Quickstart: Use PHP to call the Bing Web Search API

Article
02/16/2022

Use this quickstart to make your first call to the Bing Web Search API. This PHP application sends a search request to the API, and shows the response. Although this application is written in PHP, the API is a RESTful Web service compatible with most programming languages.

Prerequisites

Here are a few things that you'll need before running this quickstart:

PHP 5.6.x or later
A subscription key

Enable secure HTTP support

Before we get started, locate php.ini and uncomment this line:

; extension=php_openssl.dll

Create a project and define variables

Create a new PHP project in your favorite IDE or editor. Add opening and closing tags: <?php and ?>.
Confirm that the $endpoint value is correct and replace the $accesskey value with a valid subscription key from your Azure account.
Optionally, customize the search query by replacing the value for $term.

$accessKey = 'enter key here';
$endpoint = 'https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search';
$term = 'Microsoft Bing Search Services';

Construct a request

This code declares a function called BingWebSearch that's used to construct requests to the Bing Web Search API. It takes three arguments: $url, $key, and $query.

function BingWebSearch ($url, $key, $query) {
    /* Prepare the HTTP request.
     * NOTE: Use the key 'http' even if you are making an HTTPS request.
     * See: http://php.net/manual/en/function.stream-context-create.php.
     */
    $headers = "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $key\r\n";
    $options = array ('http' => array (
                          'header' => $headers,
                           'method' => 'GET'));

    // Perform the request and get a JSON response.
    $context = stream_context_create($options);
    $result = file_get_contents($url . "?q=" . urlencode($query), false, $context);

    // Extract Bing HTTP headers.
    $headers = array();
    foreach ($http_response_header as $k => $v) {
        $h = explode(":", $v, 2);
        if (isset($h[1]))
            if (preg_match("/^BingAPIs-/", $h[0]) || preg_match("/^X-MSEdge-/", $h[0]))
                $headers[trim($h[0])] = trim($h[1]);
    }

    return array($headers, $result);
}

Make a request and print the response

This code validates the subscription key, makes a request, and prints the response.

// Validates the subscription key.
if (strlen($accessKey) == 32) {

    print "Searching the Web for: " . $term . "\n";
    // Makes the request.
    list($headers, $json) = BingWebSearch($endpoint, $accessKey, $term);

    print "\nRelevant Headers:\n\n";
    foreach ($headers as $k => $v) {
        print $k . ": " . $v . "\n";
    }
    // Prints JSON encoded response.
    print "\nJSON Response:\n\n";
    echo json_encode(json_decode($json), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

} else {

    print("Invalid Bing Search API subscription key!\n");
    print("Please paste yours into the source code.\n");

}

Put it all together

The last step is to validate your code and run it. If you'd like to compare your code with ours, here's the complete program:

<?php
$accessKey = 'enter key here';
$endpoint = 'https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search';
$term = 'Microsoft Bing Search Services';

function BingWebSearch ($url, $key, $query) {
    $headers = "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $key\r\n";
    $options = array ('http' => array (
                          'header' => $headers,
                           'method' => 'GET'));
    $context = stream_context_create($options);
    $result = file_get_contents($url . "?q=" . urlencode($query), false, $context);
    $headers = array();
    foreach ($http_response_header as $k => $v) {
        $h = explode(":", $v, 2);
        if (isset($h[1]))
            if (preg_match("/^BingAPIs-/", $h[0]) || preg_match("/^X-MSEdge-/", $h[0]))
                $headers[trim($h[0])] = trim($h[1]);
    }
    return array($headers, $result);
}

if (strlen($accessKey) == 32) {
    print "Searching the Web for: " . $term . "\n";
    list($headers, $json) = BingWebSearch($endpoint, $accessKey, $term);
    print "\nRelevant Headers:\n\n";
    foreach ($headers as $k => $v) {
        print $k . ": " . $v . "\n";
    }
    print "\nJSON Response:\n\n";
    echo json_encode(json_decode($json), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

} else {
    print("Invalid Bing Search API subscription key!\n");
    print("Please paste yours into the source code.\n");
}
?>

Example JSON response

Responses from the Bing Web Search API are returned as JSON. This sample response has been truncated to show a single result.

