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

Article
10/28/2020

Use this quickstart to make your first call to 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 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.

let subscriptionKey = 'enter key here';
let host = 'api.bing.microsoft.com';
let path = '/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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