linkedin-node

Summary

The LIN (LinkedIn-Node) library provides access to LinkedIn's developer API's via node.js

see Lin-demo for a server-side working-example

Prerequisites

Install Node, NPM (Node Package Manager), and Express (module). See www.nodejs.org, https://github.com/joyent/node, https://github.com/isaacs/npm, and other resources on the web for examples.

Get LinkedIn Developer Keys

• https://developer.linkedin.com/

• Select the API tab, then REST menu item. Click the first link on the page to "Get an API Key" ( https://www.linkedin.com/secure/developer ).

• Add New Application...

• Fill out form and collect API Key and Secret Key

LINI Do it yourself Option

Create your own application that uses lini node_module.

• Create "demo" express application

  express demo

• add "lin" node_module

// TODO: need https://githup/braitz/lin.git node_modules/lin (not yet a node module...)

• initialize lin

For a full example, see lin-demo code where environment variables are in config/environemnts.json and the Lin.init code is in app.js. Initialize apiKey and apiSecret with LinkedIn application keys. If using the redirect format of login, verify requestTokenCallback, which will be called after the request token is successfully received (and should point to accessToken functionality).

var Lin = require('linkedin-node');

var linConfig = { "lini": { "env":"production", # this asks the lin library to initialize to it's production values/servers "oauth": { "apiKey": "INITIALIZE_ME", "apiSecret": "INITIALIZE_ME", "requestTokenCallback": "http://localhost:3000/accessToken" # you need to configure this route on your server } } }; Lin.init(linConfig);

• make lin api calls as described below…

• start the application

  node app.js http://localhost:3000

How to make LINI API call

Making an API call via Lin is a three step process: get user credentials, get api specification, and make the request.

Get user credentials

The Lin-demo application demonstrates an oauth request/access token method to get user credentials.

What and where are the api's?

Though there may be documentation, the best way to find available API's is to view the code in the following directory:

cd /node_modules/lin/lib/api

To specify an api, you need a folder, a file, and a method name. So, for example, if you would like to access the v1-people-search api, you would make the following call where 'v1' matches the folder, 'peopleAPI' matches the file name, 'search' is an exported method within that file, and the following args match the argument list required by the method.

var api = Lin.api('v1', 'peopleAPI', 'search', {'keywords':'nodejs'});

Putting it together

var Lin = require('linkedin-node'); var credentials = {token{token:, secret:}}; var api = Lin.api('v1', 'peopleAPI', 'search', {'keywords':'nodejs'}); Lin.makeRequest(credentials, {api:api}, function(err, data) { … });

How to extend Lin API set

Given the dynamic nature of api discovery, it is easy to extend the api set. If you want to add another v1 peopleAPI feature, just add and export that method from the v1/peopleAPI.js file. Or, you can create a new folder, file, and method and request it via the Lin.api call. Done. Available with the next server restart. It's just that easy.