Quickstart: Perform a news search using PHP and Bing News Search REST API

Use this quickstart to make your first call to 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

For more information, see Cognitive Services Pricing - Bing Search API.

Run the application

To run this application, follow these steps:

1. Enable secure HTTP support in your php.ini file by uncommenting the ;extension=php_openssl.dll line, as described in the code comment.
2. Create a new PHP project in your favorite IDE or editor.
3. Add the code provided below.
4. Replace the accessKey value with an access key valid for your subscription.
5. Run the program.

Example code:

<?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';

$endpoint = 'https://api.bing.microsoft.com/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"
      }
   ]
}

Next steps