Ruby/Google

• Overview and introduction
• Prerequisites
• Dependencies
• Files
• Bug fixes and enhancements
• Further information on the Web API
• Disclaimer

Overview and Introduction

Ruby/Google offers a higher-level abstraction of Google's SOAP-driven Web API. It allows the user to programmatically query the Google search-engine from the comfort of his or her favourite programming language, assuming that's Ruby.

The aim of the library is to shield the programmer from the details of the raw data structures returned by the Web API, and in the process make the API more accessible for everyday use.

The code is of beta quality and no more interface changes are anticipated at this time. You can view the CHANGES file for this release to see which new features were added and which changes made.

Demonstration programs are included in the archive.

Prerequisites

Before you will be able to use this software effectively, you will need to request a key from Google.

To successfully run the included demonstration programs, please store this key as ~/.google_key.

Google has made available a Web API archive containing sample code, an API reference and a WSDL definition file. Although none of these files are necessary in order to use Ruby/Google, you may find the API document a useful reference for determining what some of the more obscure parameters to the method calls are.

Dependencies

Ruby/Google currently requires SOAP4R 1.5.5 or later for its SOAP interface to the Google Web API. This is an integral part of Ruby 1.8.3 and 1.8.4.

Files

Please let me know if you find any bugs in the code or wish to make any enhancements to it.

Further Information

If you would like more information on the Google Web API, please see the Web API home page. Google also offers the google.public.web-apis newsgroup to support the Web API.