1. Web services made
easy with YQL
Chris&an Heilmann ‐ Global Radio Brown Bag ‐ London, England, June 2010

2. I am Chris (@codepo8)

3. I love the web as a
medium.

4. And I hate taking
unnecessary steps.

5. So if I want to get
data off the web, I
don’t feel like going
through lots of
steps.

6. 1. Find data API
2. Request key
3. Receive key
4. Find data endpoint
5. Read docs to learn how to
authenticate
6. Read docs to know what
parameters you have.
7. Get massive amount of
data in some obscure
format
8. Use data after converting
and filtering it.

7. Instead I want this:

8. 1. Find data
2. Request, filter and
convert data.
3. Use data.

9. And for that, I can
use YQL.

10. YQL hAp://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/

11. YQL hAp://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/
select {what} from {where}
where {condi&ons}

12. YQL turns the web
into a massive
database.

13. You can select,
filter, sort and limit
data and you can
even insert, update
and delete from it.

14. YQL in itself is a
web service, and
you don’t need any
Yahoo product to
use it.

15. Using the YQL
console makes it
very easy to use it.

16. 1) Define your Query
3) Copy the URL.
2) Select your output

17. Or the manly way...
https://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/
yql?q={uri-encoded-query}&
format={xml|json}&
diagnostics={true|false}&
callback={function}&
env=store%3A%2F%2Fdatatables.org
%2Falltableswithkeys

18. Using the YQL
console makes it
very easy to use it.

19. You can use JSON-P and just
copy and paste the URL in
JavaScript:

20. Or create nodes to
do it dynamically.

22. Display with PHP:

23. So what about some
demo queries?

24. select * from
search.web where
query="london
heart"

25. select abstract from
search.web where
query="london
heart"

26. select abstract from
search.web(100)
where
query="london
heart"

27. select * from
search.termextract where
context in (
select abstract from
search.web(100) where
query="london heart"
)

28. select * from
search.termextract where
context in (
select abstract from
search.web(100) where
query="london heart"
)
| sort(field="Result")
| unique(field="Result")

29. select * from query.multi where queries='
select Title,Description,Url,DisplayUrl
from microsoft.bing.web(20) where
query="cat";
select title,clickurl,abstract,dispurl
from search.web(20) where query="cat";
select
titleNoFormatting,url,content,visibleUrl
from google.search(20) where q="cat"
'

30. http://icant.co.uk/goohoobi/index.php?research

31. http://vimeo.com/8075850

32. select * from
flickr.photos.search(
50) where
text="XFM" and
has_geo='true'

33. select * from
geo.places where
text="glastonbury"

34. select * from
flickr.photos.search(50) where
woe_id in (select woeid from
geo.places where
text="glastonbury")

35. select * from
flickr.photos.search(50) where
woe_id in (select woeid from
geo.places where
text="glastonbury") and
min_taken_date = "2009"

36. I love using
geolocation
services.

37. http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/yql-geo-library/

38. http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/around-you/

39. hAp://isithackday.com/geoplanet‐explorer/

40. <script src="addmap.js"></script>
<script>
addmap.config.mapkey = 'YOUR_API_KEY';
addmap.analyse('content');
</script>
hAp://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/addmap.html

41. YQL is not limited to
Yahoo data - at all.

42. Articles of the New
York Times:
select * from nyt.article.search where
query="football"

43. Headlines of
elpais.com:
select content from html where url="http://
elpais.com" and xpath="//h2/a"

44. Keywords extracted
from elpais.com
headlines.
select * from search.termextract where
context in(
select content from html where
url="http://elpais.com" and xpath="//h2/a"
)

45. elpais.com
headlines in English:
select * from google.translate where q
in(select content from html where
url="http://elpais.com" and xpath="//h2/a")
and target="en"

46. Updating Twitter:
use 'http://www.yqlblog.net/samples/
twitter.status.xml';
insert into twitter.status
(status,username,password)
values (
"In your redinnova, blowing ur mindz",
"codepo8",
"didyoureallythinkIshowit?"
)

47. Updating
Wordpress:
insert into wordpress.post
(title, description, blogurl, username,
password)
values
("Test Title", "This is a test body",
"http://ajaxian.com", "codepo8",
"iedoesitright")

48. YQL is open - if you
want your data in
this system, all we
need is an address
where to get it :)

51. Join us! http://github.com/yql/yql-tables

52. You can even write
server-side
JavaScript to build
a webservice that
way.

53. One last thing to
access through YQL
is the Yahoo
Firehose.

54. http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2010/04/
yahoo_updates_firehose.html

55. Enough talk, let me
show you YQL.

56. Christian Heilmann
http://wait-till-i.com Thanks!
http://developer-evangelism.com
http://twitter.com/codepo8