How to make an API call using meteor

Question

Ok here is the twitter API,

http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=perkytweets

Can any one give me any hint about how to go about calling this API or link using Meteor

Update::

Here is the code that i tried but its not showing any response

if (Meteor.isClient) {
    Template.hello.greeting = function () {
        return "Welcome to HelloWorld";
    };

    Template.hello.events({
        'click input' : function () {
            checkTwitter();
        }
    });

    Meteor.methods({checkTwitter: function () {
        this.unblock();
        var result = Meteor.http.call("GET", "http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=perkytweets");
        alert(result.statusCode);
    }});
}

if (Meteor.isServer) {
    Meteor.startup(function () {
    });
}

Solution 1

You are defining your checkTwitter Meteor.method inside a client-scoped block. Because you cannot call cross domain from the client (unless using jsonp), you have to put this block in a Meteor.isServer block.

As an aside, per the documentation, the client side Meteor.method of your checkTwitter function is merely a stub of a server-side method. You'll want to check out the docs for a full explanation of how server-side and client-side Meteor.methods work together.

Here is a working example of the http call:

if (Meteor.isServer) {
    Meteor.methods({
        checkTwitter: function () {
            this.unblock();
            return Meteor.http.call("GET", "http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=perkytweets");
        }
    });
}

//invoke the server method
if (Meteor.isClient) {
    Meteor.call("checkTwitter", function(error, results) {
        console.log(results.content); //results.data should be a JSON object
    });
}

Solution 2

This might seem rudimentary - but the HTTP package does not come by default in your Meteor project and requires that you install it a la carte.

On the command line either:

1. Just Meteor:
   meteor add http

2. Meteorite:
   mrt add http

Meteor HTTP Docs

Solution 3

Meteor.http.get on the client is async, so you will need to provide a callback function :

Meteor.http.call("GET",url,function(error,result){
     console.log(result.statusCode);
});

Solution 4

Use Meteor.http.get. Per the docs:

Meteor.http.get(url, [options], [asyncCallback]) Anywhere
Send an HTTP GET request. Equivalent to Meteor.http.call("GET", ...).

The docs actually include some examples of using Twitter, so you should be able to get started with them.

View more solutions

Comments

[Opentuned]

I had a quick look at the docs and i reckon it will be useful to look at docs.meteor.com/#meteor_http_get , although i havent used meteor before so im not too sure the syntax, but ill have a look now for you...

[Jon Onstott]

The documentation for HTTP.get() is now at docs.meteor.com/#/full/http_get

[iJade]

thnks for dat..i just updated my code but its still not working.Showing no output

[iJade]

well it actually returns xml and not json,so while trying to do an alert it shows undefined

[TimDog]

search.twitter.com/search.json?q=perkytweets (edited above) -- and more importantly, did this work?

[iJade]

well actually i tried with ur updated answer too,i'm getting a response but it is [object][object].Is it possible to convert it into string.I'm mean in normal javascript we can use jquery JSON.stringify to convert json to string but here if i try dat i'm getting {"error":{}}

[TimDog]

I just ran the code and it looks good. results.content should give you a string. I'm editing my answer though, as option 1 isn't going to fly -- you cannot do cross domain ajax client side (unless leveraging jsonp, but I don't want to complicate things).

[kontur]

Also note for anyone reading this in retrospect: You need to make the response of this async call available as a reactive variable, for example by storing it into a Session variable, which you then print in the template (and autoupdate when the async call completes).

[Cees Timmerman]

Silently fails without the package, so meteor add http.

[Rahul Khatri]

Hi, where are you using the API keys? Is it running without API keys?