embedly

Embedly node client library. To find out what Embedly is all about, please visit http://embed.ly.

News

05/04/2016 - The callback on object creation has been removed. Initialization

is now lazy and happens on the first API call. This is a breaking change if you used a callback style constructor. * The embedly-node modules has been updated and simplified. It is not backward compatible. If you want to stick with the old API, use a verion < 1.0.

Prerequisites

nodejs - Available in most package managers
npm

Installing

To install the official latest stable version, please use npm:

npm install embedly

If you would like cutting edge, then you can clone and install HEAD:

git clone git@github.com:embedly/embedly-node.git
cd embedly-node
npm install

Getting Started

Here are some examples hint replace xxxxxxxxxxx with real key:

var EMBEDLY_KEY = 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx';

var embedly = require('embedly'),
    util = require('util');

var api = new embedly({key: EMBEDLY_KEY});
// call single url
var url = 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk7dDekYej0';
api.oembed({url: url}, function(err, objs) {
  if (!!err) {
    console.error('request #1 failed');
    console.error(err.stack, objs);
    return;
  }
  console.log('---------------------------------------------------------');
  console.log('1. ');
  console.log(util.inspect(objs[0]));
});

// call multiple urls with parameters
var urls = ['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk7dDekYej0',
            'http://plixi.com/p/16044847'],
    opts = { urls: urls,
             maxWidth: 450,
             wmode: 'transparent',
             method: 'after' };

api.oembed(opts, function(err, objs) {
    if (!!err) {
      console.error('request #2 failed');
      console.error(err.stack, objs);
      return;
    }
    console.log('-------------------------------------------------------');
    console.log('2. ');
    console.log(util.inspect(objs));
});

var api = new embedly({key: EMBEDLY_KEY});
var url = ('http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan' +
           '/21/andy-coulson-phone-hacking-statement');
api.preview({url: url}, function(err, objs) {
  if (!!err) {
    console.error('request #2 failed');
    console.error(err.stack, objs);
    return;
  }
  console.log('---------------------------------------------------------');
  console.log('3. ');
  console.log(util.inspect(objs[0]));
});

Authentication

If a key is not specified, the EMBEDLY_KEY environmental variable will be used. You can signup for an Embedly key at http://embed.ly. Support for oauth will be added in a future version of the library.

Creating an api object

The embedly exported prototype function takes an Object of optional parameters to configure the Embedly API.

key: Your Embedly consumer key.

proto: The protocol to use when calling Embedly. The default is http. https is also valid.

logger: An Object that has prototype functions error warn and debug that can be invoked with a single string argument.

servicesRegexp: A regular expression object to match urls against before sending to the embedly API. Urls sent to an endpoint that don't match will be returned as 401 errors.

key:	Your Embedly consumer key.
proto:	The protocol to use when calling Embedly. The default is http. https is also valid.
logger:	An Object that has prototype functions error warn and debug that can be invoked with a single string argument.
servicesRegexp:	A regular expression object to match urls against before sending to the embedly API. Urls sent to an endpoint that don't match will be returned as 401 errors.

There is a second, callback parameter that passes back an error and api parameter. It is possible in certain circumstances that the embedly api will fail to initialize properly. Therefore it is recommended to use the callback function and check for errors, like the example code above.

Endpoints

Embedly api endpoints are implemented as prototype functions on the api object. There are two endpoints implemented. See the Embedly API documentation for more details on the uses of the endpoints.

oembed

extract

The endpoint functions accept an Object or parameters that are, for the most part, passed directly to the api as query parameters. The api does it's best to canonize the parameters before sending them. Sending more than 20 URLs at a time will fail. Future version of this library will batch requests of more than 20 URLs into batches whose size will be configurable.

Logging

embedly-node does provide some minimal logging to help diagnose problems. By default, a winston console logger with log level error will be created, but only if winston is installed. If you'd like more control over logging, you can create your own logger and pass it into embedly on instantiation. ex:

var embedly = require('embedly'),
    winston = require('winston'),
    logger = new (winston.Logger)({
        transports: [new (winston.transports.Console)({ level: 'info' })]
    });

new embedly({logger: logger}, function(err, api) {
  // do stuff with api
});

Testing

We have provided some commandline tools to test the Embedly interface.

embedly_oembed.js
embedly_extract.js

Using --help with the commands should give you a good idea of how to use them.

Develop

Run tests:

npm test

Some tests will fail due to missing api key. Set the EMBEDLY_KEY environmental variable with your key to get them to pass:

EMBEDLY_KEY=xxxxxxxxxxxxx npm test

Note on Patches/Pull Requests

Fork the project.
Make your feature addition or bug fix.
Add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
Commit, do not mess with rakefile, version, or history. (if you want to have your own version, that is fine but bump version in a commit by itself I can ignore when I pull)
Send me a pull request. Bonus points for topic branches.

embedly/embedly-node