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The Blogger Data API allows client applications to view and update Blogger content in the form of Google Data API feeds. Your client application can use the Blogger Data API to create new blog posts, edit or delete existing blog posts, and query for blog posts that match particular criteria. In addition to providing some background on the capabilities of the Blogger Data API, this document provides examples of basic Data API interactions using the JavaScript client library. If you're interested in understanding more about the underlying protocol that the library uses, see the Protocol section of this developer's guide.
Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. Audience Terms of use About supported environments Getting started 1. Creating a Blogger account 2. Acquiring the library 5. Authenticating to the Blogger service 1. AuthSub proxy authentication 6. Interactive tutorial samples New!
Audience
This document is intended for programmers who want to write JavaScript client applications that can interact with Blogger. It provides a series of examples of basic Data API interactions using the JavaScript client library. For Blogger Data API reference information, see the Protocol reference guide. This document assumes that you understand the general ideas behind the Google Data APIs protocol and the data model and control flow used by the JavaScript client library. It also assumes that you know how to program in JavaScript. For reference information about the classes and methods provided by the client library, see the JavaScript client library API reference. This document is designed to be read in order; each example builds on earlier examples.
Terms of use
You agree to abide by the Google JavaScript Client Library Terms of Use when using the JavaScript client library.
Getting started
Before you can write a JavaScript client application, you need to do some setup to acquire the library.
To acquire the Google Data API client library after fetching the loader, use the following line in your JavaScript setup code, which must be called from the <head> section of your HTML document (or from a JavaScript file that's included using a <script> tag in the <head> section of your HTML document):
google.load("gdata", "1.x");
The second parameter to google.load() is the requested version number of the JavaScript client library. Our version numbering scheme is modeled after the one used by the Google Maps API. Here are the possible version numbers and what they mean:
"1"
The latest stable revision of major version 1. We will occasionally declare a certain version of the client library to be "stable," based on feedback we
receive from developers. However, that version may not have the latest features. "1.0", "1.1", etc A specific version of the library, with a specified major and minor revision number. After you've called google.load(), you have to tell the loader to wait until the page finishes loading and then call your code:
google.setOnLoadCallback(getMyBlogFeed);
Where getMyBlogFeed() is a function that we'll define in a later section of this document. Use this approach instead of having an onload handler attached to the <body> element.
be an image on the page. If you want the image to not appear on your page, you can use the style attribute of the <img> tag to position the image outside the rendering area. For example: style="position:absolute; top: -1000px;" Here's the client-application code that handles logging in. We'll call the setupMyService() function from other code later.
function logMeIn() { scope = "http://www.blogger.com/feeds"; var token = google.accounts.user.login(scope); } function setupMyService() { var myService = new google.gdata.blogger.BloggerService('exampleCo-exampleApp1'); logMeIn(); return myService; }
Tip: We strongly recommend that you provide a login button or other user input mechanism to prompt the user to start the login process manually. If, instead, you call google.accounts.user.login() immediately after loading, without waiting for user interaction, then the first thing the user sees on arrival at your page is a Google login page. If the user decides not to log in, then Google does not direct them back to your page; so from the user's point of view, they tried to visit your page but were sent away and never sent back. This scenario may be confusing and frustrating to users. In the example code in this document, we'll be calling google.accounts.user.login() immediately after loading, to keep the example simple, but we don't recommend this approach for real-world client applications. Note that you don't have to do anything with the variable named token; the client library keeps track of the token, so you don't have to. Note: When you create a new BloggerService object, the client library calls a method named google.gdata.client.init(), which checks that the browser the client is running in is supported. If there's an error, then the client library displays an error message to the user. If you want to handle this sort of error yourself, then you can explicitly call google.gdata.client.init(handleInitError) before you create the service, where handleInitError() is your function. If an init error occurs, then your function receives a standard Error object; you can do whatever you want with that object. The token remains valid until you revoke it by calling google.accounts.user.logout():
function logMeOut() { google.accounts.user.logout(); }
If you don't call logout(), then the cookie that stores the token lasts for two years, unless the user deletes it. The cookie is retained across browser sessions, so the user can close their browser and then reopen it and come back to your client and they'll still be logged in.
