Caching a remote request in WordPress

remote-request-caching.php

<?php
/**
 * Caching a remote response
 * 
 * Related Tutorial: https://pippinsplugins.com/using-wp_remote_get-to-parse-json-from-remote-apis/
 */

// Psuedo Code to demonstrate overall approach
function cached_function() {
	if ( has_cached_value() ) {
		// return the cached value
	} else {
		// we have to retrieve the data and then set the cache
	}
}

/**
 * Annotated Example
 *
 * @return array
 */
function get_cars_data() {
	$endpoint = 'remote-url.json';
	$cache_key = 'namespace-data-type';
	$data = wp_cache_get( $cache_key ); // try to retrieve the cached value

	// if we have a result, return it
	if ( $data ) {
		return $data;
	} else { 
		// otherwise we need to make the request and then save it to the cache
		$request = wp_remote_get( $endpoint ); // todo this probably needs more arguments
		if ( is_wp_error( $request ) ) { // bail early if we get an error
			return [];
		}
		$body = wp_remote_retrieve_body( $request ); // get the body of the response 
		$data = json_decode( $body ); // parse the returned JSON into a PHP array

		wp_cache_set( $cache_key, $data ); // finally, now that we have a new value we can set the cache. 
	}
}