Building a Simple API Proxy in PHP

`API proxies are incredibly useful:

• hide API keys
• sanitize requests
• add caching
• unify multiple APIs
• avoid exposing credentials in JavaScript

In this tutorial, we’ll build a simple API proxy in PHP that forwards requests to an external API safely.

---

Step 1 — Basic Proxy Structure

`php
<?php
header('Content-Type: application/json');

$endpoint = "https://api.example.com/data";
$response = file_get_contents($endpoint);

echo $response;
`

---

Step 2 — Add Parameters

php
$param = urlencode($_GET['q'] ?? '');
$endpoint = "https://api.example.com/search?q={$param}";


---

Step 3 — Add Authentication

php
$opts = [
"http" => [
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv('API_KEY')
]
];
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
$response = file_get_contents($endpoint, false, $context);


---

Step 4 — Add Caching (Optional)

`php
$cacheFile = "/tmp/cache_" . md5($param);

if (file_exists($cacheFile) && time() - filemtime($cacheFile) < 3600) {
echo file_get_contents($cacheFile);
exit;
}

file_put_contents($cacheFile, $response);
echo $response;
`

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Why This Matters

This is the foundation of:

• API aggregators
• automation tools
• data pipelines
• conversion engines

It’s also the same architecture I use inside MyAPIKey to build secure, scalable automation workflows without exposing keys or endpoints.

---

This workflow is fully automated inside MyAPIKey, with ready‑to‑use endpoints for CSV/XML → WooCommerce.
`