About the Cookbook
The Daylife Cookbook is a collection of recipes to help you bootstrap applications that use the Daylife platform (DayPI).
These recipes come from Daylifers and the cookbook community, with entries ranging from sample code to tutorials, half baked ideas, and spotlights of the latest deployments of the DayPI.
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Testimonials
Daylife is a perfect fit for our strategy of presenting the best and most tightly focused content, whether it is produced by us at USA TODAY or anywhere else on the Web. It helps us provide our readers with a full 360-degree view of a given topic, and adds depth and richness to niche areas important to our readers and advertisers.- Jeff Webber, SVP, USAToday.com
You guys have what seems like an amazingly powerful and easy to use API, we're pretty excited about playing with it and possibly integrating it with Hubdub. - Tom Griffith, Hubdub.com
It's amazing how simple this is to integrate into django. When a view is creating a page, it just calls a thin wrapper function that I put around the daypi module. - Bracket Boy
I found the Daylife API for PHP really easy to use, and coded something up quickly for my site, Brooklyn and Beyond - Brooklyn & Beyond
This tool makes it really easy to get a quick look or dive in deep thanks to our partner Daylife, who built a comprehensive service that yields up-to-the-minute results - The Washington Post
I was trying to make it work by using Google News RSS feeds but turned out impossible since they don't organize their data in the feeds. I now know its possible with the Daylife API - Akash Xavier
Reply to comment
April 4 2008 - 14:36
The topic API method calls return articles, quotes, images and topics for a given topic name or topic id.
DayPI: Topic Calls
By john- topic_getRelatedStories - Get stories (cluster of articles) related to a topic
- topic_getRelatedImages - Get images related to a topic
- topic_getRelatedTopics - Get topics mentioned in articles related to a topic
- topic_getRelatedQuotes - Get quotes from articles related to a topic
- topic_getRelatedArticles - Get articles related to a topic
- topic_getTimeline - Get a digest of daily number of mentions for a topic in mainstream news and blog sources.
- topic_getInfo - Get information about a topic
The topic API method calls return articles, quotes, images and topics for a given topic name or topic id.
Note: Topic data can be queried by either specifying a topic name as the "name" parameter or a topic id as the "topic_id" parameter. One of these must be set.
topic_getRelatedStories
This method is used to retrieve recent articles that contain the given topic specified by name or topic id.
Sample Invocation
http://freeapi.daylife.com
Input Parameters
| Name | Description | Type | Required | Sample Values | Default Value |
| accesskey | string | Y | <your_access_key> | N/A | |
| signature | string | Y | <calculated_signature> | N/A | |
| name | The topic name | string | Y else topic_id | George W. Bush | N/A |
| topic_id | The topic id | string | Y else name | 03cV5zI2fk03s | N/A |
| end_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-03 | <current time> | |
| start_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-05-03 09:00:00, 1178182800 | <end_time minus 1 month> | |
| limit | The number of results to be returned | integer | N | 40 | 10 |
| offset | integer | N | 5 | 0 | |
| sort | Flag to indicate the sorting order | string | N | date, relevance | date |
| source_filter_id | daylife source filter id | string | N | 06T8a8lavf8sc | None |
| include_image | Flag to indicate if one related scraped image be returned if available. | integer | N | 0 or 1 | 0 |
| include_scores | Flag to indicate if enhanced score data be included for every article if available. | integer | N | 0 or 1 | 0 |
Sample Output:
<response>
<message type="str">Success</message>
<code type="int4">2001</code>
<payload>
<story>
<timestamp_epoch type="int4">1200779025</timestamp_epoch>
<headline type="str">Swiss police temporarily arrest 200 protesters</headline>
<timestamp type="str">2008-01-19 21:43:45</timestamp>
<related_article_count type="int4">6</related_article_count>
<url type="str">
http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomWorld-TopStories/~3/219570266...