However, there are certain unusual circumstances in which a token can become invalid during a session. If Blogger rejects a token, your client should handle the error condition by calling logout() to remove the cookie containing the current token, and then calling login() again to acquire a new, valid token. There are two other AuthSub methods that you may find useful in various contexts:
google.accounts.user.checkLogin(scope) tells you whether or not the
browser currently has an authentication token for the given scope. google.accounts.user.getInfo() provides detailed information about the current token, for debugging use. For details about using JavaScript to interact with AuthSub, including information on token management and on checkLogin() and getInfo(), see the Using "AuthSub" Authentication with the JavaScript Client Library document. Back to top
Managing Blog Posts: Retrieve a list of blog posts Creating a new blog post Retrieve a specific blog post Update a blog post Delete a blog post Query for blog posts
Managing Post Comments: Retrieve a list of comments Create a comment Delete a comment
// The feed URI ued to retrieve a list of blogs for a particular logged-in user var feedUri = 'http://www.blogger.com/feeds/default/blogs'; // The callback method invoked when getBlogFeed() returns the list of our blogs var handleBlogFeed = function(blogFeedRoot) { var blogEntries = blogFeedRoot.feed.getEntries(); // Get list of posts for each blog for (var i = 0, blogEntry; blogEntry = blogEntries[i]; i++) { var postsFeedUri = blogEntry.getEntryPostLink().getHref(); var query = new google.gdata.blogger.BlogPostQuery(postsFeedUri); // Set the maximum number of blog posts to return query.setMaxResults(25); bloggerService.getBlogPostFeed(query, handleBlogPostFeed, handleError); } }; // A callback method invoked getBlogPostFeed() returns data var handleBlogPostFeed = function(postsFeedRoot) { var posts = postsFeedRoot.feed.getEntries(); // Display blog's title PRINT('Blog title: ' + postsFeedRoot.feed.getTitle().getText()); for (var i = 0, post; post = posts[i]; i++) { var postTitle = post.getTitle().getText(); var postURL = post.getHtmlLink().getHref(); PRINT('post: <b><a href="' + postURL + '" target="_blank">' + postTitle + '</a></b>'); } PRINT(''); }; var handleError = function(error) { alert(error); }; bloggerService.getBlogFeed(feedUri, handleBlogFeed, handleError);
1.0'); // The feed URI ued to retrieve a list of blogs for a particular logged-in user var feedUri = 'http://www.blogger.com/feeds/default/blogs'; // The callback method invoked when getBlogFeed() returns the list of our blogs var handleBlogFeed = function(blogFeedRoot) { var blogEntries = blogFeedRoot.feed.getEntries(); if (blogEntries.length) { var blogEntry = blogEntries[0]; // only get first blog // This is the feed uri for the blog's posts var postsFeedUri = blogEntry.getEntryPostLink().getHref(); bloggerService.getBlogPostFeed(postsFeedUri, handleBlogPostFeed, handleError); } }; // A callback invoked when getBlogPostFeed() returns the list of blog posts var handleBlogPostFeed = function(postsFeedRoot) { // Constuct an new BlogPostEntry var newEntry = new google.gdata.blogger.BlogPostEntry({ title: { type: 'text', text: 'JS-Blogger-Client: inserted post' }, content: { type: 'text', text: 'This is the body of the blog post. I can include <b>HTML</b> tags.' }, categories: [ {scheme: 'http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#', term: 'Label1'}, {scheme: 'http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#', term: 'Label2'} ] }); // mark post as a draft? // newEntry.setControl({draft: {value: google.gdata.Draft.VALUE_YES}}); postsFeedRoot.feed.insertEntry(newEntry, function() { PRINT('Blog post inserted:'); PRINT('"<b>' + newEntry.getTitle().getText() + '</b>"'); }, handleError ); }; var handleError = function(error) { alert(error); };
