Introduction and Quick Start
Introduction and Quick Start -- Overview of Services_Technorati
Description
Technorati is a blog search engine.
By indexing blogs and exploring links between them,
they provide tools for monitoring online conversations
taking place on and between blogs.
By far the richest source of this information
is through their REST-based API,
to which this module provides an OO PHP interface.
Full documentation for Technorati's API is available on their
developers' wiki.
To use the API you will need an
API key.
To protect against future changes to the
underlying API it is accessed using a factory method:
<?php
$tapi =& Services_Technorati::factory($api_key);
?>
|
The Technorati API limits you to 500 queries
per day so those wishing to use it in a high-demand
environment will want to employ some caching.
Services_Technorati provides support for any caching
system with a Cache_Lite-like API.
To use a cache,
you will need to create it and then pass it
to the class in the factory:
<?php
$tapi =& Services_Technorati::factory($api_key, $cache_object);
?>
|
Once you have instantiated the object
you can start passing in queries.
Each call takes the form of methodName(keyParameter, options)
where options is an array.
Query types and their options
| Query Name |
Key Parameter |
Permitted Options |
| cosmos |
url |
type, limit, start, current, claim, highlight |
| search |
query keywords |
start, limit, claim |
| outbound |
url |
start |
| tag |
tag |
limit, start, format, excerptsize, topexcerptsize |
| topTags |
- |
limit, start |
| blogPostTags |
url |
limit |
| getInfo |
username |
- |
| blogInfo |
url |
- |
(NB.
Support for Technorati's attention.
XML services is also included in accordance with the spec,
but those services are currently in a state of flux so cannot be relied upon.)
The value returned from each query will be either
an array representing the unserialized XML or a PEAR Error.
An example return from the blogInfo query (for 'jystewart') is:
<?php
Array
(
[version] => 1.0
[document] => Array
(
[result] => Array
(
[username] => jystewart
[firstname] => James
[lastname] => Stewart
)
[item] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[weblog] => Array
(
[name] => little more than a placeholder
[url] => http://james.anthropiccollective.org
[rssurl] => http://james.anthropiccollective.org/index.rdf
[atomurl] => http://james.anthropiccollective.org/atom.xml
[inboundblogs] => 52
[inboundlinks] => 82
[lastupdate] => 2005-08-27 09:01:42 GMT
[rank] => 7483
[lat] => 0
[lon] => 0
[lang] => 26110
[foafurl] => http://jystewart.net/foaf.rdf
)
)
[1] => Array
(
[weblog] => Array
(
[name] => something approaching a photo album
[url] => http://approach.anthropiccollective.org
[rssurl] =>
[atomurl] =>
[inboundblogs] => 1
[inboundlinks] => 1
[lastupdate] => 2004-08-13 17:40:02 GMT
[rank] => 240760
[lat] => 0
[lon] => 0
[lang] => 0
)
)
[2] => Array
(
[weblog] => Array
(
[name] => grwifi.net : wireless internet (wifi) in grand rapids, michigan
[url] => http://grwifi.net
[rssurl] =>
[atomurl] => http://grwifi.net/atom/
[inboundblogs] => 9
[inboundlinks] => 11
[lastupdate] => 2005-04-15 19:44:46 GMT
[rank] => 50688
[lat] => 0
[lon] => 0
[lang] => 26110
)
)
[3] => Array
(
[weblog] => Array
(
[name] => a work on process
[url] => http://jystewart.net/process
[rssurl] => http://jystewart.net/process/feed/
[atomurl] => http://jystewart.net/process/feed/atom/
[inboundblogs] => 3
[inboundlinks] => 3
[lastupdate] => 2005-08-31 20:44:38 GMT
[rank] => 132735
[lat] => 0
[lon] => 0
[lang] => 26110
[foafurl] => http://jystewart.net/foaf.rdf
)
)
)
)
)
?>
|
Full details of the XML returned by Technorati
is included on the
developers' wiki