</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/article/09MLfkP8jnaob</daylife_url>
<topic_story_relevance type="int4">6</topic_story_relevance>
<article_id type="str">09MLfkP8jnaob</article_id>
<excerpt type="str">
...will gather for the annual meeting starting Jan. 23 in the Alpine resort of Davos,
eastern Switzerland. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown will be headliners for the five-day meeting, where a wide range of topics...
</excerpt>
<source>
<name type="str">USA Today</name>
<url type="str">http://www.usatoday.com/</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/source/USA_Today</daylife_url>
<rank type="int4">1</rank>
<source_id type="str">0083e6H4MndJP</source_id>
<type type="int4">1</type>
</source>
<scores>
<newsdomain type="str">World</newsdomain>
<op-ed type="int4">5</op-ed>
<spinometer type="int4">-5</spinometer>
</scores>
</story>
....
....
</payload>
</response>
topic_getRelatedImages
This method is used to retrieve images related to the given topic.
This API returns any results only when a source filter for image sources is supplied due to image licensing restrictions. Please email developer@daylife.com for more information on image licensing.
Sample Invocation
http://freeapi.daylife.com
accesskey=<accesskey>&signature
Input Parameters
| Name | Description | Type | Required | Sample Values | Default Value |
| accesskey | string | Y | <your_access_key> | N/A | |
| signature | string | Y | <calculated_signature> | N/A | |
| name | The topic name | string | Y else topic_id | George W. Bush | N/A |
| topic_id | The topic id | string | Y else name | 03cV5zI2fk03s | N/A |
| end_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-03 | <current time> | |
| start_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-05-03 09:00:00, 1178182800 | <end_time minus 1 month> | |
| limit | The number of results to be returned | integer | N | 40 | 10 |
| offset | integer | N | 5 | 0 | |
| sort | Flag to indicate the sorting order | string | N | date, relevance | date |
| source_filter_id | daylife source filter id | string | N | 06T8a8lavf8sc | None |
Sample Output:
<response>
<message type="str">Success</message>
<code type="int4">2001</code>
<payload>
<image>
<url type="str">http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0dDR845cPSa7m/610x.jpg</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0dDR845cPSa7m/340x.jpg</daylife_url>
<thumb_url type="str">http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0dDR845cPSa7m/45x45.jpg</thumb_url>
<timestamp_epoch type="int4">1200582120</timestamp_epoch>
<timestamp type="str">2008-01-17 15:02:00</timestamp>
<image_id type="str">0dDR845cPSa7m</image_id>
<image_topic_relevance type="int4">10</image_topic_relevance>
<width type="int4">3000</width>
<height type="int4">1915</height>
<caption type="str">
US President George W. Bush (C) meets with the Special Envoy for Sudan,
Richard Williamson (L) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (R), in the Oval
Office at the White House in Washington, DC, 17 January 2008.
</caption>
<credit type="str">AFP/Getty Images</credit>
<source>
<name type="str">Getty Images</name>
<url type="str">http://gettyimages.com/</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/source/Getty_Images</daylife_url>
<rank type="int4">1</rank>
<source_id type="str">0a9L9fsaU55wK</source_id>
<type type="int4">6</type>
</source>
</image>
....
....
</payload>
</response>
topic_getRelatedTopics
This method retrieves topics that appear in the same articles as the given topic specified by name or topic id.