// If no matched post was found, print this message if (!postFound) { PRINT('Cannot find post title starting with: ' + targetTitleStart); } else { bloggerService.getBlogPostEntry(entryUri, handlePostEntry, handleError); } }; // This method is called when getBlogPostEntry() returns the blog post entry var handlePostEntry = function(postEntryRoot) { var postEntry = postEntryRoot.entry; // Update the blog's title postEntry.getTitle().setText('JS-Blogger-Client: updated title'); // Update the blog's content postEntry.setContent(google.gdata.Text.create('My updated post')); // Update a category var categories = postEntry.getCategories(); for(var i = 0, category; category = categories[i]; i++) { // Update a particular label if (category.getTerm() == 'Label1') { category.setTerm('Label1-updated'); break; } } // Update the blog post entry postEntry.updateEntry( function(updatedPostEntryRoot) { PRINT('Blog post updated.'); }, handleError ); }; var handleError = function(error) { alert(error); }; bloggerService.getBlogFeed(feedUri, handleBlogFeed, handleError);
1.0'); // The default feed used to retrieve a list of blogs for a logged-in user var feedUri = 'http://www.blogger.com/feeds/default/blogs'; // The callback method used when getBlogFeed() returns the list of our blogs var blogFeedCallback = function(blogFeedRoot) { var blogEntries = blogFeedRoot.feed.getEntries(); if (blogEntries.length) { var blogEntry = blogEntries[0]; // only get first blog // This is the feed uri for the blog's posts var postsFeedUri = blogEntry.getEntryPostLink().getHref(); bloggerService.getBlogPostFeed(postsFeedUri, handleBlogPostFeed, handleError); } }; var handleBlogPostFeed = function(blogPostsFeed) { var postEntries = blogPostsFeed.feed.getEntries(); // only get first post // Use this string to identify the targeted blog post for the update var targetTitleStart = 'JS-Blogger-Client'; // Flag to indicate whether a match is found var postFound = false; for (var i = 0, postEntry; postEntry = postEntries[i]; i++) { var postTitle = postEntry.getTitle().getText(); // The first matched is located! if (postTitle.substring(targetTitleStart.length, 0) == targetTitleStart) { postFound = true; var entryUri = postEntry.getSelfLink().getHref(); break; } } // If no matched post was found, print this message if (!postFound) { PRINT('Cannot find a post title starting with: ' + targetTitleStart); } else { postEntry.deleteEntry( function() { PRINT('Blog post deleted.'); }, handleError ); } }; // Error handler to be invoked when getBlogFeed() produces an error
var handleError = function(error) { alert(error); }; // Submit the request using the blogger service object bloggerService.getBlogFeed(feedUri, blogFeedCallback, handleError);
var blogFeed = resultsFeedRoot.feed; var blogTitle = blogFeed.getTitle().getText(); // Retrieve our query parameters var startTime = google.gdata.DateTime.toIso8601(query.getPublishedMin()); var endTime = google.gdata.DateTime.toIso8601(query.getPublishedMax()); PRINT('Query: <b>' + blogTitle + '</b> posts between ' + startTime + ' and ' + endTime); var postEntries = blogFeed.getEntries(); for (var i = 0, posts; postEntry = postEntries[i]; i++) { var postTitle = postEntry.getTitle().getText(); var pubDate = google.gdata.DateTime.toIso8601(postEntry.getPublished().getValue()); PRINT('---'); PRINT('post title: <b>' + postTitle + '</b>'); PRINT('published: ' + pubDate); } }; var handleError = function(error) { alert(error); }; bloggerService.getBlogFeed(feedUri, handleBlogFeed, handleError);
bloggerService.getBlogPostFeed(postsFeedUri, handleBlogPostFeed, handleError); } }; var handleBlogPostFeed = function(blogPostsFeed) { var postEntry = blogPostsFeed.feed.getEntries()[0]; // only get first post var commentsFeedUri = postEntry.getRepliesLink().getHref(); bloggerService.getBlogCommentFeed(commentsFeedUri, handleCommentFeed, handleError); }; // The callback method used when getBlogCommentFeed() returns the list of our comments var handleCommentFeed = function(commentsFeedRoot) { var commentEntries = commentsFeedRoot.feed.getEntries(); if (commentEntries.length > 0) { for(var i = 0, commentEntry; commentEntry = commentEntries[i]; i++) { var commentTitle = commentEntry.getTitle().getText(); PRINT(commentTitle); } } else { PRINT('No comments found for that post'); } }; var handleError = function(error) { alert(error); }; bloggerService.getBlogFeed(feedUri, handleBlogFeed, handleError);
Create a comment
