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Quickstart: Send a search request to Bing Entity Search REST API using PHP

  • Article

Use this quickstart to make your first call to Bing Entity Search API and view the JSON response. This simple PHP application sends a news search query to the API, and displays the response.

Although this application is written in PHP, the API is a RESTful Web service compatible with most programming languages.

Prerequisites

Search entities

To run this application, follow these steps:

  1. Create a new PHP project in your favorite IDE.
  2. Add the code provided below.
  3. Replace the key value with an access key valid for your subscription.
  4. 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.bing.microsoft.com";
$path = "/v7.0/entities";

$mkt = "en-US";
$query = "italian restaurants near me";

function search ($host, $path, $key, $mkt, $query) {

	$params = '?mkt=' . $mkt . '&q=' . urlencode ($query);

	$headers = "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;
}

$result = search ($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": "SearchResponse",
  "queryContext": {
    "originalQuery": "italian restaurant near me",
    "askUserForLocation": true
  },
  "places": {
    "value": [
      {
        "_type": "LocalBusiness",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=sinful+bakery&filters=local...",
        "name": "Liberty's Delightful Sinful Bakery & Cafe",
        "url": "https://www.contoso.com/",
        "entityPresentationInfo": {
          "entityScenario": "ListItem",
          "entityTypeHints": [
            "Place",
            "LocalBusiness"
          ]
        },
        "address": {
          "addressLocality": "Seattle",
          "addressRegion": "WA",
          "postalCode": "98112",
          "addressCountry": "US",
          "neighborhood": "Madison Park"
        },
        "telephone": "(800) 555-1212"
      },

      . . .
      {
        "_type": "Restaurant",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=Pickles+and+Preserves...",
        "name": "Munson's Pickles and Preserves Farm",
        "url": "https://www.princi.com/",
        "entityPresentationInfo": {
          "entityScenario": "ListItem",
          "entityTypeHints": [
            "Place",
            "LocalBusiness",
            "Restaurant"
          ]
        },
        "address": {
          "addressLocality": "Seattle",
          "addressRegion": "WA",
          "postalCode": "98101",
          "addressCountry": "US",
          "neighborhood": "Capitol Hill"
        },
        "telephone": "(800) 555-1212"
      },
      
      . . .
    ]
  }
}

Next steps

Build a single-page web app