Quickstart: Suggest search queries with the Bing Autosuggest REST API and PHP
Warning
On October 30, 2020, the Bing Search APIs moved from Azure AI services to Bing Search Services. This documentation is provided for reference only. For updated documentation, see the Bing search API documentation. For instructions on creating new Azure resources for Bing search, see Create a Bing Search resource through the Azure Marketplace.
Follow this quickstart to learn how to make calls to the Bing Autosuggest API and read the JSON response. This simple PHP application sends a partial search query to the API, and returns suggestions for searches. While this application is written in PHP, the API is a RESTful Web service compatible with most programming languages.
Prerequisites
- PHP 5.6.x or later
Create an Azure resource
Start using the Bing Autosuggest API by creating one of the following Azure resources.
Bing Autosuggest resource
- Available through the Azure portal until you delete the resource.
- Use the free pricing tier to try the service, and upgrade later to a paid tier for production.
- Bing Autosuggest is also offered in paid tiers of the Bing Search v7 resource.
Multi-service resource
- Available through the Azure portal until you delete the resource.
- Use the same key and endpoint for your applications, across multiple Azure AI services.
Get Autosuggest results
- Create a new PHP project in your favorite IDE.
- Add the code provided below.
- Replace the
subscriptionKeyvalue with an access key that's valid for your subscription. - Use the global endpoint in the code, or use the custom subdomain endpoint displayed in the Azure portal for your resource.
- Run the program.
<?php
// NOTE: Be sure to uncomment the following line in your php.ini file.
// ;extension=php_openssl.dll
// **********************************************
// *** Update or verify the following values. ***
// **********************************************
// Replace the subscriptionKey string value with your valid subscription key.
$subscriptionKey = 'enter key here';
$host = "https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com";
$path = "/bing/v7.0/Suggestions";
$mkt = "en-US";
$query = "sail";
function get_suggestions ($host, $path, $key, $mkt, $query) {
$params = '?mkt=' . $mkt . '&q=' . $query;
$headers = "Content-type: text/json\r\n" .
"Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $key\r\n";
// NOTE: Use the key 'http' even if you are making an HTTPS request. See:
// https://php.net/manual/en/function.stream-context-create.php
$options = array (
'http' => array (
'header' => $headers,
'method' => 'GET'
)
);
$context = stream_context_create ($options);
$result = file_get_contents ($host . $path . $params, false, $context);
return $result;
}
$result = get_suggestions ($host, $path, $subscriptionKey, $mkt, $query);
echo json_encode (json_decode ($result), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
?>
Example JSON response
A successful response is returned in JSON, as shown in the following example:
{
"_type": "Suggestions",
"queryContext": {
"originalQuery": "sail"
},
"suggestionGroups": [
{
"name": "Web",
"searchSuggestions": [
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dgvtP9TS9NwhajSapY2Se6y1eCbP2fq_GiP2n-cxi6OY\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailrite%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5003.1",
"displayText": "sailrite",
"query": "sailrite",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dBTS0G6AakxntIl9rmbDXtk1n6rQpsZZ99aQ7ClE7dTY\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsail%2bsand%2bpoint%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5004.1",
"displayText": "sail sand point",
"query": "sail sand point",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dc0QOA_j6swCZJy9FxqOwke2KslJE7ZRmMooGClAuCpY\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailboats%2bfor%2bsale%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5005.1",
"displayText": "sailboats for sale",
"query": "sailboats for sale",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dmnMdREUH20SepmHQH1zlh9Hy_w7jpOlZFm3KG2R_BoA\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailing%2banarchy%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5006.1",
"displayText": "sailing anarchy",
"query": "sailing anarchy",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dWLFO-B1GG5qtBGnoU1Bizz02YKkg5fgAQtHwhXn4z8I\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailpoint%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5007.1",
"displayText": "sailpoint",
"query": "sailpoint",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dquBMwmKlGwqC5wAU0K7n416plhWcR8zQCi7r-Fw9Y0w\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailflow%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5008.1",
"displayText": "sailflow",
"query": "sailflow",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003d0udadFl0gCTKCp0QmzQTXS3_y08iO8FpwsoKPHPS6kw\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailboatdata%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5009.1",
"displayText": "sailboatdata",
"query": "sailboatdata",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003deSSt0MRSbl2V0RFPSuVd-gC7fGOT4717pz55EBUgPec\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailor%2b2025%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5010.1",
"displayText": "sailor 2025",
"query": "sailor 2025",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
}
]
}
]
}