newsquery

newsQuery

The newsQuery module provides easy to consume access to the BBC News Labs APIs.

The BBC News Labs API's are experimental and are cheifly intended for use by R&D teams in news orgs and in universities. If you'd like to more more or have any feedback about them, you can get in touch with @BBC_News_Labs on Twitter.

Important! To use this library you must have a BBC News Labs API key (which is free). See instructions below for how to do this.

How to get an API key

You can obtain an API key from the BBC Developer Portal http://bbc.apiportal.apigee.com

Registration is free and immediate, you will receive an automated email when you sign up, which contains a link to activate your account. Check your junk mail folder if you can't find it.

1. After registering, create a new application.
2. Select both the "bbcrd-newslabs-apis-product" and "bbcrd-juicer-apis-product" APIs for your application.
3. Your API key will be listed as the "Consumer Key" for your application.

Additional documentation

You can find full information about how the BBC News Labs semantic APIs work on the #newsHACK site:

The semantic News Labs API: http://newshack.co.uk/newshack-ii/newslabs-apis/

The News Juicer API: http://newshack.co.uk/newshack-ii/juicer-apis/

Methods with examples

getConcepts()

An example that returns the first 5 concepts matching the term "Rooney":

var apiKey = '1234567890ABCDEF';
var newsQuery = require('newsquery')(apiKey);
newsQuery.getConcepts("Rooney", 5)
.then(function(concepts) {
    console.log(concepts);
});

The response from getConcepts() is an array of concepts:

[ { name: 'Wayne Rooney',
    uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Wayne_Rooney',
    typeUri: 'http://dbpedia.org/ontology/SoccerPlayer',
    image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Rooney_CL.jpg/200px-Rooney_CL.jpg' },
    { name: 'Mickey Rooney',
    uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Mickey_Rooney',
    typeUri: 'http://dbpedia.org/ontology/Person',
    image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Mickey_Rooney_still.jpg/200px-Mickey_Rooney_still.jpg' } ]

getRelatedConcepts()

An example that returns the first 5 concepts matching the term "Rooney":

var apiKey = '1234567890ABCDEF';
var newsQuery = require('newsquery')(apiKey);
newsQuery.getRelatedConcepts("http://dbpedia.org/resource/Wayne_Rooney", 5)
.then(function(concepts) {
    console.log(concepts);
});

The response from findConcepts() is an array of concepts:

[ { name: 'Mickey Rooney',
    uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Mickey_Rooney',
    typeUri: 'http://dbpedia.org/ontology/Person',
    image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Mickey_Rooney_still.jpg/200px-Mickey_Rooney_still.jpg' } ]

getArticlesByConcept()

Once you have the URI for a concept, you can use it to find news articles mentioning it. You can specify a single concept URI or an array of URIs.

var apiKey = '1234567890ABCDEF';
var newsQuery = require('newsquery')(apiKey);
newsQuery.getArticlesByConcept(["http://dbpedia.org/resource/David_Cameron"], 5)
.then(function(articles) {
    console.log(articles);
});

Example response from getArticlesByConcept():

[ { id: 'the_mirror_ee58bebcd283cea0f654207ea051b8b2027263dd',
  source: 'http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/bbc/TheMirror',
  url: 'http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/conservatives-liberal-democrats-face-local-3590400',
  dateCreated: '2014-05-22T19:18:37Z',
  title: 'Conservatives and Liberal Democrats face local and European election catastrophe',
  description: 'Labour are battling to stop UKIP pulling off an unprecedented victory in the Euro polls - but are confident of winning the battle for council seats',
  image: 'http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article3586292.ece/alternates/s615/David-Cameron-and-his-wife-Samantha.jpg',
  concepts: 
   [ { name: 'London',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/London',
       type: 'Place',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/London_collage.jpg/200px-London_collage.jpg',
       lat: '51.507222222222225',
       lon: '-0.1275' },
     { name: 'Cambridge',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cambridge',
       type: 'Place',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/KingsCollegeChapelWest.jpg/200px-KingsCollegeChapelWest.jpg',
       lat: '52.205',
       lon: '0.119' },
     { name: 'Brussels',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Brussels',
       type: 'Place',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/TE-Collage_Brussels.png/200px-TE-Collage_Brussels.png',
       lat: '50.85',
       lon: '4.35' },
     { name: 'David Cameron',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/David_Cameron',
       type: 'Person',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Official-photo-cameron.png/200px-Official-photo-cameron.png' },
     { name: 'Liberal Democrats',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Liberal_Democrats',
       type: 'Organisation',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Liberal_Democrats_Logo.svg/200px-Liberal_Democrats_Logo.svg.png' },
     { name: 'Ed Miliband',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ed_Miliband',
       type: 'Person',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Ed_Miliband_on_August_27,_2010_cropped-an_less_red-2.jpg/200px-Ed_Miliband_on_August_27,_2010_cropped-an_less_red-2.jpg' },
     { name: 'Nick Clegg',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Nick_Clegg',
       type: 'Person',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/NickClegg_worldeconomic.jpg/200px-NickClegg_worldeconomic.jpg' },
     { name: 'Israeli Labor Party',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Israeli_Labor_Party',
       type: 'Organisation',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Labor_(Israel)_logo.png/200px-Labor_(Israel)_logo.png' },
     { name: 'Malcolm Bruce',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Malcolm_Bruce',
       type: 'Person',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Malcolm_Bruce,_September_2009_cropped.jpg/200px-Malcolm_Bruce,_September_2009_cropped.jpg' },
     { name: 'Nigel Farage',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Nigel_Farage',
       type: 'Person',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Nigel_Farage.jpg/200px-Nigel_Farage.jpg' },
     { name: 'Trafford',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Trafford',
       type: 'Place',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Trafford-town-hall3.jpg/200px-Trafford-town-hall3.jpg',
       lat: '53.44611111111111',
       lon: '-2.3080555555555557' },
     { name: 'UK Independence Party',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/UK_Independence_Party',
       type: 'Organisation',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/UKIP_logo.png/200px-UKIP_logo.png' },
     { name: 'Parliament of the United Kingdom',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom',
       type: 'Organisation',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Crowned_Portcullis.svg/200px-Crowned_Portcullis.svg.png',
       lat: '51.49930555555556',
       lon: '-0.12475' },
     { name: 'Conservative Party (UK)',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Conservative_Party_(UK)',
       type: 'Organisation',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Conservative_logo_2006.svg/200px-Conservative_logo_2006.svg.png' },
     { name: 'Coalition (Australia)',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Coalition_(Australia)',
       type: 'Organisation',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/LiberalpartyofausCROP.png/200px-LiberalpartyofausCROP.png' },
     { name: 'Labour Party (UK)',
       uri: 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/Labour_Party_(UK)',
       type: 'Organisation',
       image: 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Logo_Labour_Party.svg/200px-Logo_Labour_Party.svg.png' } ]
    }
]