Sample Invocation
http://freeapi.daylife.com
accesskey=<accesskey>&signature
Input Parameters
| Name | Description | Type | Required | Sample Values | Default Value |
| accesskey | string | Y | <your_access_key> | N/A | |
| signature | string | Y | <calculated_signature> | N/A | |
| name | The topic name | string | Y else topic_id | George W. Bush | N/A |
| topic_id | The topic id | string | Y else name | 03cV5zI2fk03s | N/A |
| end_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-03 | <current time> | |
| start_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-05-03 09:00:00, 1178182800 | <end_time minus 1 month> | |
| limit | The number of results to be returned | integer | N | 40 | 10 |
| offset | integer | N | 5 | 0 | |
| sort | Flag to indicate the sorting order | string | N | date, relevance | date |
| source_filter_id | daylife source filter id | string | N | 06T8a8lavf8sc | None |
| include_topic_type | A comma separated list of types of topics that should be returned | string | N | person or place or organization or a comma separated list of any of their combinations | person,place,organization |
| include_image | Flag that indicates if a thumbnail image for each topic should be returned if available. | integer | N | 0 or 1 | 0 |
Sample Output:
<response>
<message type="str">Success</message>
<code type="int4">2001</code>
<payload>
<topic>
<topic_id type="str">0dVm3LAbhJbES</topic_id>
<type type="str">PLACE</type>
<name type="str">United States</name>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/topic/United_States</daylife_url>
<image>
<url type="str">http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gwb63H2Wmapg/45x45.jpg</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gwb63H2Wmapg/340x.jpg</daylife_url>
<thumb_url type="str">http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gwb63H2Wmapg/45x45.jpg</thumb_url>
<timestamp_epoch type="int4">1177281949</timestamp_epoch>
<timestamp type="str">2007-04-22 22:45:49</timestamp>
<credit type="str">AFP/Getty Images</credit>
<image_topic_relevance type="int4">10</image_topic_relevance>
<width type="int4">2860</width>
<height type="int4">2268</height>
<image_id type="str">0gwb63H2Wmapg</image_id>
<caption type="str">
Vania King of the US (L) speaks with US team captain Zena Garrison (R)
during a break in her match against Kirsten Flipken of Belgium in the
quarter-finals round in the Fed Cup World Group 2007 between Belgium and
the US in Delray Beach, Florida 22 April 2007. King won the match 4-6,
6-4, 7-5 to give the US a total score of 3-0 and move to the next round
</caption>
<source>
<name type="str">Getty Images</name>
<url type="str">http://gettyimages.com/</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/source/Getty_Images</daylife_url>
<rank type="int4">1</rank>
<source_id type="str">0a9L9fsaU55wK</source_id>
<type type="int4">6</type>
</source>
</image>
</topic>
........
........
</payload>
</response>
topic_getRelatedQuotes
This method is used to retrieve quotes from articles that contain the given topic specified by name or topic id.
Sample Invocation
http://freeapi.daylife.com
accesskey=<accesskey>&signature
Input Parameters
| Name | Description | Type | Required | Sample Values | Default Value |
| accesskey | string | Y | <your_access_key> | N/A | |
| signature | string | Y | <calculated_signature> | N/A | |
| name | The topic name | string | Y else topic_id | George W. Bush | N/A |
| topic_id | The topic id | string | Y else name | 03cV5zI2fk03s | N/A |
| end_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-03 | <current time> | |
| start_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-05-03 09:00:00, 1178182800 | <end_time minus 1 month> | |
| limit | the number of results to be returned | integer | N | 40 | 10 |
| offset | integer | N | 5 | 0 | |
| sort | flag to indicate the sorting order | string | N | date, relevance | date |
| source_filter_id | daylife source filter id | string | N | 06T8a8lavf8sc | None |
| require_speaker | flag specifying the quotes returned must be attributed | integer | N | 0 or 1 | 0 |
| speaker_topic_id | topic_ids of topics that the quotes returned must be attributed to | string | N | Comma separated list of topic_ids for topics | None |
Sample Output:
<response>
<message type="str">Success</message>
<code type="int4">2001</code>
<payload>
<quote>
<quote_id type="str">03TWezQa1M85p</quote_id>
<timestamp_epoch type="int4">1200749352</timestamp_epoch>
<timestamp type="str">2008-01-19 13:29:12</timestamp>
<quote_text type="str">But we will still be friends with the
Americans and invite them to tea every
time they drive through the town
</quote_text>
<topic>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/topic/Condoleezza_Rice</daylife_url>
<type type="str">PERSON</type>
<name type="str">Condoleezza Rice</name>
<topic_id type="str">01PQ0QsaGm49k</topic_id>
</topic>
<source>
<name type="str">MSNBC</name>
<url type="str">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/source/MSNBC</daylife_url>
<rank type="int4">1</rank>
<source_id type="str">07yTb3kbhD6Bo</source_id>
<type type="int4">1</type>
</source>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/quote/03TWezQa1M85p</daylife_url>
<article>
<timestamp_epoch type="int4">1200749352</timestamp_epoch>
<headline type="str">'Awakening' pacts prove complicated</headline>
<timestamp type="str">2008-01-19 13:29:12</timestamp>
<url type="str">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22739412/</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/article/0baOdqcflg2hB</daylife_url>
<article_id type="str">0baOdqcflg2hB</article_id>
</article>
</quote>
........
