XF 2.0 Latest posts from external php is this the best way?

[janslu]

Can you take a look at my code below and check whether this is the best way? I need this for a super small API, to retrieve number of users online and latest posts (you can see it in action at https://www.babyboom.pl . I am polling this script quite often and I wonder if this is the best way to query...

<?php

class XenForoHelperClass {

    /*
    * Initialise the XenForom Controllers:
    */
    public function __construct(){
        if (!class_exists('\XF')) {
            $this->init();
        }
    }

    public static function init() {

        $fileDir = '/var/www/html/forum';
        if ( ! file_exists( $fileDir . '/src/XF.php'  ) ) {
           return false;
        }

        require( $fileDir . '/src/XF.php' );
        \XF::start($fileDir);

        $app = \XF::setupApp('XF\Pub\App');
        $app->start();
    }
   

    //currently online

    public static function online(){
        /** @var \XF\Repository\SessionActivity $activityRepo */
        $activityRepo = \XF::app()->repository('XF:SessionActivity');
        $onlineCount = $activityRepo->getOnlineCounts();
        return array(
            'guests' => $onlineCount['guests'],
            'members' => $onlineCount['members'],
            'total' => $onlineCount['total']
        );
    }


    public function latestPosts($nodeIds=null, $limit=5) {

        $visitor = \XF::visitor();

        $filter = 'latest';

        $router = \XF::app()->router('public');

        /** @var \XF\Repository\Thread $threadRepo */
        $threadRepo = \XF::app()->repository('XF:Thread');
        $postRepo = \XF::app()->repository('XF:Post');

        $parser = \XF::app()->bbCode()->parser();
        $rules = \XF::app()->bbCode()->rules('post:rss');

        $formatter = \XF::app()->stringFormatter();
        $bbCodeCleaner = \XF::app()->bbCode()->renderer('bbCodeClean');
        $bbCodeRenderer = \XF::app()->bbCode()->renderer('html');

        $threadFinder = $threadRepo->findThreadsWithLatestPosts();

        $threadFinder
            ->with('Forum.Node.Permissions|' . $visitor->permission_combination_id)
            ->limit(max($limit * 2, 10));
       
        if ($nodeIds && !in_array(0, $nodeIds))
        {
            $threadFinder->where('node_id', $nodeIds);
        }

        //$threadFinder->forFullView(true);

        $threadFinder
            ->with('LastPoster')
            ->withReadData();

        $latestposts = array();
        $maxLength = 120;
        /** @var \XF\Entity\Thread $thread */
        foreach ($threads = $threadFinder->fetch() AS $threadId => $thread)
        {
               
            $post = $postRepo->finder('XF:Post')
                ->where('Thread.thread_id', $threadId)
                ->where('message_state', 'visible')
                ->order('post_id', 'DESC')
                //->indexHint('FORCE', 'post_date')
                ->fetchOne();
            $message = $bbCodeCleaner->render($formatter->wholeWordTrim($post->message, $maxLength),$parser, $rules);
            $message = preg_replace('/\[(attach|media|img|spoiler)\]/siU', '', $message);
            $message = preg_replace('/^[\t\s]*(\r?\n){2,}/m', '', $message);
            $latestposts[$threadId] = array(
                'post_id' => $post['post_id'],
                'thread_id' => $thread['thread_id'],
                'title' => $thread['title'],
                'message' => substr(strip_tags(preg_replace('/\[.*\]/', '', $message)),0,90),
                'node' => $thread['node_id'],
                'username' => $post['username'],
                'forumtitle' => $thread['node_title'],
                'forumurl' => $router->buildLink('canonical:forums',array('node_id' => $thread['node_id'], 'title' => $thread['node_title'])),
                'url' => $router->buildLink('canonical:posts', $post),
                'replycount' => $thread['reply_count'],
                'dateline' => $post['post_date'],
                'date' => $this->localDatetime($post['post_date'])
            );
        }
        //$latestthreads = $latestthreads->slice(0, $limit, true);

        return $latestposts;
    }
}