Quickstart: Perform a news search using PHP and the Bing News Search REST API
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.
Use this quickstart to make your first call to the Bing News Search API. This simple PHP application sends a search query to the API and displays the JSON response.
Although this application is written in PHP, the API is a RESTful Web service compatible with most programming languages.
Prerequisites
- PHP 5.6 or later
Create an Azure resource
Start using the Bing News Search API by creating one of the following Azure resources:
- 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.
- Available through the Azure portal until you delete the resource.
- Use the same key and endpoint for your applications, across multiple Azure AI services.
For more information, see Azure AI services pricing - Bing Search API.
Run the application
To run this application, follow these steps:
- Enable secure HTTP support in your
php.inifile by uncommenting the;extension=php_openssl.dllline, as described in the code comment. - Create a new PHP project in your favorite IDE or editor.
- Add the code provided below.
- Replace the
accessKeyvalue with an access key valid for your subscription. - You can use the global endpoint in the following 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 accessKey string value with your valid access key.
$accessKey = 'enter key here';
// Verify the endpoint URI. At this writing, only one endpoint is used for Bing
// search APIs. In the future, regional endpoints may be available. If you
// encounter unexpected authorization errors, double-check this value against
// the endpoint for your Bing Search instance in your Azure dashboard.
$endpoint = 'https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/bing/v7.0/news/search';
$term = 'Microsoft';
function BingNewsSearch ($url, $key, $query) {
// Prepare HTTP request
// NOTE: Use the key 'http' even if you are making an HTTPS request. See:
// https://php.net/manual/en/function.stream-context-create.php
$headers = "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $key\r\n";
$options = array ('http' => array (
'header' => $headers,
'method' => 'GET' ));
// Perform the Web request and get the JSON response
$context = stream_context_create($options);
$result = file_get_contents($url . "?q=" . urlencode($query), false, $context);
// Extract Bing HTTP headers
$headers = array();
foreach ($http_response_header as $k => $v) {
$h = explode(":", $v, 2);
if (isset($h[1]))
if (preg_match("/^BingAPIs-/", $h[0]) || preg_match("/^X-MSEdge-/", $h[0]))
$headers[trim($h[0])] = trim($h[1]);
}
return array($headers, $result);
}
print "Searching news for: " . $term . "\n";
list($headers, $json) = BingNewsSearch($endpoint, $accessKey, $term);
print "\nRelevant Headers:\n\n";
foreach ($headers as $k => $v) {
print $k . ": " . $v . "\n";
}
print "\nJSON Response:\n\n";
echo json_encode(json_decode($json), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
?>
Example JSON response
A successful response is returned in JSON, as shown in the following example:
{
"_type": "News",
"readLink": "https:\/\/api.cognitive.microsoft.com\/api\/v7\/news\/search?q=Microsoft",
"totalEstimatedMatches": 36,
"sort": [
{
"name": "Best match",
"id": "relevance",
"isSelected": true,
"url": "https:\/\/api.cognitive.microsoft.com\/api\/v7\/news\/search?q=Microsoft"
},
{
"name": "Most recent",
"id": "date",
"isSelected": false,
"url": "https:\/\/api.cognitive.microsoft.com\/api\/v7\/news\/search?q=Microsoft&sortby=date"
}
],
"value": [
{
"name": "Microsoft to open flagship London brick-and-mortar retail store",
"url": "http:\/\/www.contoso.com\/article\/microsoft-to-open-flagshi...",
"image": {
"thumbnail": {
"contentUrl": "https:\/\/www.bing.com\/th?id=ON.F9E4A49EC010417...",
"width": 220,
"height": 146
}
},
"description": "After years of rumors about Microsoft opening a brick-and-mortar...",
"about": [
{
"readLink": "https:\/\/api.cognitive.microsoft.com\/api\/v7\/entiti...",
"name": "Microsoft"
},
{
"readLink": "https:\/\/api.cognitive.microsoft.com\/api\/v7\/entit...",
"name": "London"
}
],
"provider": [
{
"_type": "Organization",
"name": "Contoso"
}
],
"datePublished": "2017-09-21T21:16:00.0000000Z",
"category": "ScienceAndTechnology"
},
. . .
{
"name": "Microsoft adds Availability Zones to its Azure cloud platform",
"url": "https:\/\/contoso.com\/2017\/09\/21\/microsoft-adds-availability...",
"image": {
"thumbnail": {
"contentUrl": "https:\/\/www.bing.com\/th?id=ON.0AE7595B9720...",
"width": 700,
"height": 466
}
},
"description": "Microsoft has begun adding Availability Zones to its...",
"about": [
{
"readLink": "https:\/\/api.cognitive.microsoft.com\/api\/v7\/entities\/a093e9b...",
"name": "Microsoft"
},
{
"readLink": "https:\/\/api.cognitive.microsoft.com\/api\/v7\/entities\/cf3abf7d-e379-...",
"name": "Windows Azure"
},
{
"readLink": "https:\/\/api.cognitive.microsoft.com\/api\/v7\/entities\/9cdd061c-1fae-d0...",
"name": "Cloud"
}
],
"provider": [
{
"_type": "Organization",
"name": "Contoso"
}
],
"datePublished": "2017-09-21T09:01:00.0000000Z",
"category": "ScienceAndTechnology"
}
]
}