Quickstart: Check spelling with Bing Spell Check REST API and Java

Article
10/28/2020

Use this quickstart to make your first call to Bing Spell Check REST API. This simple Java application sends a request to the API and returns a list of suggested corrections.

Although this application is written in Java, the API is a RESTful web service compatible with most programming languages. The source code for this application is available on GitHub.

Prerequisites

The Java Development Kit(JDK) 7 or later.
Import the gson-2.8.5.jar or the most current Gson version. For command-line execution, add the .jar to your Java folder with the main class.

Create and initialize an application

Create a new Java Project in your favorite IDE or editor with a class name of your choosing, and then import the following packages:
```
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import com.google.gson.*;
import javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection;
```

Create variables for the API endpoint's host, path, and your subscription key. Then, create variables for your market, the text you want to spell check, and a string for the spell check mode.

static String host = "https://api.bing.microsoft.com";
static String path = "/v7.0/spellcheck";

static String key = "<ENTER-KEY-HERE>";

static String mkt = "en-US";
static String mode = "proof";
static String text = "Hollo, wrld!";

Create and send an API request

Create a function called check() to create and send the API request. Within this function, add the code specified in the next steps. Create a string for the request parameters:
1. Assign your market code to the mkt parameter with the = operator.
2. Add the mode parameter with the & operator, and then assign the spell-check mode.
```
public static void check () throws Exception {
    String params = "?mkt=" + mkt + "&mode=" + mode;
   // add the rest of the code snippets here (except prettify() and main())...
}
```

Create a URL by combining the endpoint host, path, and parameters string. Create a new HttpsURLConnection object.

URL url = new URL(host + path + params);
HttpsURLConnection connection = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();

Open a connection to the URL. Set the request method to POST and add your request parameters. Be sure to add your subscription key to the Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key header.

 connection.setRequestMethod("POST");
 connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
 connection.setRequestProperty("Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key", key);
 connection.setDoOutput(true);

Create a new DataOutputStream object and send the request to the API.

    DataOutputStream wr = new DataOutputStream(connection.getOutputStream());
    wr.writeBytes("text=" + text);
    wr.flush();
    wr.close();

Format and read the API response

Add the prettify() method to your class, which formats the JSON for a more readable output.

// This function prettifies the json response.
public static String prettify(String json_text) {
    JsonParser parser = new JsonParser();
    JsonElement json = parser.parse(json_text);
    Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().setPrettyPrinting().create();
    return gson.toJson(json);
}

Create a BufferedReader and read the response from the API. Print it to the console.

 BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
 new InputStreamReader(connection.getInputStream()));
 String line;
 while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
 	System.out.println(prettify(line));
 }
 in.close();

Call the API

In the main function of your application, call your check() method created previously.

    	public static void main(String[] args) {
    		try {
    			check();
    		}
    		catch (Exception e) {
    			System.out.println (e);
    		}
    	}

Run the application

Build and run your project. If you're using the command line, use the following commands to build and run the application:

Build the application:

javac -classpath .;gson-2.2.2.jar\* <CLASS_NAME>.java

Run the application:

java -cp .;gson-2.2.2.jar\* <CLASS_NAME>

Example JSON response

A successful response is returned in JSON, as shown in the following example:

{
   "_type": "SpellCheck",
   "flaggedTokens": [
      {
         "offset": 0,
         "token": "Hollo",
         "type": "UnknownToken",
         "suggestions": [
            {
               "suggestion": "Hello",
               "score": 0.9115257530801
            },
            {
               "suggestion": "Hollow",
               "score": 0.858039839213461
            },
            {
               "suggestion": "Hallo",
               "score": 0.597385084464481
            }
         ]
      },
      {
         "offset": 7,
         "token": "wrld",
         "type": "UnknownToken",
         "suggestions": [
            {
               "suggestion": "world",
               "score": 0.9115257530801
            }
         ]
      }
   ]
}

Next steps

Create a single-page web app

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