PHP text-to-speech with Google api

<?php

/**
 * DEPRECATED: Unofficial Text-to-Speech using the Google Translate endpoint.
 * This method is no longer reliable or functional due to changes by Google
 * (e.g., CAPTCHA, rate limiting). Use a modern official API instead.
 *
 * @param string $text The text to convert to speech.
 * @param string $languageCode The language code (e.g., 'en' for English).
 * @param string $outputDirectory The directory to save the MP3 file in.
 * @return string|false The path to the saved MP3 file on success, or false on failure.
 */
function unofficialTextToSpeech(string $text, string $languageCode = 'en', string $outputDirectory = 'temp/'): string|false
{
    // --- Input Validation and Preprocessing ---

    // 1. Sanitize input to handle only the first 100 characters.
    // The Google Translate API endpoint had a known character limit.
    $sanitizedText = substr($text, 0, 100);

    // 2. URL-encode the text for the query string (spaces become '+', etc.).
    $encodedText = urlencode($sanitizedText);

    // 3. Define the full path for the output file.
    // We use the encoded text to create a unique filename.
    $outputFilePath = $outputDirectory . $encodedText . '.mp3';

    // 4. Check if the file already exists to prevent unnecessary API calls.
    if (file_exists($outputFilePath)) {
        return $outputFilePath;
    }

    // --- API Request Configuration ---

    // The unofficial Google Translate Text-to-Speech endpoint structure.
    $apiUrl = "http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?ie=UTF-8&tl={$languageCode}&q={$encodedText}";

    // 5. Initialize cURL session.
    $curlHandle = curl_init();

    // 6. Set cURL options.
    curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_URL, $apiUrl);
    // Return the transfer as a string instead of outputting it directly.
    curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    // (Optional but good practice) Set a user agent to mimic a browser.
    // curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/5.0...');

    // --- Execution and Cleanup ---

    // 7. Execute the cURL request. $mp3Data will contain the MP3 file content.
    $mp3Data = curl_exec($curlHandle);

    // 8. Check for cURL errors.
    if (curl_errno($curlHandle) || !$mp3Data) {
        // Log the error (optional) and clean up.
        // error_log('cURL error: ' . curl_error($curlHandle));
        curl_close($curlHandle);
        return false;
    }

    // 9. Close the cURL resource to free up system resources.
    curl_close($curlHandle);

    // 10. Save the binary MP3 data to the file system.
    $success = file_put_contents($outputFilePath, $mp3Data);

    return $success !== false ? $outputFilePath : false;
}

// ======================================
//             USAGE EXAMPLE
// ======================================

// The input text would typically come from a POST request.
$inputText = $_POST['word'] ?? "Hello world, this is a test of the old Text-to-Speech utility.";
$outputDirectory = 'temp/'; // Ensure this directory exists and is writable!

if (!is_dir($outputDirectory)) {
    mkdir($outputDirectory, 0777, true);
}

// Call the function
$mp3File = unofficialTextToSpeech($inputText, 'en', $outputDirectory);

if ($mp3File) {
    echo "✅ Success! MP3 saved to: " . htmlspecialchars($mp3File) . "\n";
    // You could then stream this file to the user's browser.
} else {
    echo "❌ Failed to generate MP3. The Google API endpoint is likely blocked or unavailable.\n";
}

// -------------------------------------------------------------
// ✨ MODERN ALTERNATIVE: Use Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API
// -------------------------------------------------------------
/*
 * For a reliable, production-ready solution, you should use the
 * Google Cloud Text-toSpeech client library for PHP:
 *
 * 1. Install the library: composer require google/cloud-text-to-speech
 * 2. Example:
 * require 'vendor/autoload.php';
 * use Google\Cloud\TextToSpeech\V1\TextToSpeechClient;
 *
 * $client = new TextToSpeechClient();
 * $synthesisInput = ['text' => $inputText];
 * $voice = ['languageCode' => 'en-US', 'name' => 'en-US-Standard-C'];
 * $audioConfig = ['audioEncoding' => 'MP3'];
 *
 * $response = $client->synthesizeSpeech($synthesisInput, $voice, $audioConfig);
 * file_put_contents('official_output.mp3', $response->getAudioContent());
 */Code language: PHP (php)