Diffbot R API

Diffbot is a simple function that can be used to get the JSON response of any URL provided with parameters to this function. Diffbot API. Currently it supports Article, FrontPage, Product, Image and Classifier (Analyze) APIs.

Requirements

The following files and R-packages will be needed to use this API:

Files:

• Diffbot.R

R-packages:

• RCurl
• RJSONIO

Installation

Step 1: Install packages

install.packages(c('RCurl', 'RJSONIO'))

Step 2: Source the diffbot.R file:

source('path_to_diffbot_api_file\diffbot.R')

Usage

This library is written stright forward. Some examples are presented. The file Demo.R show a live example. Please obtain a developer token from the website. The function diffbot will return a R list.

Example 1:

source('diffbot.R');     % Source the diffbot function 

url     <- 'http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2012/07/25/diffbot-is-using-computer-vision-to-reinvent-the-semantic-web'
token   <- 'DIFFBOT_TOKEN'
api     <- 'analyze'
fields  <- NULL
version <- 2
r_return <- diffbot(url, token, api, fields, version)   # returns a easily accessible R list

Note: no backslash at the end of the url!

For detailed available parameters consult [Product API docs] (http://www.diffbot.com/products/automatic/product/).

Example 2: (Specifying fields)

The user can specify a single or a set of multiple fields

To specify a single field the argument field can be kept as Syntax:

fields  <- c('Field_Name')

Usage:

fields  <- c('title')

To specify multiple field the values can be separated by a comma.

Syntax:

fields <- c('Field_1', 'Field_2', 'Field_3')

Usage:

fields  <- c('title','text')

Example 3: ( Using values returned)

To View contents of the Structure Type

r_return

To View names of the Structure Type

names(r_return)

The Sub Fields can be vied or used by adding a $ after the structure name

Example: To view the name of the author type

r_return$author

-Initial commit by Simon Müller-