WebService::Nestoria::Search - Perl interface to the Nestoria Search public API.
version 1.021002
WebService::Nestoria::Search provides a Perl interface to the public API of Nestoria, a vertical search engine for property listings.
WebService::Nestoria::Search is currently written to be used with v1.18 of the Nestoria API.
Functions and documentation are split over WebService::Nestoria::Search, WebService::Nestoria::Search::Request, WebService::Nestoria::Search::Response and WeebService::Nestoria::Search::Result. However you need only ever use WebService::Nestoria::Search, and the others will be used as necessary.
A Request object stores the parameters of the request, a Response object stores the data retrieved from the API (in JSON and Perl hashref formats), and a Result represents an individual listing.
The possible parameters and their defaults are as follows:
country (default: 'uk')
warnings (default: 1)
action (default: 'search_listings')
version
encoding (default: 'json')
pretty (default: 0)
number_of_results
page
place_name
south_west
north_east
centre_point
radius
listing_type
property_type
price_max
price_min
bedroom_max
bedroom_min
bathroom_max
bathroom_min
room_max
room_min
size_max
size_min
sort
keywords
keywords_exclude
If parameters are passed to new they are used as the defaults for all calls to the API. Otherwise they can be passed to the querying functions (eg. query) as per-search parameters.
You should never have to set the 'action' parameter yourself, it is implied by the method you choose to use to run the query.
use WebService::Nestoria::Search;
my $NS = WebService::Nestoria::Search->new(
place_name => 'soho',
listing_type => 'rent',
property_type => 'flat',
price_max => '500',
number_of_results => '10',
);
my @results = $NS->results(
keywords => 'garden,hot_tub,mews',
keywords_exclude => 'cottage,wood_floor'
);
foreach my $result (@results) {
print $result->get_title, "\n";
}
@listings is an array of WebService::Nestoria::Search::Result objects.
my $request = $NS->request;
print "Will fetch: ", $request->url, "\n";
my $response = $request->fetch;
my $response = $NS->query;
if ($response->status_code == 200) {
print "Success! Got ", $response->count, " results\n";
}
print "Raw JSON\n", $response->get_json, "\n";
while (my $result = $response->next_result) {
print $result->get_thumb_url, "\n";
}
my @bound_results = $ns->results('south_west' => '51.473685,-0.148315', 'north_east' => '50.473685,-0.248315');
foreach my $result (@bound_results) {
print $result->get_title, "\n";
}
Creates a WebService::Nestoria::Search object. On error sets $@ and returns undef.
If given 'request' parameters (eg. place_name, listing_type) these become defaults for all calls to the API.
my %args = (warnings => 0, listing_type => 'rent', place_name => 'soho');
my $NS = WebService::Nestoria::Search->new(%args);
Creates a WebService::Nestoria::Search::Request object. On error sets $@ and returns undef
my $request = WebService::Nestoria::Search->request(%args);
Queries the API and returns a WebService::Nestoria::Search::Response object. On error, sets $@ and returns undef.
my $response = $NS->query(%args);
This is a shortcut for
my $request = $NS->request(%args);
my $response = $request->fetch;
Returns an array of WebService::Nestoria::Search::Result objects. On error, sets $@ and returns undef.
my @results = $NS->results(%args);
This is a shortcut for
my $request = $NS->request(%args);
my $response = $request->fetch;
my @results = $response->results;
Uses the API feature 'action=echo' to test the connection.
Returns 1 if the connection is successful and 0 otherwise.
unless ($NS->test_connection) {
die "Cannot establish connection with Nestoria API\n";
}
Uses the API feature 'action=keywords' to return a list of valid keywords. A current list of keywords can be found at the below URL, but do not hardcode the list of keywords in your code as it is occasionally subject to change.
my @keywords = $NS->keywords;
Taken from http://www.nestoria.co.uk/help/api-tech.
Uses the API feature 'action=metadata' to return metadata about the listings. Returns a WebService::Nestoria::Search::MetadataResponse object with average house, flat and property prices aggregated monthly and quarterly.
my $metadata_response = WebService::Nestoria::Search->metadata(%args);
Returns a URI object representing the URL that was last fetched by WebService::Nestoria::Search::Request.
Returns the URL that was last fetched by WebService::Nestoria::Search::Request.
Warnings is true by default, and means that errors are output to STDERR as well as being returned via $@. This can be turned off either on the use line
use WebService::Nestoria::Search Warnings => 0;
or when calling new
my $NS = WebService::Nestoria::Search->new(Warnings => 0);
Country is an optional parameter which defaults to 'uk'. It affects the URL which is used for fetching results.
Currently the available countries are:
It is possible to run WebService::Nestoria::Search functions without creating an object. However, no functions are exported (by default or otherwise) so the full name must be used.
my @results = WebService::Nestoria::Search->results(%args);
Copyright (C) 2009 Lokku Ltd.
Alex Balhatchet (alex@lokku.com)
Patches supplied by Yoav Felberbaum and Alistair Francis.
A lot of the ideas (and yes, very occasionally entire functions) for these modules were borrowed from Jeffrey Friedl's Yahoo::Search.
This module would not exist without the public API available from Nestoria (http://www.nestoria.co.uk/help/api.)
