Show HN: A thin Python library to access HN data using Algolia's API

15 points

7 years ago

Hello community. Some time ago I was trying to create a project for my students using Hacker News data. As you might know, HN offers an official API [0], but it's based on Firebase and I felt it's main usage is to build clients, rather than consult data.

I found out that Algolia also provides an official REST API [1]. It's exactly what I needed: the ability to "search" HN. Either by keywords, type of stories (Show HN, Ask HN, etc) and/or date.

So I created a thin python wrapper on top of Algolia's Search API: https://github.com/santiagobasulto/python-hacker-news

The library is in early stage, but already usable. A few examples:

How to search posts from one user:

    results = search_by_date(
        author='pg',
        hits_per_page=1000)

How to search posts by type (this would find this same post)

    results = search_by_date(
        'thin python library',
        show_hn=True,
        hits_per_page=1000)

I'm working on implementing the the other methods. If you have suggestions please bring them up!

[0] https://github.com/HackerNews/API

[1] https://hn.algolia.com/api

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