Hack 96. Program Google in 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 have a powerful combination.

This hack illustrates basic use of PHP and NuSOAP in concert to interact with the Google Web API.

9.13.1. The Code

Save the following code as a plain text file named googly.php somewhere on your web site where PHP is able to run. Don't forget to replace insert key here with your Google API key.

<!--

# googly.php

# A typical Google Web API php script.

# Usage: Point your browser at googly.php\

-->

<html>

<head>

 <title>googly.php</title>

</head>

<body>



<h1>Googly</h1>



<form method="GET">



Query: <input name="query" value="<? print $HTTP_GET_VARS['query'] ?>">

<input type="submit" name="Search">



</form>



<?



# Run the search only if you're provided a query to work with.

if ($HTTP_GET_VARS['query']) {



  # 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/search/beta2");



  # Query Google.

  $results = $soapclient->call('doGoogleSearch',$parameters, 'urn:GoogleSearch',

'urn:GoogleSearch');

  

  # 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>

9.13.2. Running the Hack

Point your web browser at your googly.php, fill in a query, and click the Search button. Figure 9-1 shows the results of a search for php.

Figure 9-1. Google results by way of googly.php

9.13.3. See Also

An alternate is the Services_Google package (http://pear.php.net/package/Services_Google), a PHP 5 interface to the Google API.

< Day Day Up >