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.

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"); ...

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