Hack 55 Programming the Google Web API with PHP
 
A simple example of programming the Google Web
API with PHP and the NuSOAP module.
PHP (http://www.php.net/), a recursive acronym for
"PHP Hypertext Processing," has
seen wide use as the HTML-embedded scripting language for web
development. Add to that the NuSOAP PHP module for creating and
consuming SOAP-based web services
(http://dietrich.ganx4.com/nusoap) and
you've a powerful combination.
This hack illustrates basic use of PHP and NuSOAP in concert to
interact with the Google Web API.
55.1 The Code
<!--
# googly.php
# A typical Google Web API php script
# Usage: googly.php?query=<query>
-->
<html>
<head>
<title>googly.php</title>
</head>
<body>
<?
# Use the NuSOAP php library
require_once('nusoap.php');
# Set parameters
$parameters = array(
'key'=>'insert key here',
'q' => $HTTP_GET_VARS['query'],
'start' => '0',
'maxResults' => '10',
'filter' => 'false',
'restrict' => '',
'safeSearch' => 'false',
'lr' => '',
'ie' => 'latin',
'oe' => 'latin'
);
# Create a new SOAP client, feeding it GoogleSearch.wsdl on Google's site
$soapclient = new soapclient('http://api.google.com/GoogleSearch.wsdl', 'wsdl');
# query Google
$results = $soapclient->call('doGoogleSearch',$parameters);
# Results?
if ( is_array($results['resultElements']) ) {
print "<p>Your Google query for '" . $HTTP_GET_VARS['query'] . "' found "
. $results['estimatedTotalResultsCount'] . " results, the top ten of which
are:</p>";
foreach ( $results['resultElements'] as $result ) {
print
"<p><a href='" . $result['URL'] . "'>" .
( $result['title'] ? $result['title'] : 'no title' ) .
"</a><br />" . $result['URL'] . "<br />" .
( $result['snippet'] ? $result['snippet'] : 'no snippet' ) .
"</p>";
}
}
# No Results
else {
print "Your Google query for '" . $HTTP_GET_VARS['query'] . "' returned no results";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
55.2 Running the Hack
Invoke this hack from your browser in the same manner you would a CGI
script. It accepts one named argument, query with
your preferred Google search:
http://localhost/googly.php?query=your google query
55.3 The Results
A search for php looks something like Figure 5-1.
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