NAME
WebService::Nestoria::Search - Perl interface to the Nestoria Search public API.
VERSION
version 1.022002
SYNOPSIS
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 v1.22 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.
Parameters
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_excludeIf 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.
Simple Example
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.
Using the Request object
my $request = $NS->request;
print "Will fetch: ", $request->url, "\n";
my $response = $request->fetch;Using the Response object
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";
}Using a bounding box
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";
}FUNCTIONS
new
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);request
Creates a WebService::Nestoria::Search::Request object. On error sets $@ and returns undef
my $request = WebService::Nestoria::Search->request(%args);query
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;results
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 = $response->results;test_connection
Uses the API feature 'action=echo' to test the connection.
Returns 1 if the connection is successful and 0 otherwise.
unless ($NS->test_connection) {
die "Cannot establish connection with Nestoria API\n";
}keywords
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.
metadata
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);last_request_uri
Returns a URI object representing the URL that was last fetched by WebService::Nestoria::Search::Request.
last_request_url
Returns the URL that was last fetched by WebService::Nestoria::Search::Request.
Warnings
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
Country is an optional parameter which defaults to 'uk'. It affects the URL which is used for fetching results.
Currently the available countries are:
br - Brazil
de - Germany
es - Spain
fr - France
in - India
it - Italy
uk - United Kingdom
Australia (au) supports the metadata requests but not listings requests
Non-OO
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
Copyright (C) 2014 Lokku Ltd.
Author
Alex Balhatchet (alex@lokku.com)
Patches supplied by Yoav Felberbaum, Alistair Francis, Ed Freyfogle
Acknowledgements
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.)