public function getCharacters($character)
{
$data['character_name'] = $character;
//Get character information from Comic Vine API
$xml_url = $this->comicvine_url . "/characters/?api_key=" . $this->api_key . "&filter=name:" . strtolower($character);
if ($response_xml_data = file_get_contents($xml_url)) {
$xml_data = simplexml_load_string($response_xml_data);
$character_data = $xml_data->results->character;
//Check if character has data in Comic Vine, else put in empty values
if (count($character_data) > 0) {
$data['detail_url'] = (string) $character_data->site_detail_url;
$aliases = $character_data->aliases;
$data['aliases'] = explode("\n", $aliases);
$data['appearances_count'] = $character_data->count_of_issue_appearances;
$data['image'] = (string) $character_data->image->medium_url;
$data['description'] = (string) $character_data->deck;
$data['publisher'] = strtolower((string) $character_data->publisher->name);
} else {
//
$data['detail_url'] = "";
$data['aliases'] = "";
$data['appearances_count'] = "";
$data['image'] = "";
$data['description'] = "";
$data['publisher'] = "";
}
}
//Get character's comicbook info
$data['character_cover'] = Comicbooks::characters($character)->select('cover_image')->orderBy('published_date', 'asc')->distinct()->get();
$data['character_works'] = Comicbooks::characters($character)->select('book_name')->orderBy('published_date', 'asc')->distinct()->get();
//Check if character has appearances in the comics that are in the database.
//If not redirect character wiki page
$data['has_character'] = count($data['character_works']) ? true : false;
if (!$data['has_character']) {
return Redirect::away("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/" . ucwords($character));
}
$this->layout->content = View::make('character', $data);
}
