Quickstart: Use the Bing Image Search .NET client library
Use this quickstart to make your first image search using the Bing Image Search client library, which is a wrapper for the API and contains the same features. This simple C# application sends an image search query, parses the JSON response, and displays the URL of the first image returned.
The source code for this sample is available on GitHub with additional error handling and annotations.
Prerequisites
- Any edition of Visual Studio 2017 or later.
- The Cognitive Image Search NuGet package.
To install the Bing Image Search client library in Visual Studio, use the Manage NuGet Packages option from Solution Explorer.
Create and initialize the application
First, create a new C# console application in Visual Studio. Then add the following packages to your project.
using System;
using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.Azure.CognitiveServices.Search.ImageSearch;
using Microsoft.Azure.CognitiveServices.Search.ImageSearch.Models;
In the main method of your project, create variables for your valid subscription key, the image results to be returned by Bing, and a search term. Then instantiate the image search client using the key.
//IMPORTANT: replace this variable with your Cognitive Services subscription key
string subscriptionKey = "ENTER YOUR KEY HERE";
//stores the image results returned by Bing
Images imageResults = null;
// the image search term to be used in the query
string searchTerm = "canadian rockies";
//initialize the client
//NOTE: If you're using version 1.2.0 or below for the Bing Image Search client library,
// use ImageSearchAPI() instead of ImageSearchClient() to initialize your search client.
var client = new ImageSearchClient(new ApiKeyServiceClientCredentials(subscriptionKey));
Send a search query using the client
Use the client to search with a query text:
// make the search request to the Bing Image API, and get the results"
imageResults = client.Images.SearchAsync(query: searchTerm).Result; //search query
Parse and view the first image result
Parse the image results returned in the response. If the response contains search results, store the first result and print out its details, such as a thumbnail URL, the original URL,along with the total number of returned images.
if (imageResults != null)
{
//display the details for the first image result.
var firstImageResult = imageResults.Value.First();
Console.WriteLine($"\nTotal number of returned images: {imageResults.Value.Count}\n");
Console.WriteLine($"Copy the following URLs to view these images on your browser.\n");
Console.WriteLine($"URL to the first image:\n\n {firstImageResult.ContentUrl}\n");
Console.WriteLine($"Thumbnail URL for the first image:\n\n {firstImageResult.ThumbnailUrl}");
Console.ReadKey();
}