Quickstart: Send a search request to the Bing Entity Search REST API using Python

Use this quickstart to make your first call to the Bing Entity Search API and view the JSON response. This simple Python application sends a news search query to the API, and displays the response. The source code for this sample is available on GitHub.

Although this application is written in Python, the API is a RESTful Web service compatible with most programming languages.

Prerequisites

• Python 2.x or 3.x

Create an Azure resource

Start using the Bing Entity Search API by creating one of the following Azure resources.

Bing Entity Search resource

• Available through the Azure portal until you delete the resource.
• Use the free pricing tier to try the service, and upgrade later to a paid tier for production.
• Bing Entity Search is also offered in paid tiers of the Bing Search v7 resource.

Multi-Service resource

• Available through the Azure portal until you delete the resource.
• Use the same key and endpoint for your applications, across multiple Azure AI services.

Create and initialize the application

1. Create a new Python file in your favorite IDE or editor, and add the following imports. Create variables for your subscription key, endpoint, market, and search query. You can use the global endpoint in the following code, or use the custom subdomain endpoint displayed in the Azure portal for your resource.

   import http.client, urllib.parse
   import json
   
   subscriptionKey = 'ENTER YOUR KEY HERE'
   host = 'api.bing.microsoft.com'
   path = '/v7.0/search'
   mkt = 'en-US'
   query = 'italian restaurants near me'
   

2. Create a request url by appending your market variable to the ?mkt= parameter. Url-encode your query and append it to the &q= parameter.

   params = '?mkt=' + mkt + '&q=' + urllib.parse.quote (query)
   

Send a request and get a response

1. Create a function called get_suggestions().

2. In this function, add your subscription key to a dictionary with Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key as a key.

3. Use http.client.HTTPSConnection() to create an HTTPS client object. Send a GET request using request() with your path and parameters, and header information.

4. Store the response with getresponse(), and return response.read().

   def get_suggestions ():
    headers = {'Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key': subscriptionKey}
    conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection (host)
    conn.request ("GET", path + params, None, headers)
    response = conn.getresponse ()
    return response.read()
   

5. Call get_suggestions(), and print the JSON response.

   result = get_suggestions ()
   print (json.dumps(json.loads(result), indent=4))
   

Example JSON response

A successful response is returned in JSON, as shown in the following example:

{
  "_type": "SearchResponse",
  "queryContext": {
    "originalQuery": "italian restaurant near me",
    "askUserForLocation": true
  },
  "places": {
    "value": [
      {
        "_type": "LocalBusiness",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=sinful+bakery&filters=local...",
        "name": "Liberty's Delightful Sinful Bakery & Cafe",
        "url": "https://www.contoso.com/",
        "entityPresentationInfo": {
          "entityScenario": "ListItem",
          "entityTypeHints": [
            "Place",
            "LocalBusiness"
          ]
        },
        "address": {
          "addressLocality": "Seattle",
          "addressRegion": "WA",
          "postalCode": "98112",
          "addressCountry": "US",
          "neighborhood": "Madison Park"
        },
        "telephone": "(800) 555-1212"
      },

      . . .
      {
        "_type": "Restaurant",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=Pickles+and+Preserves...",
        "name": "Munson's Pickles and Preserves Farm",
        "url": "https://www.princi.com/",
        "entityPresentationInfo": {
          "entityScenario": "ListItem",
          "entityTypeHints": [
            "Place",
            "LocalBusiness",
            "Restaurant"
          ]
        },
        "address": {
          "addressLocality": "Seattle",
          "addressRegion": "WA",
          "postalCode": "98101",
          "addressCountry": "US",
          "neighborhood": "Capitol Hill"
        },
        "telephone": "(800) 555-1212"
      },
      
      . . .
    ]
  }
}

Next steps

• What is the Bing Entity Search API?
• Bing Entity Search API reference.