Get following/followers count of an Twitter account, without using 1.1 API

twitter-count.php

<?php
/**
 * Get following/followers count of an Twitter account, without using 1.1 API
 * @author Lancelot HARDEL
 * @param username That's clear
 * @param cache If you want to enable cache (or not)
 * @param cachetime Time that the cachefile is valied
 * @param stat_name you can use two values : followers, or following
 * @return int
 */

function getTwitterStatsCount($username, $cache = false, $cachetime = 1800, $stat_name = 'followers'){

  $cachefile = 'cached-'.$stat_name.'-'.$username; # Name of the cached file 

  # Serve from the cache if it is younger than $cachetime
  if (file_exists($cachefile) && time() - $cachetime < filemtime($cachefile)) :
    
    return file_get_contents($cachefile);
    
  else :
    
    # Get Twitter data :
    $twitter_data = file_get_contents('https://mobile.twitter.com/'.$username);

    # Regex to get follower count :
    preg_match('#'.$stat_name.'">\n.*<div class="statnum">([0-9,]*)</div>#', $twitter_data, $match);

    # Some operation :
    $twitter['count'] = str_replace(',', '', $match[1]);
    $twitter['count'] = intval($twitter['count']);
        
    # Write cache :
    if($cache){ $cached = fopen($cachefile, 'w'); fwrite($cached, $twitter['count']); fclose($cached); }

    return $twitter['count']; # Done !
    
  endif;
  
}

echo getTwitterStatsCount('debetux', true);