qid, $db): Uses the JSON data retrieved by apiCall as an associative array, extracts the interesting data from it, updates the database, and calls useData.

• useData($data): Takes an associative array and creates SVG XML for it

• dbOrAPI($qid, $db): Main point of entry. $qid is a Code Review question id and $db is a PDO object. Checks the

On a personal note, your code is really clean, the idea is brilliant, and I really hope to see it implemented soon.

Your code is well implemented and structured, but there's syntax points that could be improved.

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I see a lot of basic if-else statements, if you're into ternaries, using them really slims down these statements, but it's at the cost of readability.

See the following examples for usage:

($time errorInfo()));

I do believe some versions of PHP support (a == a ?: doStuff()); syntax also, however, I could be mistaken.

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There's a few points that are either inconsistent or don't adhere to standards:

$apiCall = $apiCall + "?dummy";

Should be $apiCall .= "?dummy";, and you shouldn't use + when concatenating strings, it's best to use . instead.

Switching between implementing the variable directly in the string 'words$varmorewords' or adding it like:. $var . , I would recommend the latter as it's more reader-friendly, and because the former can have issues, it's best to wrap in curly braces: 'words{$var}morewords' in place of the former.

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Using curl instead of get_file_contents is great, I see a lot of people make that mistake, and I've even too.

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You have two blank lines above your return $json statement in fetchQuestion(), they don't need to be there.

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in useData(), you create the variable $is_answered and then never use it, and I'd suggest replacing its value with $data['accepted_answer_id'] so that your if loop looks cleaner.

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You could consider keeping the SVG in another file and replacing in your variables, but I'm not 100% on its standing as a code standard / best practice.

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In useData(), rather than doing a double check (isset: (returns true for '') and != 0), you can just compare to > 0.

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You retrieve and store quite a few variables for each post that aren't currently used in the final image:

"is_answered" : Not used, "view_count": Used, "favorite_count": Not used, "answer_count": Not used, "score": Not used, "accepted_answer_id": Not used.

Although I can see future updates using these, and capturing them now is great, but, you could look at modifying that.

On the topic of future implementations, a score counter on the button would be pretty cool too.

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You could consider implementing a namespace and class like structure into your project so it can be used externally, easier.

StackExchange Code Review Q#95459, answer score: 48