Quickstart: Perform a news search using Node.js and the Bing News Search REST API

Article
05/22/2020

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 JavaScript application sends a search query to the API and displays the JSON response.

Although this application is written in JavaScript and runs in Node.js, the API is a RESTful Web service compatible with most programming languages.

The source code for this sample is available on GitHub.

Prerequisites

The latest version of Node.js.
The JavaScript Request Library.

Create an Azure resource

Start using the Bing News Search API by creating one of the following Azure resources:

Bing Search v7 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.

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 and initialize the application

Create a new JavaScript file in your favorite IDE or editor, and set the strictness and HTTPS requirements.
```
'use strict';
let https = require('https');
```
Create variables for the API endpoint, news API search path, your subscription key, and search term. You can use the global endpoint in the following code, or use the custom subdomain endpoint displayed in the Azure portal for your resource.
```
let subscriptionKey = 'enter key here';
let host = 'api.cognitive.microsoft.com';
let path = '/bing/v7.0/news/search';
let term = 'Microsoft';
```

Handle and parse the response

Define a function named response_handler that takes an HTTP call, response, as a parameter.

Add code to this function in the steps that follow.

Define a variable to contain the body of the JSON response.

let response_handler = function (response) {
    let body = '';
};

Store the body of the response when the data flag is called.
```
response.on('data', function (d) {
    body += d;
});
```

When an end flag is signaled, the JSON and headers can be viewed.

response.on('end', function () {
    console.log('\nRelevant Headers:\n');
    for (var header in response.headers)
        // header keys are lower-cased by Node.js
        if (header.startsWith("bingapis-") || header.startsWith("x-msedge-"))
             console.log(header + ": " + response.headers[header]);
    body = JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(body), null, '  ');
    console.log('\nJSON Response:\n');
    console.log(body);
 });

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

Create a single-page web app

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