{
  "_type": "SearchResponse",
  "queryContext": {
    "originalQuery": "Microsoft Cognitive Services"
  },
  "webPages": {
    "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=Microsoft+cognitive+services",
    "totalEstimatedMatches": 22300000,
    "value": [
      {
        "id": "https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v7/#WebPages.0",
        "name": "Microsoft Cognitive Services",
        "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/cognitive-services",
        "displayUrl": "https://www.microsoft.com/cognitive-services",
        "snippet": "Knock down barriers between you and your ideas. Enable natural and contextual interaction with tools that augment users' experiences via the power of machine-based AI. Plug them in and bring your ideas to life.",
        "deepLinks": [
          {
            "name": "Face",
            "url": "https://azure.microsoft.com/services/cognitive-services/face/",
            "snippet": "Add facial recognition to your applications to detect, identify, and verify faces using the Face service from Microsoft Azure. ... Cognitive Services; Face service;"
          },
          {
            "name": "Text Analytics",
            "url": "https://azure.microsoft.com/services/cognitive-services/text-analytics/",
            "snippet": "Cognitive Services; Text Analytics API; Text Analytics API . Detect sentiment, ... you agree that Microsoft may store it and use it to improve Microsoft services, ..."
          },
          {
            "name": "Computer Vision API",
            "url": "https://azure.microsoft.com/services/cognitive-services/computer-vision/",
            "snippet": "Extract the data you need from images using optical character recognition and image analytics with Computer Vision APIs from Microsoft Azure."
          },
          {
            "name": "Emotion",
            "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/cognitive-services/en-us/emotion-api",
            "snippet": "Cognitive Services Emotion API - microsoft.com"
          },
          {
            "name": "Bing Speech API",
            "url": "https://azure.microsoft.com/services/cognitive-services/speech/",
            "snippet": "Add speech recognition to your applications, including text to speech, with a speech API from Microsoft Azure. ... Cognitive Services; Bing Speech API;"
          },
          {
            "name": "Get Started for Free",
            "url": "https://azure.microsoft.com/services/cognitive-services/",
            "snippet": "Add vision, speech, language, and knowledge capabilities to your applications using intelligence APIs and SDKs from Cognitive Services."
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "relatedSearches": {
    "id": "https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v7/#RelatedSearches",
    "value": [
      {
        "text": "microsoft bot framework",
        "displayText": "microsoft bot framework",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=microsoft+bot+framework"
      },
      {
        "text": "microsoft cognitive services youtube",
        "displayText": "microsoft cognitive services youtube",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=microsoft+cognitive+services+youtube"
      },
      {
        "text": "microsoft cognitive services search api",
        "displayText": "microsoft cognitive services search api",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=microsoft+cognitive+services+search+api"
      },
      {
        "text": "microsoft cognitive services news",
        "displayText": "microsoft cognitive services news",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=microsoft+cognitive+services+news"
      },
      {
        "text": "ms cognitive service",
        "displayText": "ms cognitive service",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=ms+cognitive+service"
      },
      {
        "text": "microsoft cognitive services text analytics",
        "displayText": "microsoft cognitive services text analytics",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=microsoft+cognitive+services+text+analytics"
      },
      {
        "text": "microsoft cognitive services toolkit",
        "displayText": "microsoft cognitive services toolkit",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=microsoft+cognitive+services+toolkit"
      },
      {
        "text": "microsoft cognitive services api",
        "displayText": "microsoft cognitive services api",
        "webSearchUrl": "https://www.bing.com/search?q=microsoft+cognitive+services+api"
      }
    ]
  },
  "rankingResponse": {
    "mainline": {
      "items": [
        {
          "answerType": "WebPages",
          "resultIndex": 0,
          "value": {
            "id": "https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v7/#WebPages.0"
          }
        }
      ]
    },
    "sidebar": {
      "items": [
        {
          "answerType": "RelatedSearches",
          "value": {
            "id": "https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v7/#RelatedSearches"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Next steps

Bing Web Search API single-page app tutorial

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