🎮 php-rest-api-client

A PHP web application that consumes an external REST API using cURL and JSON to retrieve videogame data and display it dynamically in a responsive web interface.

---

✨ Features

• Retrieves videogame information from a public REST API.
• Uses cURL to perform HTTP requests from PHP.
• Parses API responses in JSON format.
• Displays game data dynamically in a clean responsive layout.
• Organizes shared layout and logic into reusable includes.
• Includes generated technical documentation with PHPDoc and PHPDocumentor.
• Includes Apache JMeter test plans for load and concurrency testing.
• Successfully handled concurrent HTTP requests during load testing.

---

🛠️ Technologies Used

• PHP
• cURL
• JSON
• HTML5
• CSS3
• Apache XAMPP
• PHPDocumentor
• Apache JMeter

---

📁 Project Structure

php-rest-api-client/
├── css/
├── doc/
├── includes/
├── jmeter/
└── index.php

Directory Overview

• css/: Stylesheets for the responsive user interface.
• includes/: Reusable PHP files such as functions, header, and footer.
• doc/: Generated documentation created with PHPDocumentor.
• jmeter/: Apache JMeter test plans for performance and load testing.
• index.php: Main entry point of the application.

---

🚀 Installation and Execution with XAMPP

Requirements

• XAMPP installed on your machine
• Apache enabled in XAMPP
• PHP with cURL enabled
• Internet connection to access the external API

Steps

1. Copy the project folder into:

C:\xampp\htdocs\

2. Make sure the project folder is named:

php-rest-api-client

3. Start Apache from the XAMPP Control Panel.

4. Open your browser and visit:

http://localhost/php-rest-api-client/

5. The application will connect to the external API and display the videogame information dynamically.

---

🌐 API Information

This application consumes the public FreeToGame API:

• Base endpoint: https://www.freetogame.com/api/games
• Response format: JSON
• Request method: GET

API Data

The API provides:

• Game title
• Thumbnail image
• Genre
• Platform
• Release date

Application Workflow

• The application sends an HTTP GET request using cURL.
• The JSON response is decoded into a PHP associative array.
• The data is processed and displayed dynamically in the interface.

---

📚 PHPDocumentor Usage

The application was documented using PHPDoc comments and PHPDocumentor.

Generate Documentation

phpdoc -d . -t doc

Documentation Output

Generated documentation is stored in the doc/ directory.

---

🧪 Apache JMeter Load Testing

Load testing was performed with Apache JMeter using Concurrency Thread Group.

Test Configuration

• Target Concurrency: 200 users
• Ramp Up Time: 10 minutes
• Ramp-Up Steps Count: 10
• Hold Target Rate Time: 5 minutes

Test Results

• The application handled concurrent HTTP requests successfully.
• The tests confirmed stable behavior during concurrent access scenarios.

JMeter test plans are stored in the jmeter/ directory.

---

🔮 Future Improvements

• Add search and filtering by genre or platform
• Implement pagination for larger result sets
• Improve API error handling
• Add caching for external requests
• Improve responsive design and accessibility
• Add automated testing

---

👤 Author

Jesús Martínez Escobar

---

Built with PHP, REST APIs, and web technologies to demonstrate API consumption, documentation, and performance testing in a practical backend web project.