Critical Feedback Wanted - New to This.

[JohnnyDeez]

I'm pretty new to programming and PHP. This is the first language that I am attempting to learn (aside from HTML and CSS).

Part of this script was taken off the net, part of it I wrote. It is used to pull some information from a youtube feed and then input that data dynamically into a jQuery rotator.

I'm just looking for some constructive criticism if anyone is bored. Just want to get better at this. :-)

<?php 

function some_video_rotator() {

	//these are the settings for your youtube feed and display
		$settings = array(
			'user' => 'ayoutubeuser', //YouTube user
			'limit' => 5, //number of videos to pull
			'width' => 300, //width of video in pixels
			'height' => 200 //height of video in pixels	
		);
		
		
		//this is the youtube api feed data location, stored as an array in '$data'
		$data = @json_decode(file_get_contents('http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/'.$settings['user'].'/uploads?alt=json'), TRUE);
		
		
		// some definitions...
		$counter = 0;
		$a = 0;
		$url_store = array();
		$title_store = array();
		$ycontent_store = array();
		
		
		foreach($data['feed']['entry'] as $vid)
			{
				// as $a increments it asigns each video url to the $url_store array...
				// this functions for the title and video as well
				$a++;
				$url = $vid['media$group']['media$content'][0]['url'];
				$url_store[$a] = $url;
				
				//assigns to $title_store array
				$title = $vid['title']['$t'];
				$title_store[$a] = $title;

				// assigns to $ycontent_store array
				$ycontent = $vid['content']['$t'];
				$ycontent_store[$a] = $ycontent;
				
			
			// counter was set at '0'. This says if counter is equal to the 'limit' (in settings
			// to break the increase counting.
			$counter++;
				if($counter == $settings['limit'])
				{
					break;
				}
	
		} 

?>

the $url_store, $title_store, and $ycontent stores are then used within HTML to pull the parts of the youtube feed I need. Most of the comments are for me (cause I won't remember that stuff later).

Thoughts anyone? Thanks in advance.

[oddz]

When making request to external resources it is best to use cURL rather than file_get_contents(). This is because file_get_contents() has no timeout whereas, timeout can be controlled and handled properly with cURL – file_get_contents() will run until the php execution time is hit. Also, using @ to suppress errors is a very bad habit. Get in the habit of writing proper error and exception handling.

[JohnnyDeez]

oddz

Thank you very much for responding. I've not yet come across cURL so I will look that up in the manual.

Admittedly, I did not write that particular portion of this script. How might I properly handle errors in this context? Or, could you point me someplace I can read on that specifically?

I didn't even know what the @ was for until now. So, thank you for sharing your expertise.