........
</payload>
</response>
topic_getRelatedArticles
This method is used to retrieve recent articles that contain the given topic specified by name or topic id.
Sample Invocation
http://freeapi.daylife.com
Input Parameters
| Name | Description | Type | Required | Sample Values | Default Value |
| accesskey | string | Y | <your_access_key> | N/A | |
| signature | string | Y | <calculated_signature> | N/A | |
| name | The topic name | string | Y else topic_id | George W. Bush | N/A |
| topic_id | The topic id | string | Y else name | 03cV5zI2fk03s | N/A |
| end_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-03 | <current time> | |
| start_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-05-03 09:00:00, 1178182800 | <end_time minus 1 month> | |
| limit | The number of results to be returned | integer | N | 40 | 10 |
| offset | integer | N | 5 | 0 | |
| sort | Flag to indicate the sorting order | string | N | date, relevance | date |
| source_filter_id | daylife source filter id | string | N | 06T8a8lavf8sc | None |
| include_image | Flag to indicate if one related scraped image be returned if available. | integer | N | 0 or 1 | 0 |
| include_scores | Flag to indicate if enhanced score data be included for every article if available. | integer | N | 0 or 1 | 0 |
Sample Output:
<response>
<message type="str">Success</message>
<code type="int4">2001</code>
<payload>
<article>
<timestamp_epoch type="int4">1200682287</timestamp_epoch>
<source>
<name type="str">Associated Press</name>
<url type="str">http://hosted.ap.org/</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/source/Associated_Press</daylife_url>
<rank type="int4">1</rank>
<source_id type="str">0f279rG8jo3Is</source_id>
<type type="int4">1</type>
</source>
<headline type="str">Sunni Sheik Offers Guns and Gets Rewards</headline>
<timestamp type="str">2008-01-18 18:51:27</timestamp>
<related_article_count type="int4">13</related_article_count>
<excerpt type="str">They know him as the sheik. But what that really means in this Sunni town
is a bit of everything: community leader, public works supervisor, agricultural planner,
militia captain.
</excerpt>
<url type="str">http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_SHEIKS_BARGAIN?SITE=TNKNN</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/article/03j9fqr8kkb6B</daylife_url>
<article_id type="str">03j9fqr8kkb6B</article_id>
<scores>
<newsdomain type="str">World</newsdomain>
<op-ed type="int4">5</op-ed>
<spinometer type="int4">-5</spinometer>
</scores>
</article>
........
........
</payload>
</response>
topic_getTimeline
This method is used to retrieve a digest of daily number of mentions for a topic in mainstream news and blog sources.
