Quickstart: Use the Bing Custom Search .NET client library

Get started with the Bing Custom Search client library for C#. Follow these steps to install the package and try out the example code for basic tasks. The Bing Custom Search API enables you to create tailored, ad-free search experiences for topics that you care about. The source code for this sample can be found on GitHub.

Use the Bing Custom Search client library for C# to:

• Find search results on the web, from your Bing Custom Search instance.

Reference documentation | Library source code | Package (NuGet) | Samples

Prerequisites

• A Bing Custom Search instance. See Quickstart: Create your first Bing Custom Search instance for more information.
• Microsoft .NET Core.
• Any edition of Visual Studio 2017 or later.
• If you are using Linux/MacOS, this application can be run using Mono.
• The Bing Custom Search NuGet package.
  • From Solution Explorer in Visual Studio, right-click your project and select Manage NuGet Packages from the menu. Install the Microsoft.Azure.CognitiveServices.Search.CustomSearch package. Installing the NuGet Custom Search package also installs the following assemblies:
    • Microsoft.Rest.ClientRuntime
    • Microsoft.Rest.ClientRuntime.Azure
    • Newtonsoft.Json

Create and initialize the application

1. Create a new C# console application in Visual Studio. Then add the following packages to your project:

   C#

   using System;
   using System.Linq;
   using Microsoft.Azure.CognitiveServices.Search.CustomSearch;
   

2. In the main method of your application, instantiate the search client with your API key.

   C#

   var client = new CustomSearchAPI(new ApiKeyServiceClientCredentials("YOUR-SUBSCRIPTION-KEY"));
   

Send the search request and receive a response

1. Send a search query using your client's SearchAsync() method, and then save the response. Be sure to replace your YOUR-CUSTOM-CONFIG-ID with your instance's configuration ID (you can find the ID in the Bing Custom Search portal). This example searches for "Xbox":

   C#

   // This will look up a single query (Xbox).
   var webData = client.CustomInstance.SearchAsync(query: "Xbox", customConfig: Int32.Parse("YOUR-CUSTOM-CONFIG-ID")).Result;
   

2. The SearchAsync() method returns a WebData object. Use the object to iterate through any WebPages that were found. This code finds the first webpage result and prints the webpage's Name and URL.

   C#

   if (webData?.WebPages?.Value?.Count > 0)
   {
       // find the first web page
       var firstWebPagesResult = webData.WebPages.Value.FirstOrDefault();
   
       if (firstWebPagesResult != null)
       {
           Console.WriteLine("Number of webpage results {0}", webData.WebPages.Value.Count);
           Console.WriteLine("First web page name: {0} ", firstWebPagesResult.Name);
           Console.WriteLine("First web page URL: {0} ", firstWebPagesResult.Url);
       }
       else
       {
           Console.WriteLine("Couldn't find web results!");
       }
   }
   else
   {
       Console.WriteLine("Didn't see any Web data..");
   }
   

Next steps

Build a Custom Search web app