divineomega/php-stackexchange-search

This package is abandoned and no longer maintained. The author suggests using the jord-jd/php-stackexchange-search package instead.

PHP StackExchange Search

v1.1.0 2026-07-18 04:45 UTC

Requires

• php: >=7.1
• jord-jd/php-base-search: ^4.1

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: ^7.5||^9.6||^10.5||^11.5||^12.5

Replaces

• divineomega/php-stackexchange-search: v1.1.0

LGPL-3.0-only

• Jordan Hall

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-07-18 04:46 UTC

README

Search for similar questions on any Stack Exchange network site through the current Stack Exchange API v2.3.

Installation

composer require jord-jd/php-stackexchange-search

Usage

use JordJD\StackExchangeSearch\Enums\Sites;
use JordJD\StackExchangeSearch\StackExchangeSearcher;

$searcher = new StackExchangeSearcher(Sites::STACK_OVERFLOW, $optionalApiKey);

$results = $searcher->search('connect to a database in PHP', [
    'tagged' => ['php', 'database'],
    'nottagged' => ['wordpress'],
    'sort' => 'votes',
    'order' => 'desc',
    'pagesize' => 25,
    'page' => 1,
]);

foreach ($results as $result) {
    echo $result->getTitle();
    echo $result->getDescription();
    echo $result->getUrl();
    echo $result->getQuestionId();
    echo implode(', ', $result->getTags());
    echo $result->getOwner();
    echo $result->getAnswerCount();
    echo $result->isAnswered() ? 'answered' : 'unanswered';
    echo json_encode($result);
}

Any valid Stack Exchange API site parameter can be used; the Sites class contains convenient constants for common sites. An API key is optional but can increase the request quota for registered applications.

Supported search options mirror the official /similar endpoint: page, pagesize (up to 100), fromdate, todate, order, min, max, sort, tagged, and nottagged. Invalid inputs fail before an HTTP request is made.

After each request, inspect hasMore(), getQuotaMax(), getQuotaRemaining(), and getBackoffSeconds(). If the API supplies a backoff, wait that many seconds before another request.

Custom HTTP transport

The optional third constructor argument is a callable receiving the URL, headers, and timeout. It must return the response body as a string:

$searcher = new StackExchangeSearcher(
    Sites::STACK_OVERFLOW,
    $apiKey,
    function (string $url, array $headers, int $timeout): string {
        return $yourHttpClient->get($url, $headers, $timeout);
    },
    10
);

The package supports PHP 7.1 through current PHP 8.x releases.