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"); ...

Get Google Hacks, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.