Sample Invocation
http://freeapi.daylife.com
accesskey=<accesskey>&signature
Input Parameters
| Name | Description | Type | Required | Sample Values | Default Value |
| accesskey | string | Y | <your_access_key> | N/A | |
| signature | string | Y | <calculated_signature> | N/A | |
| topic_id | A topic id for the topic in question | String | Y | 045WeJhgDw2Te | |
| name | The topic name | string | Y | George W. Bush | N/A |
| end_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-03 | <current time> | |
| start_time | Timestamp | N | 2007-05-03 09:00:00, 1178182800 | <end_time minus 1 month> |
Sample Output
<response>
<message type="str">Success</message>
<code type="int4">2001</code>
<payload>
<daily_counts>
<blog_count type="float">7</blog_count>
<article_count type="float">88</article_count>
<timestamp_epoch type="int4">1200700800</timestamp_epoch>
<timestamp type="str">2008-01-19 00:00:00</timestamp>
<article>
<headline type="str">Iraqi troops clash with members of Shiite cult in southern Iraq; nearly 50 dead</headline>
<url type="str">http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=w011863A</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/article/06pr4Qd3DI2ov</daylife_url>
<article_id type="str">06pr4Qd3DI2ov</article_id>
<timestamp_epoch type="int4">1200714114</timestamp_epoch>
<timestamp type="str">2008-01-19 03:41:54</timestamp>
<excerpt type="str">
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Brad Leighton said jet fighters flew over the area in a show of
force after the Iraqi's requested help, but no airstrikes were carried out. Some clashes raged into the night,
raising the possibility of more casualties.The
</excerpt>
<source>
<name type="str">Macleans.ca</name>
<url type="str">http://www.macleans.ca/</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/source/Macleans.ca</daylife_url>
<rank type="int4">3</rank>
<source_id type="str">0a80aBggdl123</source_id>
<type type="int4">1</type>
</source>
</article>
</daily_counts>
........
........
</payload>
</response>
topic_getInfo
This function returns basic information about a given topic specified by name.
Sample Invocation
http://freeapi.daylife.com
accesskey=<accesskey>&signature
Input Parameters
| Name | Description | Type | Required | Sample Values | Default Value |
| accesskey | string | Y | <your_access_key> | N/A | |
| signature | string | Y | <calculated_signature> | N/A | |
| topic_id | A topic id for the topic in question | string | Y | 045WeJhgDw2Te | |
| name | The topic name | string | Y | George W. Bush | N/A |
| include_image | Flag to specify if one thumbnail image is to be returned | int | N | 0 or 1 | 0 |
| include_wikipedia_info | Flag to specify if wiki abstract for the topic is to be returned | int | N | 0 or 1 | 0 |
Sample Output
<response>
<message type="str">Success</message>
<code type="int4">2001</code>
<payload>
<topic>
<topic_id type="str">0dVm3LAbhJbES</topic_id>
<type type="str">PLACE</type>
<name type="str">United States</name>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/topic/United_States</daylife_url>
<image>
<url type="str">http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gwb63H2Wmapg/45x45.jpg</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gwb63H2Wmapg/340x.jpg</daylife_url>
<thumb_url type="str">http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gwb63H2Wmapg/45x45.jpg</thumb_url>
<timestamp_epoch type="int4">1177281949</timestamp_epoch>
<timestamp type="str">2007-04-22 22:45:49</timestamp>
<credit type="str">AFP/Getty Images</credit>
<image_topic_relevance type="int4">10</image_topic_relevance>
<width type="int4">2860</width>
<height type="int4">2268</height>
<image_id type="str">0gwb63H2Wmapg</image_id>
<caption type="str">
Vania King of the US (L) speaks with US team captain Zena Garrison (R)
during a break in her match against Kirsten Flipken of Belgium in the
quarter-finals round in the Fed Cup World Group 2007 between Belgium and
the US in Delray Beach, Florida 22 April 2007. King won the match 4-6,
6-4, 7-5 to give the US a total score of 3-0 and move to the next round
</caption>
<source>
<name type="str">Getty Images</name>
<url type="str">http://gettyimages.com/</url>
<daylife_url type="str">http://www.daylife.com/source/Getty_Images</daylife_url>
<rank type="int4">1</rank>
<source_id type="str">0a9L9fsaU55wK</source_id>
<type type="int4">6</type>
</source>
</image>
<wiki_info>
<url type="str">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton</url>
<abstract type="str">Hillary Rodham Clinton (born Hillary Diane Rodham on October 26, 1947) is the junior
United States Senator from New York. She is married to Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the
United States, and was First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Before that,
she was a lawyer and the First Lady of Arkansas. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
</abstract>
</wiki_info>
</topic>
</payload>
</response>