Quickstart: Suggest search queries with the Bing Autosuggest REST API and Ruby
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 Ruby application sends a partial search query to the API, and returns suggestions for searches. While this application is written in Ruby, the API is a RESTful Web service compatible with most programming languages.
Prerequisites
- Ruby 2.4 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.
Create a new application
Create a new Ruby file in your favorite IDE or editor. Add the following requirements:
require 'net/https' require 'uri' require 'json'
Create variables for your API host and path, market code, and partial search query. Use the global endpoint in the following code, or use the custom subdomain endpoint displayed in the Azure portal for your resource.
subscriptionKey = 'enter your key here' host = 'https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com' path = '/bing/v7.0/Suggestions' mkt = 'en-US' query = 'sail'
Create a parameters string by appending your market code to the
mkt=
parameter, and appending your query to theq=
parameter. Then, construct your request URI by combining the API host, path, and the parameters string.params = '?mkt=' + mkt + '&q=' + query uri = URI (host + path + params)
Create and send an API request
Create a request with your URI, and add your subscription key to the
Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key
header.request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri) request['Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key'] = subscriptionKey
Send the request, and store the response.
response = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, :use_ssl => uri.scheme == 'https') do |http| http.request (request) end
Print the JSON response.
puts JSON::pretty_generate (JSON (response.body))
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"
}
]
}
]
}