NodeJS Open Graph Example
The following NodeJS example shows how a user might use Opengraph.io to get a website’s title, description, and icon given a URL. This example makes use of ExpressJS to proxy the request from a web user onto the OpenGraph.io API. This approach is often more appropriate in applications than sending traffic directly to OpenGraph.io’s server in that you have the ability to hide your API token and you can also perform any pre/post processing on the server rather than bogging down the client’s browser. The need for a function like this is very common when creating an application that posts content onto social media sites such as Facebook (see screenshot to the right) or Linkedin where the user wants to control how the link is displayed.
NodeJS Code
var opengraph = require('opengraph-io')({appId: 'xxxxxx'}) ⁄⁄ <-- Enter your app_id!
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.get('/site/info', function (req, res) {
var siteUrl = req.query['url'];
opengraph.getSiteInfo(siteUrl, function(err, siteInfo){
console.log('hey err, err);
console.log('hey result', siteInfo);
res.json(siteInfo);
});
});
app.listen(3000, function() {
console.log('Example app listening on port 3000!');
console.log('Test this proxy with the following url:', 'http://localhost:3000/site/info?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnytimes.com');
});
To get the code above working, create a new directory and change into that directory from the command line (Linux or OSX)
mkdir example & cd example
Next, initialize the node package. Enter the information you are prompted for after entering the following
npm init
Next, install the ExpressJS and https packages
npm install express opengraph-io
Finally, create a server.js file with the contents above and start the app up
node server.js