Sorry if my question are obvious for you, I didn't know ESP easy before today

I would like to send IR signals when a request on an API returns a result.
So my questions are :
- 1 - is it possible to query an API from ESP easy to trigger an action at regular intervals (like sending an IR signal) ?
- 2 - is it possible to parse a json result from a web API ?
{"type":"0","ch":"0","mode":"31","loop":"0","eq":"0","status":"pause"}
I want to send IR signal when "status" is 'play".
I already found how to send IR with this post.
But it seems that I want to divert the use of ESP easy : it seems more to be a slave device controlled by home automation and it is not made to be autonomous. I'm I wrong ?