Quickstart: Suggest search strings with Bing Autosuggest REST API and Node.js
Follow this quickstart to learn how to make calls to Bing Autosuggest API and read the JSON response. This simple Node.js application sends a partial search query to the API, and returns suggestions for searches. While this application is written in JavaScript, the API is a RESTful Web service compatible with most programming languages. The source code for this sample is available on GitHub.
Prerequisites
- Node.js 6 or later
Create a new 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 host and path, your subscription key, market code, and a search term.
// Replace the subscriptionKey string value with your valid subscription key. let subscriptionKey = 'enter key here'; let host = 'api.bing.microsoft.com'; let path = '/v7.0/Suggestions'; let mkt = 'en-US'; let query = 'sail';
Construct the search request and query.
Create a parameters string for your query by appending the market code to the
mkt=
parameter, and your query to theq=
parameter.let params = '?mkt=' + mkt + '&q=' + query;
Create a function called
get_suggestions()
. Use the variables from the last steps to format a search URL for the API request. Your search term must be URL-encoded before being sent to the API.let get_suggestions = function () { let request_params = { method : 'GET', hostname : host, path : path + params, headers : { 'Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key' : subscriptionKey, } }; //... }
In the same function, use the request library to send your query to the API. The
response_handler
is defined in the next section.//... let req = https.request(request_params, response_handler); req.end(); ```
Create a search handler
Define a function named
response_handler
that takes an HTTP call,response
, as a parameter. Do the following steps within this function: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, useJSON.parse()
andJSON.stringify()
to print the response.response.on ('end', function () { let body_ = JSON.parse (body); let body__ = JSON.stringify (body_, null, ' '); console.log (body__); }); response.on ('error', function (e) { console.log ('Error: ' + e.message); });
Call
get_suggestions()
to send the request to the Bing Autosuggest API.
Example JSON response
A successful response is returned in JSON, as shown in the following example:
{
"_type": "Suggestions",
"queryContext": {
"originalQuery": "sail"
},
"suggestionGroups": [
{
"name": "Web",
"searchSuggestions": [
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dgvtP9TS9NwhajSapY2Se6y1eCbP2fq_GiP2n-cxi6OY\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailrite%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5003.1",
"displayText": "sailrite",
"query": "sailrite",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dBTS0G6AakxntIl9rmbDXtk1n6rQpsZZ99aQ7ClE7dTY\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsail%2bsand%2bpoint%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5004.1",
"displayText": "sail sand point",
"query": "sail sand point",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dc0QOA_j6swCZJy9FxqOwke2KslJE7ZRmMooGClAuCpY\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailboats%2bfor%2bsale%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5005.1",
"displayText": "sailboats for sale",
"query": "sailboats for sale",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dmnMdREUH20SepmHQH1zlh9Hy_w7jpOlZFm3KG2R_BoA\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailing%2banarchy%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5006.1",
"displayText": "sailing anarchy",
"query": "sailing anarchy",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dWLFO-B1GG5qtBGnoU1Bizz02YKkg5fgAQtHwhXn4z8I\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailpoint%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5007.1",
"displayText": "sailpoint",
"query": "sailpoint",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003dquBMwmKlGwqC5wAU0K7n416plhWcR8zQCi7r-Fw9Y0w\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailflow%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5008.1",
"displayText": "sailflow",
"query": "sailflow",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003d0udadFl0gCTKCp0QmzQTXS3_y08iO8FpwsoKPHPS6kw\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailboatdata%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5009.1",
"displayText": "sailboatdata",
"query": "sailboatdata",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
},
{
"url": "https://www.bing.com/cr?IG\u003d2ACC4FE8B02F4AACB9182A6502B0E556\u0026CID\u003d1D546424A4CB64AF2D386F26A5CD6583\u0026rd\u003d1\u0026h\u003deSSt0MRSbl2V0RFPSuVd-gC7fGOT4717pz55EBUgPec\u0026v\u003d1\u0026r\u003dhttps%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dsailor%2b2025%26FORM%3dUSBAPI\u0026p\u003dDevEx,5010.1",
"displayText": "sailor 2025",
"query": "sailor 2025",
"searchKind": "WebSearch"
}
]
}
]
}