Quickstart: Suggest search strings with Bing Autosuggest REST API and PHP
Follow this quickstart to learn how to make calls to Bing Autosuggest API and read the JSON response. This simple PHP application sends a partial search query to the API, and returns suggestions for searches. While this application is written in PHP, the API is a RESTful Web service compatible with most programming languages.
Prerequisites
- PHP 5.6.x or later
Get Autosuggest results
- Create a new PHP project in your favorite IDE.
- Add the code provided below.
- Replace the
subscriptionKey
value with an access key that's valid for your subscription. - 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/Suggestions";
$mkt = "en-US";
$query = "sail";
function get_suggestions ($host, $path, $key, $mkt, $query) {
$params = '?mkt=' . $mkt . '&q=' . $query;
$headers = "Content-type: text/json\r\n" .
"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;
}
$result = get_suggestions ($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": "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"
}
]
}
]
}