/* * Create a new blog post comment */ // Create the blogger service object var bloggerService = new google.gdata.blogger.BloggerService('GoogleInc-jsguide1.0'); // The default feed used to retrieve a list of blogs for a logged-in user var feedUri = 'http://www.blogger.com/feeds/default/blogs'; // The callback method used when getBlogFeed() returns the list of our blogs var handleBlogFeed = function(blogFeedRoot) { var blogEntries = blogFeedRoot.feed.getEntries(); if (blogEntries.length) {
var blogEntry = blogEntries[0]; // only get first blog // This is the feed uri for the blog's posts var postsFeedUri = blogEntry.getEntryPostLink().getHref(); bloggerService.getBlogPostFeed(postsFeedUri, handleBlogPostFeed, handleError); } }; // A callback invoked when getBlogPostFeed() returns the blog posts feed var handleBlogPostFeed = function(blogPostsFeedRoot) { var postEntries = blogPostsFeedRoot.feed.getEntries(); // Use this string to identify the targeted blog post to post a comment to var targetTitleStart = 'JS-Blogger-Client'; // Flag to indicate whether a match is found var postFound = false; for (var i = 0, postEntry; postEntry = postEntries[i]; i++) { var postTitle = postEntry.getTitle().getText(); // The first matched is located! if (postTitle.substring(targetTitleStart.length, 0) == targetTitleStart) { postFound = true; var postEntryId = postEntry.getId().getValue(); // Extract the blogID and postID from the entry's <id> tag var match = /blog-(\d+)\.post-(\d+)/.exec(postEntryId); // This is the uri for posting a new comment to this blog post var commentsFeedUri = 'http://www.blogger.com/feeds/' + match[1] + '/' + match[2] + '/comments/default'; break; } } // If no matched post was found, print this message if (!postFound) { PRINT('Cannot find a blog post title starting with: ' + targetTitleStart); } else { // Construct a new google.gdata.blogger.BlogCommentEntry var newComment = new google.gdata.blogger.BlogCommentEntry({ content: { type: 'text', text: 'JS-Blogger-Client: Great post!' } }); bloggerService.insertEntry(commentsFeedUri, newComment, insertCommentCallback, handleError);
} }; var insertCommentCallback = function(commentEntryRoot) { PRINT('Comment inserted.'); }; var handleError = function(error) { alert(error); }; bloggerService.getBlogFeed(feedUri, handleBlogFeed, handleError);
Delete a comment
/* * Delete a blog post comment */ // Create the blogger service object var bloggerService = new google.gdata.blogger.BloggerService('GoogleInc-jsguide1.0'); // The default feed used to retrieve a list of blogs for a logged-in user var feedUri = 'http://www.blogger.com/feeds/default/blogs'; // The callback method used when getBlogFeed() returns the list of our blogs var handleBlogFeed = function(blogFeedRoot) { var blogEntries = blogFeedRoot.feed.getEntries(); if (blogEntries.length) { var blogEntry = blogEntries[0]; // only get first blog // This is the feed uri for the blog's posts var postsFeedUri = blogEntry.getEntryPostLink().getHref(); bloggerService.getBlogPostFeed(postsFeedUri, handleBlogPostFeed, handleError); } }; // A callback invoked when getBlogPostFeed() returns the blog posts feed var handleBlogPostFeed = function(blogPostsFeedRoot) { var postEntries = blogPostsFeedRoot.feed.getEntries(); // Use this string to identify the targeted blog post to post a comment to var targetTitleStart = 'JS-Blogger-Client'; // Flag to indicate whether a match is found var postFound = false; for (var i = 0, postEntry; postEntry = postEntries[i]; i++) {
var postTitle = postEntry.getTitle().getText(); // The first matched is located! if (postTitle.substring(targetTitleStart.length, 0) == targetTitleStart) { postFound = true; // This is the uri for the blog post's commend feed var commentsFeedUri = postEntry.getRepliesLink().getHref(); break; } } // If no matched post was found, print this message if (!postFound) { PRINT('Cannot find a blog post title starting with: ' + targetTitleStart); } else { bloggerService.getBlogCommentFeed(commentsFeedUri, handleCommentsFeed, handleError); } }; var handleCommentsFeed = function(commentsFeedRoot) { var comments = commentsFeedRoot.feed.getEntries(); if (!comments.length) { PRINT('No comments left to delete.'); } else { // delete first comment comments[0].deleteEntry( function() { PRINT('Comment deleted.'); }, handleError); } }; var handleError = function(error) { alert(error); }; bloggerService.getBlogFeed(feedUri, handleBlogFeed, handleError);