Check if user or channel is live with Twitch API using PHP

Checking if a channel is live and streaming on Twitch requires a client id, you can get your client id from here.

The endpoint for getting a streams information is get_streams, Here i will be using the user_login parameter to specify which channel we want information for, otherwise you can use user_id  but you will have to find that for the streamer.

Making a call with CURL in PHP looks like this:

$client_id = 'PUTCLIENTIDHERE';//Twitch client id AKA: api key
$user = 'shroud';//Streamers username
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.twitch.tv/helix/streams?user_login=$user");//Endpoint
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
    "Client-ID: $client_id"//Add auth
));
$profile_data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
curl_close($ch);

If the user isnt live then no data will be returned, otherwise you will get 11 response fields with data as seen at get_streams.

Simple check if channel is live:

if (!isset($profile_data['data'][0])) {
    $live = 0;//Not live
} else {
    $live = 1;//Is live
}

Since we now know the channel is live (or not) we can fetch data avoiding errors for when the channel isnt live and there is no returned values:

if ($live == 1) {
    $title = $profile_data['data'][0]['title'];
    $viewer_count = $profile_data['data'][0]['viewer_count'];
    $game_id = $profile_data['data'][0]['game_id'];
    ....

The returned data from get_streams does not show the game name, just its Twitch assigned id. Getting the game name and image involves the games endpoint, just pass the game_id into ?id=

Here the code gets the streaming game name and the artwork/image:

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.twitch.tv/helix/games?id=$game_id");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
    "Client-ID: $client_id"
));
$game_data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
curl_close($ch);

$game_name = $game_data['data'][0]['name'];
$game_artwork = $game_data['data'][0]['box_art_url'];

getting the time went live ago in hours minutes involves some converting, formatting and date_diff():

$went_live_at = DateTime::createFromFormat("Y-m-d H:i:s", date("Y-m-d H:i:s", strtotime($profile_data['data'][0]['started_at'])))->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
$started = date_create($went_live_at);
$now = date_create(date('Y-m-d H:i:s'));
$diff = date_diff($started, $now);
$hours = $diff->h;
$minutes = $diff->i;

If streamer is live output a string with some data else state not live:

    echo "$user is playing $game_name, started streaming $hours hours $minutes minutes ago and has $viewer_count viewers TITLE: $title";
} else {
    echo "$user is not live";
}

Full code:

<?php
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
$client_id = 'S3Cr3Tc0d3';
$user = 'shroud';

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.twitch.tv/helix/streams?user_login=$user");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
    "Client-ID: $client_id"
));
$profile_data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
curl_close($ch);

if (!isset($profile_data['data'][0])) {
    $live = 0;
} else {
    $live = 1;
}

if ($live == 1) {
    $title = $profile_data['data'][0]['title'];
    $viewer_count = $profile_data['data'][0]['viewer_count'];
    $game_id = $profile_data['data'][0]['game_id'];

    $went_live_at = DateTime::createFromFormat("Y-m-d H:i:s", date("Y-m-d H:i:s", strtotime($profile_data['data'][0]['started_at'])))->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
    $started = date_create($went_live_at);
    $now = date_create(date('Y-m-d H:i:s'));
    $diff = date_diff($started, $now);
    $hours = $diff->h;
    $minutes = $diff->i;

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.twitch.tv/helix/games?id=$game_id");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
        "Client-ID: $client_id"
    ));
    $game_data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
    curl_close($ch);

    $game_name = $game_data['data'][0]['name'];
    $game_artwork = $game_data['data'][0]['box_art_url'];

    echo "$user is playing $game_name, started streaming $hours hours $minutes minutes ago and has $viewer_count viewers TITLE: $title";
} else {
    echo "$user is not live";
}

Another variant which uses functions:

<?php
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
$client_id = 'mYC0d3h3r3';
$user = 'shroud';

function user_stream($client_id, $user)
{
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.twitch.tv/helix/streams?user_login=$user");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
        "Client-ID: $client_id"
    ));
    $profile_data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
    curl_close($ch);
    return $profile_data;
}

function game_data($client_id, $game_id)
{
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.twitch.tv/helix/games?id=$game_id");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
        "Client-ID: $client_id"
    ));
    $game_data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
    curl_close($ch);
    return $game_data;
}

function is_live($data)
{
    if (!isset($data['data'][0])) {
        return false;
    } else {
        return true;
    }
}

$profile_data = user_stream($client_id, $user);

if (is_live($profile_data)) {
    $title = $profile_data['data'][0]['title'];
    $viewer_count = $profile_data['data'][0]['viewer_count'];
    $game_id = $profile_data['data'][0]['game_id'];
    $went_live_at = DateTime::createFromFormat("Y-m-d H:i:s", date("Y-m-d H:i:s", strtotime($profile_data['data'][0]['started_at'])))->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
    $started = date_create($went_live_at);
    $now = date_create(date('Y-m-d H:i:s'));
    $diff = date_diff($started, $now);
    $hours = $diff->h;
    $minutes = $diff->i;

    $game_data = game_data($client_id, $game_id);
    $game_name = $game_data['data'][0]['name'];
    $game_artwork = $game_data['data'][0]['box_art_url'];

    echo "$user is playing $game_name, started streaming $hours hours $minutes minutes ago and has $viewer_count viewers TITLE: $title";
} else {
    echo "$user is not live";
}