The sample below is a simple Mad Libs game using news and connection from the daylife API.
The code is in python and it needs mod_python module to be accessible on a apache web server.
Sometimes the results are a bit on the funky side, but, hey, it's an example.
from mod_python import apache
from mod_python import util
import urllib
import random
import cjson
import md5
# Base URLs and authentication information
ACCESSKEY = '8befa1cf0a7c0291613242235638a662'
SHARED_SECRET = '2e548ef751397c653752057adcff0c9f'
SEARCH_RELATED_TOPICS = 'http://freeapi.daylife.com/jsonrest/publicapi/4.1/search_getRelatedTopics?limit=10&signature=%s&accesskey=%s&offset=0&query=%s&include_topic_type=%s'
SEARCH_RELATED_ARTICLES = 'http://freeapi.daylife.com/jsonrest/publicapi/4.1/search_getRelatedArticles?limit=25&signature=%s&accesskey=%s&offset=0&query=%s'
ARTICLES_GET_TOPICS = 'http://freeapi.daylife.com/jsonrest/publicapi/4.1/article_getTopics?limit=10&signature=%s&accesskey=%s&offset=0&article_id=%s&include_topic_type=person'
ARTICLES_GET_QUOTES = 'http://freeapi.daylife.com/jsonrest/publicapi/4.1/article_getQuotes?limit=7&signature=%s&accesskey=%s&offset=0&article_id=%s'
def index(req):
request_data = util.FieldStorage(req)
query = request_data.get('query', None)
page_data = get_response(query)
req.content_type = 'text/html'
req.send_http_header()
req.write(str(page_data))
# Creates the appropriate page
def get_response(query):
if query is None: return BAD_QUERY_PAGE
words = load_words(query)
if words is None: return NO_DATA_PAGE % (query.upper(), query)
words['query'] = query
return PAGE_DATA % words
# Gets the daylife results from the url.
def retrieve_daylife_results(url, result_type):
opener = urllib.urlopen(url)
data = opener.read()
results = cjson.decode(str(data))
# If there was an error returning results, ignore it.
if results['response']['code'] < 0: return []
# All daylife results are nested in a 'payload' object, which is
# nested in a 'response' object.
return results['response']['payload'][result_type]
# For a given query, get the signature from the authentication
# information
def calc_signature(accesskey, sharedsecret, query):
m = md5.new()
m.update(accesskey)
m.update(sharedsecret)
m.update(query)
return m.hexdigest()
# Use the DayPi to generate the random words.
def load_words(query):
signature = calc_signature(ACCESSKEY, SHARED_SECRET, query)
words = {}
people = retrieve_daylife_results(SEARCH_RELATED_TOPICS % (signature, ACCESSKEY, urllib.quote(query), 'person'), 'topic')
if len(people) < 2: return None
words['person1'] = people.pop(random.randint(0,len(people)-1))['name']
words['person2'] = people.pop(random.randint(0,len(people)-1))['name']
place = retrieve_daylife_results(SEARCH_RELATED_TOPICS % (signature, ACCESSKEY, urllib.quote(query), 'place'), 'topic')
if len(place) < 1: return None
words['place'] = place.pop(random.randint(0,len(place)-1))['name']
organization = retrieve_daylife_results(SEARCH_RELATED_TOPICS % (signature, ACCESSKEY, urllib.quote(query), 'organization'), 'topic')
if len(organization) < 1: return None
words['organization'] = organization.pop(random.randint(0,len(organization)-1))['name']
article_results = retrieve_daylife_results(SEARCH_RELATED_ARTICLES % (signature, ACCESSKEY, urllib.quote(query)), 'article')
if len(organization) < 1: return None
for article in article_results:
signature = calc_signature(ACCESSKEY, SHARED_SECRET, article['article_id'])
article_quotes = retrieve_daylife_results(ARTICLES_GET_QUOTES % (signature, ACCESSKEY, urllib.quote(article['article_id'])),'quote')
if len(article_quotes) < 1: continue
article_topics = retrieve_daylife_results(ARTICLES_GET_TOPICS % (signature, ACCESSKEY, urllib.quote(article['article_id'])),'topic')
if len(article_topics) < 1: continue
words['timestamp'] = article['timestamp']
words['headline'] = article['headline']
words['source'] = article['source']['name']
words['url'] = article['url']
words['quote'] = article_quotes.pop(random.randint(0,len(article_quotes)-1))['quote_text'].upper()
words['person3'] = article_topics.pop(random.randint(0,len(article_topics)-1))['name']
break
if len(words.keys()) != 10: return None
return words
BAD_QUERY_PAGE = """<html><head><title>Bad query! BAD!!</title><head>
<body>...WHAT are you looking for?!?</body></html>"""
NO_DATA_PAGE = """<html><head><title>%s??? Really??</title><head>
<body>As much as you love %s, it's not really something I want to talk about. Maybe we could talk about something more, er, normal...</body></html>"""
PAGE_DATA ="""<html><head><title>There's something about %(query)s</title></head><body>
<p>That's so funny that you were just talking about %(query)s!
I remember something like that happening back around %(timestamp)s.
You see, it all started when I was walking down the street and then
%(person1)s and %(person2)s walked by.
<p>Now, I'm not normally nosy, but these two looked like they were
up to no good. I stopped them and asked them where they were going.
"%(place)s." is what they barked back. I could tell they were lying.
<p> Being the ever viligant citizen that I am, I followed the two.
Wouldn't you know, they weren't going to %(place)s at all, but instead
stopped by %(organization)s. I peeked in the window and wouldn't you
know, they were meeting %(person3)s! Things looked like they were a
little heated and then %(person3)s jumped up and yelled "%(quote)s".
<p>I don't know about you, but after that remark, I didn't feel like
sticking around. Surely enough, the next day, I bought a copy of %(source)s
and there, the headline, right there in black and white,
proclaimed <a href="%(url)s">%(headline)s</a>!
<p>How strange!
</body></html>
"""